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Cecil Andrus
Cecil Dale Andrus (August 25, 1931 – August 24, 2017) was an American politician who served as 26th and 28th governor of Idaho, for a total of fourteen years. A Democrat, he also served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior from 1977 to 1981 during the Carter Administration. Andrus lost his first gubernatorial election in 1966 but won four (in 1970, 1974, 1986, and 1990) becoming the second Governor of Idaho to serve non-consecutive terms (the first was Republican C. A. Bottolfsen), and his fourteen years as governor is the most in state history.
In public life, Andrus was noted for his strong conservationist and environmental views and accomplishments, and an Idaho wildlife preserve established in 1993 in Washington County is named the Cecil D. Andrus Wildlife Management Area in his honor. In 2018, the Cecil D. Andrus–White Clouds Wilderness was renamed after him. A political liberal, he protected the environment by minimizing the control of business interests held over the public domain and by concentrating decision-making in the hands of experts in the Interior Department. He argued that environmentalism can and must coexist with positive economic development.
Born in Hood River, Oregon on August 25, 1931, Andrus was the middle of three children of Hal Stephen and Dorothy May (Johnson) Andrus, with older brother Steve and younger sister Margaret. They later lived near Junction City, on a farm without electricity. During World War II, the family moved to Eugene in early 1942, when "Cece" was 11, where Hal (1906–2004) and his brother Bud opened a machine shop to refurbish sawmill equipment. Andrus graduated from Eugene High School in 1948 at age 16 and attended Oregon State College in Corvallis, where he majored in engineering in his freshman year.
At age 17, he got a good summer job with the local utility in 1949, and late in August, he eloped to Reno with Carol Mae May (born December 26, 1932), his high school sweetheart. Andrus had just turned 18, and she was 16 months younger. The Andruses enjoyed a happy, affectionate marriage, and he always referred to her as "his first wife" or "his bride". He decided to keep working and not return to college. Following the outbreak of the Korean War, he enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserves in February 1951, and served as an electronics technician aboard patrol aircraft until 1955.
After his discharge from the Navy, Andrus moved to Orofino in northern Idaho, where he worked in the timber industry in a variety of jobs at a sawmill his father co-owned. After the sawmill closed, Andrus switched to the insurance industry in 1963, and moved his family down the Clearwater River to Lewiston in 1966.
In 1960, at age 28, and concerned over the local Republican state senator's stance against needed education improvements in Idaho schools, particularly in rural areas of the state, Andrus filed as a Democrat to run against him and won, and was re-elected in 1962 and 1964 from Orofino (and Clearwater County).[citation needed]
Andrus first ran for governor in 1966 but was narrowly defeated in the Democratic primary by Charles Herndon, an attorney from Salmon.
Seven weeks before the November election, Herndon and two others died in a twin-engine private plane crash in the mountains six miles (10 km) northwest of Stanley, while en route from Twin Falls to Coeur d'Alene in mid-September. Andrus was appointed the nominee to take Herndon's place on the ballot. He lost the general election to Republican Don Samuelson of Sandpoint by more than 11,000 votes, earning Andrus the unlikely distinction of losing both the primary and general election races for the same office in the same year. He returned to the state senate two years later, easily unseating the Republican incumbent in the 1968 election, and represented Lewiston. Herndon's widow, Lucille, was elected to several local political offices after his death.
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Cecil Andrus
Cecil Dale Andrus (August 25, 1931 – August 24, 2017) was an American politician who served as 26th and 28th governor of Idaho, for a total of fourteen years. A Democrat, he also served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior from 1977 to 1981 during the Carter Administration. Andrus lost his first gubernatorial election in 1966 but won four (in 1970, 1974, 1986, and 1990) becoming the second Governor of Idaho to serve non-consecutive terms (the first was Republican C. A. Bottolfsen), and his fourteen years as governor is the most in state history.
In public life, Andrus was noted for his strong conservationist and environmental views and accomplishments, and an Idaho wildlife preserve established in 1993 in Washington County is named the Cecil D. Andrus Wildlife Management Area in his honor. In 2018, the Cecil D. Andrus–White Clouds Wilderness was renamed after him. A political liberal, he protected the environment by minimizing the control of business interests held over the public domain and by concentrating decision-making in the hands of experts in the Interior Department. He argued that environmentalism can and must coexist with positive economic development.
Born in Hood River, Oregon on August 25, 1931, Andrus was the middle of three children of Hal Stephen and Dorothy May (Johnson) Andrus, with older brother Steve and younger sister Margaret. They later lived near Junction City, on a farm without electricity. During World War II, the family moved to Eugene in early 1942, when "Cece" was 11, where Hal (1906–2004) and his brother Bud opened a machine shop to refurbish sawmill equipment. Andrus graduated from Eugene High School in 1948 at age 16 and attended Oregon State College in Corvallis, where he majored in engineering in his freshman year.
At age 17, he got a good summer job with the local utility in 1949, and late in August, he eloped to Reno with Carol Mae May (born December 26, 1932), his high school sweetheart. Andrus had just turned 18, and she was 16 months younger. The Andruses enjoyed a happy, affectionate marriage, and he always referred to her as "his first wife" or "his bride". He decided to keep working and not return to college. Following the outbreak of the Korean War, he enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserves in February 1951, and served as an electronics technician aboard patrol aircraft until 1955.
After his discharge from the Navy, Andrus moved to Orofino in northern Idaho, where he worked in the timber industry in a variety of jobs at a sawmill his father co-owned. After the sawmill closed, Andrus switched to the insurance industry in 1963, and moved his family down the Clearwater River to Lewiston in 1966.
In 1960, at age 28, and concerned over the local Republican state senator's stance against needed education improvements in Idaho schools, particularly in rural areas of the state, Andrus filed as a Democrat to run against him and won, and was re-elected in 1962 and 1964 from Orofino (and Clearwater County).[citation needed]
Andrus first ran for governor in 1966 but was narrowly defeated in the Democratic primary by Charles Herndon, an attorney from Salmon.
Seven weeks before the November election, Herndon and two others died in a twin-engine private plane crash in the mountains six miles (10 km) northwest of Stanley, while en route from Twin Falls to Coeur d'Alene in mid-September. Andrus was appointed the nominee to take Herndon's place on the ballot. He lost the general election to Republican Don Samuelson of Sandpoint by more than 11,000 votes, earning Andrus the unlikely distinction of losing both the primary and general election races for the same office in the same year. He returned to the state senate two years later, easily unseating the Republican incumbent in the 1968 election, and represented Lewiston. Herndon's widow, Lucille, was elected to several local political offices after his death.
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