Cecil Andrus: 1931–2017

For­mer Demo­c­ra­t­ic Ida­ho Gov­er­nor and Unit­ed States Inte­ri­or Sec­re­tary Cecil Andrus, a pil­lar in the con­ser­va­tion move­ment, has died of com­pli­ca­tions of lung can­cer, his daugh­ter Tra­cy con­firmed this morn­ing. He was eighty-five.

Andrus lived a ful­fill­ing life and leaves behind a lega­cy worth appre­ci­at­ing. Raised in Ore­gon, he lat­er moved to Ida­ho and became a fix­ture of the state’s politics.

“Good­bye, Cecil Andrus, deep­est thanks for enor­mous con­tri­bu­tions to pro­tect­ing the West as Ida­ho gov­er­nor and Inte­ri­or Sec­re­tary,” said the Seat­tle Post-Intel­li­gencer’s Joel Con­nel­ly, who was a close friend of Andrus’ and is men­tioned in the obit­u­ary pub­lished by The New York Times a few hours ago.

“I’ve appre­ci­at­ed your work, not just in writ­ing a book with you, but when raft­ing Coop­er Riv­er in Wrangell-St. Elias Nation­al Park, or pound­ing through the Snake River’s Wild Sheep Rapids in Hells Canyon Nation­al Recre­ation Area, or stand­ing at edge of Snake Riv­er Canyon, in Birds of Prey sanc­tu­ary, watch­ing gold­en eagles soar and prairie fal­cons dive,” Con­nel­ly added.

“With the paint­ing of Alice Lake in the Saw­tooths above your desk, you drew me to vis­it a spot which in the ear­ly AM. [Alice Lake] is one of the most beau­ti­ful places on earth. In com­par­i­son to your stature, today’s Ida­ho polit­i­cal lead­ers could hide in a field of stub­ble,” he con­clud­ed, in a swipe at the Gem State’s Repub­li­can trifecta.

Work­ing with Jim­my Carter, Andrus led efforts to pro­tect Alaska’s pub­lic lands from exploita­tion and thought­less devel­op­ment… a move that enraged many Repub­li­cans, but that saved many pris­tine areas of the Last Fron­tier from being pol­lut­ed and scarred in a greedy rush to extract resources.

Over one hun­dred mil­lion acres were set aside, includ­ing the famed Arc­tic Refuge.

“Ros­alynn and I join thou­sands across our nation in mourn­ing the pass­ing of Cecil Andrus, a friend from the time we served togeth­er as gov­er­nors,” Pres­i­dent Carter said in a state­ment cel­e­brat­ing the life of his good friend.

“Cece was the only per­son I con­sid­ered for the cab­i­net post of sec­re­tary of the inte­ri­or, and togeth­er we made con­ser­va­tion his­to­ry with the suc­cess­ful pas­sage of the Alas­ka lands leg­is­la­tion, which dou­bled the size of the Nation­al Parks, estab­lished large addi­tions to the Nation­al Wildlife Refuge Sys­tem, des­ig­nat­ed new wild and scenic rivers and pro­tect­ed for future gen­er­a­tions entire ecosys­tems such as the Gates of the Arc­tic,” Carter added.

“A spe­cial mem­o­ry Ros­alynn and I cher­ish is the float trip with Car­ol and Cece down the Mid­dle Fork of the Salmon, com­pet­ing in catch­ing the most trout. Cece loved the out­doors and was a gen­uine con­ser­va­tion­ist. Amer­i­cans are bet­ter off because of his ser­vice, and I am bet­ter because of his friendship.”

Andrus served two stints as Gov­er­nor of Ida­ho: one before he accept­ed Jim­my Carter’s request to become Sec­re­tary of the Inte­ri­or, and a sec­ond after return­ing to the Gem State from the Dis­trict of Columbia.

As relat­ed by the New York Times, he dis­missed the notion of stay­ing in the Dis­trict of Colum­bia in inter­views, scoff­ing, “The only rea­son so many peo­ple live on the East Coast is that they don’t know any better.”

(Amen, Sec­re­tary Andrus!)

As Gov­er­nor, Andrus did not hes­i­tate to stand up for his pro­gres­sive val­ues. He opposed efforts to unsafe­ly trans­port and dump nuclear waste in his state. He said no when Ida­ho’s Leg­is­la­ture pre­sent­ed him with a bill that would have severe­ly cur­tailed repro­duc­tive rights for women. Ear­li­er in his career, in 1970, he ran on stop­ping a molyb­de­num mine in the White Cloud Moun­tains… and won.

By the time he left office in 1994, Andrus had served as Gov­er­nor of Ida­ho for four­teen years. He opt­ed not to seek a fifth term (which he’d have won), pre­fer­ring instead to retire. In 1998, he pub­lished his mem­oir, coau­thored with Joel Con­nel­ly. He con­tin­ued to sup­port the Ida­ho Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty and proud­ly cam­paigned for its can­di­dates. When Barack Oba­ma came to Boise to head­line one of the biggest ral­lies the state had ever seen, Andrus intro­duced him.

Author Chris Carl­son con­sid­ers Andrus Ida­ho’s Great­est Gov­er­nor.  “Andrus is the most beloved polit­i­cal fig­ure the state has ever pro­duced,” Carl­son wrote in 2010, rem­i­nisc­ing about Andrus’ incred­i­ble abil­i­ty to con­nect with people.

That cer­tain­ly explains why even arch­con­ser­v­a­tive Repub­li­cans like Raul Labrador are pay­ing trib­ute to Andrus today in the warmest of terms.

The Ida­ho States­man has an exten­sive roundup of trib­utes from cur­rent elect­ed offi­cials — most of whom are Republicans.

The Ida­ho Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty was appro­pri­ate­ly effu­sive in its state­ment.

“A remark­able and influ­en­tial leader, Gov­er­nor Cecil D. Andrus was a true pub­lic ser­vant. He was an authen­tic and dig­ni­fied states­man and even when serv­ing in the high­est offices of our nation, he remained an Ida­ho out­doors­man, a neigh­bor, and a friend. A giant of a man, Gov­er­nor Andrus was Idaho’s longest serv­ing gov­er­nor and leaves behind a lega­cy that Ida­hoans will for­ev­er cher­ish. His prac­ti­cal, sin­cere, and kind-heart­ed lead­er­ship will be tru­ly missed,” the par­ty said.

“Funer­al arrange­ments, which will be pri­vate, are planned for Wednes­day, August 30 in Boise,” says the Andrus Cen­ter. “A pub­lic lying in state cer­e­mo­ny will fol­low at noon on Wednes­day in the Ida­ho Capi­tol rotun­da and con­tin­ue until noon on August 31. A pub­lic memo­r­i­al ser­vice is planned for 2:00 pm Thurs­day, August 31 in the Jor­dan Ball­room of the Boise State Uni­ver­si­ty Stu­dent Union.”

“In lieu of flow­ers the Andrus fam­i­ly sug­gests memo­r­i­al gifts to the Andrus Cen­ter for Pub­lic Pol­i­cy at Boise State Uni­ver­si­ty, which is ded­i­cat­ed to fur­ther­ing his life’s work and lega­cy. The fam­i­ly warm­ly thanks each and every indi­vid­ual who has sent cards, let­ters and flow­ers and wish­es it were pos­si­ble to per­son­al­ly acknowl­edge each expres­sion of con­cern and car­ing. Please know that your well wish­es have meant so much to the entire fam­i­ly as they attempt to deal with the loss of our hus­band, father, grand­fa­ther, and great grandfather.”

Rest in peace, Cecil Andrus. We at NPI will do our part to uphold your lega­cy and build on your good works in every state in the Pacif­ic Northwest.