from 1958 to 1960. He secured the Republican gubernatorial nomination and was elected governor in November 1960. During his tenure, state spending was reduced and new industrial developments were promoted. Death and legacy On the night of January 25, 1962, Nutter was en route to a speaking engagement in Cut Bank when the C-47 Skytrain he was a passenger in crashed. Winds exceeding 100 mph sheared off one of the wings of the plane, causing the aircraft to go down in Wolf Creek Canyon north of Helena. Also killed in the crash were Dennis Gordon, his executive secretary; Edward Wren, commissioner of agriculture; and three members of the Montana Air National Guard: Maj. Clifford Hanson, Maj. Joseph Devine and Master Sgt. Charles Ballard. Nutter's casket lay in state in Montana's Capitol House Chambers, flanked by the caskets of Wren and Gordon and under watch by two Montana National Guardsmen, prior to being interred in the Sidney City Cemetery in Sidney, Montana. Elsewhere in Sidney, Nutter is remembered with a statue in Central Park and by the Donald G. Nutter Building, which is home to the Richland County Extension Office. At the Montana State Capitol in Helena, a bronze plaque outside the south entrance to the statehouse remembers Nutter and the others lost in the 1962 air crash. Works Letters Nutter's correspondence, press releases, and speeches are included in the Montana Governors records collection at the Montana Historical Society Research Center Archives in Helena, Montana. Awards Air Medal with cluster Distinguished Flying Cross with clusters References External links Governor Donald G. Nutter – timeline and photos on Richland County website Governor Don Nutter – statue images on sculptor Bob Stayton's website Montana Historical Society The Political Graveyard 1915 births 1962 deaths People from Richland County, Montana Accidental deaths in Montana American Congregationalists Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States University of Montana alumni United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) Republican Party governors of Montana Republican Party Montana state senators United States Army Air Forces officers Recipients of the Air Medal North Dakota State College of Science alumni 20th-century American politicians People from Sidney, Montana Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1962