Longtime Northwestern North Dakota newspaperman and former Republican State Senator from Crosby, John Andrist, has died.
Andrist was 86. He died Wednesday morning in Fargo from complications of an earlier stroke.
Andrist was first elected to the Senate in 1992. He served until resigning in 2014 because of health reasons.
"He was one of those rare people," said Sen. Ray Holmberg (R-Grand Forks). "He was a politician, but he was also a gentleman."
Holmberg said Andrist was clearly a role model that politicians should follow.
Holmberg remembers Andrist as a hard working – and passionate – person.
"He was a champion for the people's right to know," Holmberg said. "Regarding open meetings and open records, he was great on those issues and shine a light on them."
Andrist was an advocate for rural North Dakota, and was also very involved in solving problems created by the oil boom.
Andrist published the Crosby Journal. He was a past-president of both the North Dakota Newspaper Association and the National Newspaper Association.