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Rick and Susie Graetz ~ 2025 Inductees
Rick and Susie Graetz
Rick 1941 –
Susie 1945 –
One of the most common pieces of advice given to aspiring writers is to “write what you know.” According to Gerald Fetz, University of Montana Honors College dean emeritus, few know Montana as well as author, photographer, and UM Mountain Ecosystem professor Rick Graetz.
“I never met anyone who has covered the state in the way he has. He has walked, hiked, driven, snowshoed, and skied almost every square mile of this vast state,” Fetz said in 2009. “He is versed in our state in ways that most of us can only dream about.”
Fortunately, Rick and his wife, Susie, have shared that knowledge with hundreds of university students and thousands of readers, helping them gain a better appreciation of the land and its inhabitants.
In 1970, Rick founded Montana Magazine as “Montana West: Magazine of the Northern Rockies,” which he sold to Lee Enterprises in 1994.
Susie joined Rick in 1986. Ever since, they have been a husband-wife publishing team. Through Northern Rockies Publishing, they have written and published more than 30 books, featuring their own photographs, on many aspects of Montana, including the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, wilderness areas, mountain ranges, and Montana’s Bob Marshall Country, a book that has been called the “bible of the Bob.” They also compiled two anthologies of essays of Montana by western writers, which feature their photography. Other books include titles on Cuba, Vietnam, and Puerto Rico.
For 16 years, Rick taught in the University of Montana’s Department of Geography where he helped develop a mountain studies minor degree. Since 2020, he has been teaching mountain ecosystems and research courses at the Davidson Honors College there.
In addition to teaching in the classroom, the couple have led more than 50 UM field courses to special places across Montana. In addition, Rick has professionally guided guests in week-long backpacking adventures highlighting the geological and natural history of Montana’s wilderness areas.
The couple developed new geographic concepts for conservation. Their early work helped people understand the power of terms like “Crown of the Continent” and “Greater Yellowstone.” Rick is also director of the University of Montana Crown of the Continent and Greater Yellowstone Initiative, a program he started in 2007. Susie is the managing editor of the Crown of the Continent and Greater Yellowstone E-magazine, published through the Initiative.
They are starting new research and writing on the High Divide, the landscape that separates Central Idaho wilderness from the southwestern corner of the Greater Yellowstone and they also provide content for the Southwest Montana website: https://southwestmt.com/.