Former Secretary of the Interior, Conservationist, Writer: 1920 - 2010

Stewart Udall died today, the first day of spring, at the age of 90. President John F. Kennedy named the Arizona-born Udall secretary of the interior in 1961. After Kennedy was assassinated, Udall continued at the DOI under President Johnson. He held that post from 1961-1969, crucial years as the conservation movement morphed into the environmental movement, with Udall's help.

In his 1963 classic, The Quiet Crisis (with a foreward by President Kennedy), Udall wrote with passion and keen insight about America's evoling dilemma:

"One of the paradoxes of American society is that while our economic standard of living has become the envy of the world, our environmental standard has steadily declined. We are better housed, better nourished, and better entertained, but we are not better prepared to inherit the earth or to carry on the pursuit of happiness."

If anyone earned the right to be called a citizen of the "New West," it was Stewart Udall. OK, Wallace Stegner, too.

Here's a short Udall biography from The Center of the American West:

Stewart Udall served as Secretary for eight years (1961-1969) under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, during which time he successfully pressed for landmark environmental legislation, including the Clean Air Act, the Wilderness Act, the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act, and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Under his watch, the National Park Service added over 2.4 million acres to its holdings, including four new national parks, six national seashores, and five national recreation areas. Udall was known at the time not only as one of the most effective spokesmen for the West, but also for his ability to manage controversy and gain bi-partisan support for the Department of the Interior.

Interview with Udall

You can read a transcript of an interview with Udall from September 24, 2003 (pdf), the first in a series of interviews with former secretaries of the Iinterior organized by the Center of the American West.

Watch Stewart Udall on "Earth Days," an American Experience documentary, April 19, 2010 

Photo credits:

• (Top) Courtesy American Experience, PBS
• (Right) National Park Service.