Page 4 - ARUBA TODAY

A4 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 28 November 2019

Ruckelshaus, who defied Nixon in Watergate firing, dies

By GENE JOHNSON 1968 and top positions at the most fulfilling and chal-
SEATTLE (AP) — William Weyerhaeuser Co. and lenging.
Doyle Ruckelshaus, who Browning-Ferris Industries. "At EPA, you worked for a
famously quit his job in the Ruckelshaus spent much of cause that is beyond self-
U.S. Justice Department his life focused on air and interest and larger than the
rather than carry out Presi- water pollution and other goals people normally pur-
dent Richard Nixon's order environmental issues. As sue," he said in an EPA oral
to fire the special prosecu- a young Indiana state at- history interview. "You're
tor investigating the Water- torney general, he sought not there for the money,
gate scandal, has died. He court orders to prevent you're there for something
was 87. industries and cities from beyond yourself."
Ruckelshaus served as the polluting waters, and in In recent years, Ruck-
first administrator of the U.S. his later years, he was the elshaus joined other former
Environmental Protection Pacific Northwest's most EPA directors in champi-
Agency, which confirmed high-profile advocate for oning the agency against
his death in a statement cleaning up Puget Sound cuts or efforts to curtail its
Wednesday. in Washington state. authority. In an interview In this May 15, 1973, file photo, then-acting FBI director William
The lifelong Republican As the first EPA administra- with The Associated Press Doyle Ruckelshaus pauses during a news conference in Wash-
also served as acting direc- tor from 1970 to 1973, he last year, his criticism of ington.
tor of the FBI. But his mo- won praise for pushing au- President Donald Trump's Associated Press
ment of fame came on tomakers to tighten con- moves to roll back envi-
Oct. 20, 1973, when he was trols on air pollution. Shortly ronmental protections and of high school as an army and restore Puget Sound,
a deputy attorney general after taking over the agen- give more regulatory pow- drill sergeant at the Fort where salmon and orcas
and joined his boss, Attor- cy, he ordered the may- er to the states was wither- Lewis. He graduated from are in danger.
ney General Elliot Richard- ors of Detroit, Atlanta and ing. Princeton University and His focus on a collabora-
son, in resigning rather than Cleveland to stop polluting He said some states don't Harvard Law School. tive science-based pro-
carry out Nixon's unlawful waters and took actions have the resources to po- He met his wife on a blind cess helped set the course
order to fire Watergate spe- against U.S. Steel and doz- lice big polluters, and oth- date set up by her Sun- for the Puget Sound Part-
cial prosecutor Archibald ens of other water polluters. ers lack the will. day school teacher. It took nership, the state agency
Cox. Reagan asked him back "The reason that the ulti- place at his aunt and un- charged with cleaning up
After Richardson and Ruck- to the EPA in 1983 to help mate authority to enforce cle's house in Indianapolis, the inland waters by 2020.
elshaus resigned, Solicitor restore public trust after the the law was put into feder- where they both grew up. His daughter, Mary Ruck-
General Robert Bork car- prior administrator — Anne al hands was because the In the Northwest, Ruck- elshaus, served as the
ried out the firing in what M. Gorsuch, mother of cur- states weren't any good at elshaus led federal efforts agency's chief scientist at
became known as the rent Supreme Court Justice it," Ruckelshaus said. "The to recover Chinook salmon the same time her father
"Saturday Night Massa- Neil Gorsuch — was held in idea that you're going to and steered an ambitious led the leadership council
cre" — prompting protests contempt of Congress for delegate it to the states ... state initiative to clean up that oversaw it.q
and outrage around the refusing to turn over docu- is completely fraudulent."
country. Impeachment ments about her agency's Ruckelshaus was born in
proceedings against Nixon allegedly lax efforts to 1932 in Indianapolis to a line
began 10 days later. clean up toxic waste. of politically active lawyers.
"He was incorruptible," Ruckelshaus' wife, Jill, lik- His grandfather had been
longtime friend and Se- ened his return to a "self-in- the Indiana chairman of
attle philanthropist Martha flicted Heimlich maneuver," the Republican Party in
Kongsgaard said Wednes- but Ruckelshaus said he 1900, and his father was the
day of Ruckelshaus. "It accepted the job because platform committee chair-
was very disappointing for he thought he could right man at five Republican
him to see this happening the ship, help staff refocus Conventions.
again in our country, and on their work and reestab- He told The Los Angeles
maybe on a larger scale. lish the EPA's credibility. Times in 1971 that his per-
Deep decency in the face Several thousand EPA em- sonal interest in nature and
of corruption is needed ployees greeted his return conservation was rooted
now more than ever." with thunderous applause. in his childhood when his
Ruckelshaus' civic ser- One sign read, "How do you father took him fishing in
vice and business career spell relief? Ruckelshaus." northern Michigan.
spanned decades and Reflecting on his long ca- Between his stints at the
U.S. coasts, marked by two reer of public service and EPA, Ruckelshaus moved
stints at the EPA under Nix- private enterprise in 2001, his family and five children
on and Ronald Reagan, Ruckelshaus ranked his to the Seattle area where
a failed U.S. Senate bid in time at the EPA as one of he had spent two years out