PICABO, Idaho -- Longtime Idaho rancher Leonard "Bud" Purdy passed away Monday night in his home at age 96.

Purdy first came to Blaine County in 1928 as a 10-year-old from California, told to work on his uncle's ranch, the K-Bar-K Ranch. By 1943, at the age of 25, he became foreman, and just 12 years later, he bought the business. Gov. Butch Otter described Purdy as the very embodiment of the Code of the West. "Someone whose life was a lesson in cowboy ethics, common sense, stewardship and the value of hard work and perseverance."

In the years that Purdy worked the land in Picabo, he hunted ducks with Ernest Hemingway, learned to fly a plane, ran the Picabo Store, Picabo Elevator, and Silver Creek Supply, grew barley for beer and farmed about 2,500 acres of hay and grain.

More From 95.7 KEZJ