William Kittredge, who grew up in Eastern Oregon on his family’s historic MC Ranch near Adel in Lake County and who was regarded by many as the dean of Western writers, died Friday, Dec. 4, in Montana.

Kittredge, 88, is the author of several books, including his memoir, “Hole In the Sky;” a book edited with Annick Smith, “The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology;” and books of essays, “Owning It All,” “The Nature of Generosity” and “Balancing Water: Restoring the Klamath Basin,” which was published in 2000 and featured photographs by Tupper Ansel Blake of Dorris and Madeleine Graham Blake of Klamath Falls.

A Klamath Union High graduate, Kittredge was an award-winning essayist, fiction writer, college professor and autobiographical author. In the 1990s and 2000s he was regarded a leading voice in contemporary Western literature. Among his many honors was a National Humanities Award by then-President Bill Clinton in 1994.

Although revered by many, as evidenced by his many honors, his books were often viewed critically by ranchers and agri-businessmen, especially in Lake County and other areas of Eastern Oregon, because he was often sharply critical of farm and ranchland use practices, including his family’s MC Ranch.

During an interview in the 1990s at his Missoula-area home, Kittredge said his criticism was based on first-hand experience of being raised in Lake County’s Warner Valley on the once massive MC Ranch.

“At one point I wanted to write about the West and the mistakes that were being made and the best example I could use was my myself and my family and the mistakes we had made,” he said in the interview. “And because of that I got a reputation of being hard on my family and being hard on ranch people in general. I don’t hate cowboys. Most of the grief I’ve given is to agribusiness ranchers.”

Although he had an agricultural background, including a degree from Oregon State University, Kittredge left the MC Ranch to study at the University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop.

Kittredge later began a successful writing career that led to his books and magazine articles in such publications as Atlantic, Harper’s, Esquire and Outside. Kittredge spent more than 30 years as a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Montana in Missoula.

Two of his books, “Hole In The Sky” and “Owning It All,” recall his impressions of growing up in southeastern Oregon. He is often critical of his family, himself and damage created by irresponsible ranching and farming.

”We thought we were doing God’s work out there,” said Kittredge of life on the MC Ranch. “We found out that some of that ‘big’ ag doesn’t work.” “Hole In The Sky,” in which Kittredge chronicles his personal failures, won the PEN West Award in 1992 for best nonfiction book of the year. He also co-edited “The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology” in 1988 and co-authored nine novels in the Cord series of Westerns. “Who Won the West” was published in 1996. His novel, “The Willow Field,” was published in 2006.

Despite his critical writings about agriculture, “Balancing Water” is regarded as a balanced book about the Klamath Basin and its water problems.

”I’m quite positive about what’s going on down there,” he said in an interview about “Balancing Water.” “I don’t think anybody’s acting out of maliciousness. They’re all addressing the issues and they’re getting them solved one by one by one. That’s the way a community gets formed,” Kittredge said. “You’ve got to take care of the people. You’ve got to take care of the place. A lot of environmentalists don’t put much emphasis on taking care of the economy or the people. Clearly both have to be taken care of and that’s the thrust of the way I’m trying to approach it. I think it’s pretty remarkable. There’s a lot of good work going on. There’s a lot of agreement.”

Because of restrictions stemming from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, his wife, Annick Smith, said a memorial will be held at a to-be determined time.

William Kittredge, who died Friday, Dec. 4, in Missoula, Montana, was born in 1932 in Portland but grew up on his family’s MC Ranch in Lake County. His family owned and operated the Warner Valley Livestock Co. Kittredge graduated from Klamath Union High School.

He graduated from Oregon State University in 1953 with a degree in general agriculture. A year earlier he married Janet O’Connor in 1952 and served in the U.S. Air Force in Guam for four years before returning to the MC Ranch.

When he was 35, Kittredge left for the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop. He began teaching at the University of Montana in Missoula in 1969, a position he held until retiring in 1997. Kittredge was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University in 1973-74.

In 1994 he was honored with a National Humanities Award by President Bill Clinton, received the Los Angeles Times Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2007 and a lifetime achievement honor from the Montana Book Festival in 2017.

Kittredge co-produced Robert Redford’s film, “A River Runs Through It.”

Annick Smith, a writer and filmmaker who was Kittredge’s longtime partner — they married in January 2020 — said his health began to decline this fall. At the time of his death he was working on another autobiography, which Smith said she will continue to edit.