Lee Metcalf - Early Career

Early Career

Metcalf then commenced the practice of law, opening an office in Stevensville. In November 1936, he was elected as a Democrat to the Montana House of Representatives from Ravalli County. As a state legislator, he introduced bills to establish a thirty-cent minimum wage and to require mining companies to pay their employees for the time they spent in the mines after their shifts. He served as Assistant Attorney General of Montana from 1937 to 1941, after which he resumed his law practice. In 1938, he married Donna Hoover; the couple had one son, Jerry, who also served as a state representative.

In 1942, Metcalf enlisted in the U.S. Army, and was commissioned after attending officers' training school. He participated in the Invasion of Normandy as a staff officer with the Fifth Corps. He also participated in later European campaigns, such as the Battle of the Bulge, with the 1st Army, Ninth Infantry Division, and 60th Infantry Regiment. Following the war, he served as a military government officer in Germany, where he helped draft ordinances for the first free local elections, set up a civilian court and occupation police system, and supervise repatriation camps for displaced persons. He was discharged from the Army as a first lieutenant in April 1946.

In 1946, when Justice Leif Erickson resigned to run against Burton K. Wheeler for the U.S. Senate, Metcalf was elected an associate justice of the Montana Supreme Court. He served one six-year term in that office.