Miles Romney Jr.
1900-1976

Inducted June 25, 1982

Miles Romney Jr. often was called Ravalli County’s most respected resident. For 43 years, through his Hamilton Western News, he spoke with vigor and force about issues and problems at all levels of government.

Sam Reynolds of the Missoulian called him “honest, tough, humorous, gentle, eloquent, intelligent, artless and brave.” Romney had written in 1974: “I believe the true test of honesty is in using it even when the occasion does not favor one’s self.”

Ross Toole called the Western News “invincibly independent,” a phrase that describes both Miles Jr. and his father, publisher of the newspaper from 1893 to 1937.

Romney was born Dec. 6, 1900, in Hamilton. After graduating from Hamilton High School, he attended West Point and later George Washington University. He returned to Montana and in 1922 graduated in journalism from the University of Montana. After graduation, he served two years as a purser on a freighter that traveled between the United States and the Orient. He married Ruth Gray of Hamilton on Feb. 18, 1925.

In 1925 he took over management of the Western News from his father and continued in that post until 1929. In 1931 Romney served as clerk of the Public Lands Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. He returned to Montana in 1933 as a deputy collector for the Internal Revenue Service. He resigned in 1936 to become editor of the Progressive, a newspaper supporting his father’s bid for governor.

Romney returned to the Western News in 1937 and in succeeding years emerged as one of the few independent voices in a state whose press was largely controlled by the Anaconda Co.

Romney was elected to the Montana House of Representatives in 1966 and served two terms. In 1971 he was elected as a delegate to the state Constitutional Convention. He was appointed to the Montana Senate in 1973 and elected to a full term in 1974.

While campaigning for the Senate, he learned he had cancer. He thought voters should know about that, so he wrote an editorial titled: “Death Has Put His Finger Upon Me.” It said, in part: “I could probably keep my mouth shut and perhaps win election without most voters knowing of my trouble. That is not my style . . . There are a thousand things that need to be done. Incidentally, I have a thousand more editorials lamenting this and exulting that.”

Romney lived another year and a half. He collapsed at work and died the next day, Feb. 19, 1976.

The Western News was merged with the daily Ravalli Republic in Hamilton the following year.

Return to Hall of Fame main page

Return to UM School of Journalism