FARGO (AP) - Washington state Gov. Chris Gregoire says she is honored to join a tribute to the late Laurie Loveland, a North Dakota solicitor general who helped negotiate a landmark tobacco settlement.

Loveland, 43, died in 2002 of pancreatic cancer.

Gregoire and former state attorney general Heidi Heitkamp spoke Wednesday at the North Dakota State University women's studies department's Laurie Loveland lecture, the first in a series supported by an endowment in Loveland's honor.

Gregoire said Loveland's intelligence and dedication were major factors in a master settlement of a lawsuit against tobacco companies involving 46 states nearly 10 years ago.

"It was Laurie and myself and a cast of lawyers on the other side, all of them male and all of them the highest-priced lawyers in America," Gregoire said. "Whenever in doubt, I would simply turn to Laurie. She was their match."

Heitkamp said Loveland left an impression on everyone she met - "from the secretaries in the office where she worked every day to the attorneys general and the governors and even the president of the United States."

Loveland's friends, family and colleagues gave $500,000 to the North Dakota State University women's studies program to support an annual lecture series and scholarships for North Dakota women interested in public service.

Loveland graduated from Minot High School and from NDSU, and got her law degree from Yale.

Heitkamp told those attending Wednesday's lecture that they also have the opportunity to make a difference.

"We have done this in her honor because we believe that in each one of you young people there is an opportunity to do greatness," Heitkamp said.