Peter Bovingdon’s personality has many facets. But the one that may stand out the most is his ability to feel young.

He can relate to children and says he feels like a side effect of growing up is a lack of playing, but he refuses to live like that.

If there’s fresh powder, you can bet Bovingdon’s on the ski hill. And if there’s buff single-track, you’ll find him on the bike trails — but if the thermals are rising off the mountain slopes, he’s packing his hang glider up to the edge of a cliff.

Bovingdon, 39, is officially the development specialist for Montana Legal Services, but he also contracts with the state to represent abused and neglected children in Lewis and Clark County.

It’s easy for him to relate to children in general, particularly boys.

“I know what they are interested in,” he said. “We look at the world the same way.”

He calls up his childhood fascination with “Star Wars” to help him understand how children feel about the world.

“Who they connect with tells a lot about them,” he said after receiving a community service award recently at the Capitol Rotunda. “They are all engaged in epic battles and their planets are at stake.”

Some boys connect with Han Solo because when it comes down to it they make moral choices, but have to think about them, Bovingdon said.

One boy he worked with was done dealing with adults because it just seemed not to get him anywhere.

He related most to Boba Fett, a bounty hunter who’s not on the dark side or with the Force, and he doesn’t talk.

Bovingdon said understanding the boy’s connection to Boba Fett helped him relate to how he was feeling about being stuck between two homes.

For another boy it’s Yoda, small, and funny. It’s C-3PO for another because he could be broken into pieces yet still work — a tough one for Bovingdon to talk about.

No one really relates to the movie’s hero Luke Skywalker, he said.

Bill Collins, director of the Court Appointed Special Advocate program in Helena, said Bovingdon steps into the lives of children at the worst time, assuring them he’ll be there. And he always is.

“He’s been a gold mine for us,” Collins said.

Bovingdon comes to his current cases armed with knowledge from a wide swath of the legal system. He was an assistant attorney general in Mike McGrath’s office, and before that he worked in the public defenders office.

“He has a working knowledge from every direction,” Collins said. “He’s really just a compassionate guy for children and works really hard to do what’s best for kids. He has a good rapport with kids because he can capture the world through their eyes.”

District Court Judge Jeffery Sherlock enjoys having Bovingdon in his courtroom. Beyond getting a kick out of the tan suede desert shoes Bovingdon wears, Sherlock said the attorney doesn’t take things personally and understands that you win some and lose some.

Sherlock described Bovingdon as having a good sense of humor and said he’s “quiet, polite and doesn’t wander all over with questioning.”

Although Bovingdon said he enjoys thinking about law, what he likes to talk about the most is hang gliding. And once he starts, it’s more than obvious that he may just be a little obsessed.

His love of soaring with the birds began as a desire to become a pilot in college, but when an opportunity to hang glide came his way, he was hooked.

“I knew right away it was a direction my life was going to take,” he said.

The things he liked least about the airplanes he’s flown — the dashboard, the multitude of organizational components and the sliver of sky he got to enjoy — weren’t there with a hang glider.

For years when the wind was blowing at 17 mph from the northwest he would be on his way to a ridge miles away.

That has changed some with the birth of his daughter, Gillian, who just turned 1. Now the trips aren’t as frequent because he likes to hang out with Silly Gilly and wife, Ali.

There’s a lot of analytical thinking while in flight, he said, but it’s the point where complete relaxation hits him he enjoys most. A worrier by nature, flying gives Bovingdon a feeling he gets nowhere else.

“It’s one of those rare experiences where you don’t think about other things,” he said.

Bovingdon is humble and freely speaks about how much he has to learn about many aspects of his life. He doesn’t claim to be a renowned hang gliding pilot or a die-hard, intimidating lawyer.

“Even after all my education and experience I’m still learning,” he said.

He likes working children, and there’s no arguing that.

“They are generally some of the nicest people I know,” Bovingdon said.

Reporter Alana Listoe: 447-4081 or

alana.listoe@helenair.com