Cecil Dale Andrus (25 August 1931-24 August 2017) was the Democratic Governor of Idaho from 4 January 1971 to 23 January 1977 (succeeding Don Samuelson and preceding John Evans) and from 5 January 1987 to 2 January 1995 (succeeding Evans and preceding Phil Batt), and United States Secretary of the Interior from 23 January 1977 to 20 January 1981 (succeeding Thomas S. Kleppe and preceding James G. Watt).
Biography[]
Cecil Andrus was born in Hood River, Oregon in 1931, and he was raised in Junction City and Eugene. He served in the US Navy during the Korean War before moving to Orofino, Idaho, working at a sawmill his father co-owned. He switched to the insurance industry in 1963 and moved to Lewiston in 1966, and he served in the state senate from 1962 to 1966 and as Governor from 1971 to 1977 and from 1987 to 1995. Andrus opposed molybdenum mining in the White Cloud Mountains, resulting in his election over the pro-mining Republican incumbent Don Samuelson, and he oversaw the federal designation of the Sawtooth Wilderness Area. He served as President Jimmy Carter's Secretary of the Interior from 1977 to 1981 and added 48,000 acres to California's Redwood National Park during his tenure. On his return to the governorship, Andrus opposed federal efforts to store nuclear waste in Idaho, controlled water pollution in Idaho's rivers and streams, vetoed a bill to outlaw abortion with exception to rape, incest, child deformities, or threat to the mother's life, and sued the federal government for the US Army Corps of Engineers' role in the decline of several Snake River salmon species. He retired in 1994 and died in 2017.