Matt Pickett first came to Missoula to attend the University of Montana.

Or was it the other way around?

Looking back, Pickett has a hard time putting his finger on just what, exactly, drew him from Butte nearly seven years ago. The university in Missoula seemed relatively close to his parents' home - just as close as Montana State University in Bozeman, anyway - and tuition and fees seemed "really reasonable."

But more than anything, it was the university's presence in Missoula that clinched the deal.

"This is a great environment to live in, university or not, but certainly having a university is one of the things that makes Missoula such a great environment," Pickett said.

Say again?

"The two work hand in hand," he explained.

Truly, Missoula and the University of Montana are all tangled up in each other.

On the one hand, the university depends on the larger community to offer its students varied living arrangements, vibrant entertainment options - and, of course, generous career opportunities. Missoula, in turn, benefits from the university's growth, both economically and culturally.

"University towns always stand out," said Larry Swanson, a regional economist and director of the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, which, by no coincidence, is housed within the University of Montana.

Universities employ educated people and turn out educated graduates, he noted, and thus provide local employers with a higher-quality work force. Missoula is also fortunate to have a College of Technology, Swanson said, "and that's where we get a large amount of our skilled work force outside the bounds of the four-year programs."

It's increasingly important to nurture the next generation of skilled workers because Montana's population is aging and many people will soon begin retiring out of the work force. In fact, Missoula County is already seeing historically low unemployment that's likely to remain low as its percentage of residents age 65 and older increases.

The university is a definite draw for new, often young, residents. Each year it infuses Missoula with thousands of students from outside the state who pay rent, buy food and clothes, and use countless local services.

Many work at local businesses. Some even start their own.

Most people recognize that the university supplies Missoula with a constant stream of skilled young workers. What they may not know is that roughly 10,000 of UM's nearly 14,000 enrolled students are Montana residents - and nearly 70 percent of them are working their way through college, said Jim Foley, the university's executive vice president.

What's more, nearly 70 percent of all university graduates find jobs in Montana after graduation, he said.

"When you hear about the 'brain drain,' keep that in mind," Foley said.

Matt Pickett, for one, now works as an account manager for an information-technology sales team at Pyron Technologies, a Missoula-based one-stop provider of information and communication technology that was, incidentally, started by another UM grad named Dave Pyron.

Pickett's degree is in communication studies and organizational communication. However, as a university student he took a couple of undergraduate-level business classes and was impressed by UM's School of Business Administration.

So impressed, in fact, he joined the school's executive MBA program in 2004 and has been taking evening classes ever since.

"The professors in the business department are really amazing," he said.

The University of Montana counts more than 2,400 employees, from coaches and professors to cooks and security guards.

"That's a lot of folks," Swanson noted.

The university attracts professors and other staff from all over the nation and the world. Their work at the university brings in upwards of $60 million a year in research funds, the vast majority of which are secured through competitive grants, Foley said.

By comparison, the university brought in $33 million in 2000.

"Up until the late '80s, research at the university was pretty much limited to a faculty member doing research at the lab with maybe a couple of students, and maybe the research would be published," said Dick King, president and CEO of the Missoula Area Economic Development Corp. "Funded research is a whole different ball of wax."

It's a highly competitive process, he agreed, and the University of Montana must vie with other learning institutions for every dollar. Not long ago, it seems, a lot of that money was going to Montana State University. Now, King said, the two universities often work together.

And every year a handful of faculty leave the university with their research and start their own spin-off businesses. Eventually, their businesses grow to the point they have to hire employees - often former colleagues and students - to work for them.

"We see some of that here at MonTEC," said King, referencing the Montana Technology Enterprise Center his office oversees. "MonTEC is one of the ways the university is trying to build on the success of their funded research."

MonTEC, which is affiliated with UM but operated independently, serves as an incubator for spin-off businesses because commercialization can be challenging without a support network, he explained.

It's important for start-ups to have access to meeting spaces, administrative services and plenty of parking - things most professors give up when they leave the university. In fact, university facilities are used by a host of outside organizations as a meeting place for conventions, trade shows and concerts.

Those events tend to bring in a lot of people from outside Missoula, who then pack local hotels and restaurants, King said, but in terms of the university's impact on local hotels, restaurants and grocery stores, nothing beats a home football game.

No doubt, nearly 23,000 fans attending a single home Griz game will generate a lot of money for Missoula businesses, Foley said. Last year, a total of more than 200,000 fans attended the season's nine home games, giving the university the highest attendance in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision for the second year in a row.

Of course, Washington-Grizzly Stadium was also packed last year when the Rolling Stones rolled through town. It was the only venue large enough to accommodate the mass of more than 23,000 fans - the highest concert attendance in Montana history.

And the only reason the Stones came to Missoula was because a crew from the university made it happen, Foley pointed out.

That single event brought the university roughly $100,000, which is actually small potatoes compared to some of its other revenue streams.

For instance, the university's "Invest in Discovery" fundraising campaign, which launched in 2002, will close the year with more than $100 million from private donors.

Strong private support from local donors is one testament to Missoula's affinity for the university, said Kathie Nygaard, public relations manager for the University of Montana Foundation.

The business drive, for instance, was started by a group of Missoula business leaders more than 25 years ago, and continues to thrive thanks to local businesses, she explained. Last year, the peer-to-peer solicitations brought in more than $300,000.

"These are people who recognized that, when the university grows, so does Missoula," Nygaard said. "Our fates are totally linked. One can't be successful without the other."

Considered all by itself, the university has enough clout in the Missoula economy to count as a basic industry, said economist Paul Polzin, who directs another university-based research institution, the Bureau of Business and Economic Research.

The University of Montana alone accounts for 11 percent of Missoula County's economy, he explained.

The impact of universities on their communities has increased over the years as many people changed the way they think about the role of higher learning, Swanson said.

Now, he said, it's difficult to ignore all the various ways education is wrapped up in everyday economic life. People in the business sector, especially, see higher education as an investment.

"It used to be viewed more as a cost," Swanson said. "The bigger picture is just the fact that in a modern economy, the presence of a university is increasingly important." According to the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, based in Washington, D.C., universities help stabilize the economy of the surrounding community and contribute to its growth.

Graduates tend to make more money and can afford more expensive things. They also pay more taxes and can afford to make more donations, helping to enhance the local social services structure.

The association also found that universities generate, on average, annual tax revenue of about $60 million. Overall, they provide an impressive $5 return for every $1 invested.

In 2004, the University of Montana worked with other colleges and universities across the state to compile a booklet of information called "Montana Invests."

It pointed out that the Montana University System, which includes about 42,000 students, generates more than

$480 million in statewide spending - including $300 million from out-of-state sources like research grants, nonresident students and visitors.

Overall, it found that higher education in Montana stimulates more than $500 million in local economies - in return for a $150 million-a-year investment from the state.

But for the University of Montana, the numbers to remember are $145 million and $185 million. That first number is how much money the university brought in from outside the state in the form of expenditures by nonresident students and visitors, Foley explained. The second is how much faculty, staff and students from the university spend locally each year on basic needs like housing, transportation, groceries and personal services.

Unfortunately, there's really no way of calculating other, less tangible expenditures.

How many university artists, for instance, have enriched local galleries and theaters with their creativity? How many civic-minded students have volunteered at the Missoula Food Bank, or the Poverello Center, or started their own community-based nonprofit?

How many Missoulians have been inspired by someone at the university, and gone on to inspire someone else?

Out of necessity, economic impact studies focus on such things as the number of employees at the university and their expenditures within the community, then expand into things like how much money is generated by events, Swanson explained.

"Those are all the bread-and-butter impacts on the economy most people talk about, but in reality probably the biggest impact, particularly in today's economy, is just having a large, diversified teaching and research institution in the community," he said.

Without its university, Missoula might be just another quiet little mountain town.