SILVER BOW COUNTY, MONTANA
George R. Bourquin
Transcribed by:  Lorene Frigaard

Extracted from:  Montana-The Land and the People, by Robert 
George Raymer, M. A.  Montana Biography, by Special Staff of 
Writers.  Issued in Three Volumes.  Volume II.  Illustrated.  
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York, 1930, 
pages 429-430.

GEORGE BOURQUIN gave excellent account of himself as one of 
the representative younger members of the bar of his native 
state, and this is significantly shown in his having been 
chosen to serve on the bench of the District Court of Silver 
Bow County and by his having been made the Democratic 
candidate for the office of attorney general of Montana 
in the election of November, 1928, although defeated.

Judge Bourquin was born at Helena, the capital city of 
Montana, December 23, 1892, a son of Judge George M. and 
Mary (Ratigan) Bourquin, who still reside in this state, 
where the father is now served on the bench of the Federal 
District Court for the district of Montana.  Judge George 
M. Bourquin was born in Pennsylvania and his wife in 
Connecticut, and they have maintained their home in 
Montana fully forty-five years.  Of their children 
the subject of this review is the oldest; Marion M. 
is engaged in the practice of law in the City of San 
Francisco, California; and J. Justin remains at the
parental home in Butte.

George Bourquin continued his studies in the public schools 
of Butte until he was graduated from the high school, and 
in preparation for his chosen profession he thereafter 
completed a course in the law department of the University 
of Pennsylvania, in which he was graduated as a member of 
the class of 1917.  Shortly before he thus received his 
degree of Bachelor of Laws the nation had formally entered 
the great World War and under these extraordinary conditions 
the young lawyer placed patriotism above professional and 
other personal interests, as shown by the fact that on the 
9th of July, 1917, he enlisted, as a volunteer, in the 
United States Army.  He received honorable discharge in 
the following September, and soon after he was accepted 
as a member of the Aviation Corps of the United States 
Navy.  He was not called overseas, but he continued in 
active service in this capacity until the armistice 
brought the war to a close and until he received his 
honorable discharge in February, 1919.  Upon his return 
to Butte he became associated with the law firm of 
Nolan & Donovan, and this alliance he maintained until 
January 3, 1921, when he initiated his service as 
county attorney of Silver Bow County, a position to 
which he had been elected in the preceding November.  
As a public prosecutor he made an admirable record, 
the popular appreciation of which was attested by his 
reelection in 1922.  In 1924 he was elected to the 
bench of the District Court of Silver Bow County, and 
in this office he likewise made a characteristically 
loyal and efficient administration, with a further 
professional prestige that led to his being made in 
1928 the Democratic candidate for the office of 
attorney general of the state.

Judge Bourquin was an active member of the Silver Bow 
County Bar Association and the Montana State Bar 
Association, and affiliated with the Benevolent and 
Protective Order of Elks and the Fraternal Order of 
Eagles.  Judge Bourquin died March 23, 1930, as a 
result of hemorrhage of the brain caused by injury 
received during a handball game February 28, 1930, at
GEORGE R. BOURQUIN Continued:
 
the Y.M.C.A. in Butte.  He is survived by two children, 
Peggy Michell Bourquin, six years old, and George 
Bourquin, Junior, four years.

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