Bruce Measure, a Kalispell lawyer, former state legislator and longtime leader on local and regional energy policy, died Monday at age 64 following a battle with cancer.

Prior to his death, he was president of the Flathead Electric Cooperative Board of Trustees and worked as a partner in his Kalispell law firm, Measure, Sampsel, Sullivan & O’Brien.

But to those who knew him, Measure also was a supportive father, an avid outdoorsman and a fixture in the Flathead community.

His 40-year-old son, Buck Measure, recalled that his father’s deep commitment to the Flathead area extended to both its tight-knit communities and its rivers, mountains, lakes and forests.

“One thing I’ll certainly remember is the number of people, from the time I was old enough to remember, that would stop just to say hello, just walking down to Rocky Mountain Outfitter on Main Street,” Buck Measure said Tuesday night. “He enjoyed hiking in Glacier National Park, spending time at Bitterroot Lake, swimming [and] cross-county skiing. .... He kept us busy, and we would always be doing something active or part of the outdoors, or going to some event.”

In 2004, Bruce Measure was selected by Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer as one of the state’s two representatives to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, which oversees federal hydropower projects in the Columbia River Basin and administers fish and wildlife programs funded by the Bonneville Power Administration.

Measure served for eight years, including two years as chairman and two years as vice chairman of the council.

In an interview Tuesday, Schweitzer described Measure as “a giant of a man” who possessed dual expertise in law and natural resources issues.

“That’s a position where you’re with representatives from Idaho, Washington and Oregon, making key decisions to continue to have affordable electricity,” Schweitzer said. “When Bruce Measure spoke, everyone listened. ... He was uniquely situated to represent Montana in all things energy.”

After graduating from Flathead High School, Measure joined the U.S. Army and served as a military police officer. He also worked for years as a forester and millworker for Plum Creek.

He earned his undergraduate political science degree and his law degree from the University of Montana before beginning his legal career in Kalispell at his father’s law firm in 1988. While a Montana House representative from 1991 to 1993, he served on the Judiciary, Natural Resources and Fish, Wildlife and Parks committees.

Measure’s rich environmental background traced back to his parents, Ambrose and Laura “Jo” Measure. At the time of his death in 2000, Ambrose Measure was Kalispell’s oldest practicing attorney and also was a widely respected local leader who had represented the valley in the state Legislature and helped create Flathead Electric Cooperative in 1938.

“Both of his parents, I think, had a belief that natural resources belong to all the people, and to effectively use them supports everybody’s interest,” Buck said.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Bruce Measure’s leadership on Flathead Electric’s governing board would be one of his most enduring legacies, Schweitzer said. The former governor said Measure was critical to overcoming a period of turmoil on the utility board as it struggled through energy deregulation in the 2000s.

“There are very few people that are giants in both natural resource science and the law, and he was both,” Schweitzer said. “He was a genius.”

Measure died Monday at The HealthCenter in Kalispell. His is survived by his partner, Barbara Varnum, his son and two grandchildren.

The date is still pending for a memorial service at Risen Christ Catholic Church in Evergreen.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.