Institute Founders

Michael Howell is a poet, journalist and philosopher.

He was born in Mississippi on December 28, 1951 under an astrological arrangement called a Grand Square. The sun and moon were in opposition and 90 degrees square from both Saturn and Venus which were also in opposition to each other.

Michael was then raised in Texas, from the age of 3 to 16, about 500 miles south of the Alamo in peyote country, a one hour drive from the Gulf coast up along the banks of the Rio Grande River, a stones throw from Mexico.

He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy from Pennsylvania State University in 1974, taking courses from Dr. Richard Gotshalk and Dr. Alphonso Lingis. He received his Master of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of Montana in 1984, where he studied primarily under the direction of Dr. Henry Bugbee and Dr. John Lawry and worked in the Intensive Humanities Program which was sponsoráed by the Philosophy department at the time.

Following graduation Michael worked on a vegetable farm in France for a summer and from there traveled through Switzerland, Italy, Yugoslavia and Greece, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan over the course of a year.

Returning to Montana, Michael worked as a dishwasher, homebuilder, boat builder, etc. and met his wife-to-be, Victoria, in Missoula. Two children came along with Victoria from a previous marriage, Rosalee and Jared. Michael and Victoria had another child together, Aubrey, in 1994.

In the meantime, along with several compatriots, they helped start a weekly newspaper in Stevensville, Montana in 1985 called the Bitterroot Star. Michael and Victoria are currently co-owners and publishers of the newspaper and both still work at the newspaper/coffee shop.

The couple lives with their youngest daughter on the Burnt Fork of the Bitterroot River east of town in an old log home that was built in 1875, the year General Custer was killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. They raise a few animals and a splendid garden there along North Swamp Creek.

Michael served on the Board of Trustees of the North Valley Public Library District in Stevensville for ten years and was a founding member and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Bitterroot River Protection Association.

He has published one book of poetry called "Cry of a Loon".

Donnie Laughlin grew up in the Black Hills, studied theology at Concordia College, St. Paul, Minnesota, and studied philosophy at the University of Montana, Missoula, Montana and the University of Texas at Austin where he was also an instructor of philosophy.

Laughlin is a phenomenologist, carpenter, builder, environmental activist, instructor, researcher, and consultant, in short, an entrepreneur of diverse interests and enterprises.

As co-editor and co-publisher, Laughlin participated in the amazing, far reaching and huge effort that made MONTANA TRAILS.

One of several co-founders of Friends of the Bitterroot , Laughlin again participated in an astounding community effort, and has served as vice-president, president, and member of the Steering Committee.

Joining the Board of the Wild Rockies Action Fund in the early 90's , he initially served as vice-president, then president and currently serves as secretary.

Donnie Laughlin is the author of ZENAS SLOANE'S LETTERS FOR THE EARTH, 1982, FIELD GUIDE TO WILD THINKING, Badger Press, 1998, plus articles for MONTANA TRAILS and numerous conservation organizations.

Currently an adjunct instructor of carpentry in the College of Technology, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, Laughlin is also working on a Field Guide For Dealing With Immune System Disorders.

Laughlin lives with his family in the sagebrush hills of the Bitterroot Valley in Montana.

David Patten was born on August 28, 1940 at the geographical center of North America, Rugby, North Dakota, in the Chinese year of the Dragon, on the night of the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, to Bertha Brewer Patten and Oscar M. Patten, a forester and Druid. He lived in Jordan for two years as a teenager while his father was forestry advisor to Jordan.

He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Montana in History and Mathematics and his graduate work at the University of Kentucky for six years in Philosophy, specifically Phenomenology. He attended language school at the Defense Department Language School in Monterey and while employed at the National Security Agency in Ft. G.G. Meade. He has studied Russian, German, Indonesian, Japanese and French, and taught philosophy, economics and political science at the University of Kentucky in Harlan County.

David published (and wrote many of the articles for) a quarterly Montana Trails and started a weekly newspaper in Stevensville Montana. For 17 years he was a cragsman of the mountains of Montana practicing the Old Ways.

David has traveled and studied intensively the spiritual life of Bali, Indonesia. He has been trained since early childhood in the Old Ways, the Druidic path, specifically the rich seed-bed of the Oghama, a natural correspondence system relating form with sound with sight with emotions with thought. The Great Order, as it is translated, is revealed through experiential initiation rather than through imitative thought.

For the last 18 years David has been a teacher of the first gate of the Nine Gates Mystery School, a spiritual program intimately connected with ancient traditions and their masters.

He was raised in the tradition, unsuccessfully rebelled from it, and returned with ardor. He was able to leave the halls of academe with spirit intact and to thrive in the life world with ever expanding soul.