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Higher Office(s) Served: Cabinet Secretary

Military Service: Navy

War(s) Served:  Korean War

CECIL D. ANDRUS was born in Hood River, Oregon; he attended Oregon State University and served in Korea in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. After the war, he moved to Orofino, Idaho, where he worked as a lumberjack and managed a sawmill. He was elected to the first of four terms in the Idaho State Senate in 1960 at age 29. He first served as Governor of Idaho in 1971-1974. From 1977 to 1981, he served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior in the administration of President Jimmy Carter. He served again as Governor of Idaho from 1974-1977 and 1987-1995. He went on to win two more terms as Idaho governor, during which he opposed federal efforts to store nuclear waste in Idaho, negotiated a landmark water pollution control agreement between land-use and conservation interests, and filed a successful suit against the federal government based on the effect of dams operated by the Army Corps of Engineers on spawning and migration of the endangered Snake River salmon. Andrus remains politically active, campaigning for Democratic candidates for national office. In 1995 he founded the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University, and in 1998, he published his memoir, Politics Western Style.

Sources:

The Gallatin Group: Cecil D. Andrus

Idaho State Historical Society Gubernatorial Manuscript and Archive Collections:

• Correspondence Files. AR0044/-20026744.
• Governor Cecil Andrus papers. AR2-27.
• Master's Thesis. AR108.