"He's a great asset for the Whitefish community," then-governor Brian Schweitzer told the Flathead Beacon, a Montana newspaper, in 2012, after Goguen donated more than $10 million to a state land trust and spent about the same amount to create a high-end helicopter search-and-rescue program for the community. "I'm proud that I know him as a friend, and I'm proud that I know him as a neighbor." Schweitzer did not respond to a request to comment for this article.
Jordan White, a longtime backcountry coroner who now runs Two Bear Air, said on Tuesday that the helicopter donation was unprecedented. "It changed the course of our community and our state," he said.
Goguen has also been a big political donor, giving more than $250,000 into the super-PAC backing John Kasich's presidential bid and another $90,000 to other Republican campaigns. On Tuesday, the super-PAC, New Day for America, told Yahoo News the money would be donated to charity.
Goguen, White said, is just a "normal guy" who "dresses the same and drives the same car" as anyone else in town. In Whitefish, Goguen said in 2012, "It's easy to forget the external stresses or problems you’re wrestling with in day-to-day life.”