A Parapatetic Champion of the West

March 20, 2010 4:23 PM

During eight years heading the Interior Department, from 1961 to 1969, for the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, he crusaded for the Clean Air Act, the Wilderness Act , the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act . During his tenure, the US added 2.4 million acres to our national parks. And it was to him that Nikita Kruschev famously hinted at missiles in Cuba, precipitating the Cuban Missile Crisis . Stewart Udall died today at age 90.
posted by spacely_sprocket (20 comments total)

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posted by Big_B at 4:26 PM on March 20, 2010

The Stuart L. Udall archive has some of its holdings available online.
posted by nestor_makhno at 4:39 PM on March 20, 2010

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posted by Aversion Therapy at 4:44 PM on March 20, 2010

I'm sure they were just as bad as anyone but the Udalls always struck me as humble, earnest statesmen of the kind we need more of. Mo Udall's book Too Funny To Be President almost doesn't make sense anymore in today's political climate. Anyway, they're some of my favorite Utahns and I hope their clan's doing OK.

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posted by jtron at 4:49 PM on March 20, 2010

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posted by rtha at 4:51 PM on March 20, 2010

A good man. From an interview with Bill Moyers, in 2003:

UDALL: Washington's a cesspool of money, Bill. I was there 49 years ago. It has changed so drastically it makes me sick every time I look at it.

MOYERS: Because?

UDALL: Of money. Of money.

Bill, I want to say something to the business community. The business people that I knew in the 60s and 70s and worked with them on projects had a sense of integrity. That they owed duties to the country, duties to the community. The element of honesty was very strong.

This breakdown that we've seen in the last three, four years in corporate America, the greed that we see . . . And the shocking thing to me is that nobody's shocked. There's no indignation in Washington.

A Country in the Mind, by John L. Thomas, is a wonderful book about the mid-20th century intersection between western history, environmentalism, and art produced by people like Wallace Stegner, Bernard DeVoto, Ansel Adams, and the Udalls. Cranky white dudes all, but what a force they were in the defense of the West.

I'm as critical as anyone of the patrician best and brightest of the Kennedy generation, but give me Stewart Udall over Gale Norton, or Ken Salazar, anyday.
posted by cirripede at 5:08 PM on March 20, 2010 [4 favorites]

It is the Udalls, and pretty much only the Udalls, that have made me more accepting of the LDS than most Mormons are of me. It is possible to have integrity in that group.

Stuart showed what "Ask what you can do..." means. An attitude that is lost now.
posted by Some1 at 5:11 PM on March 20, 2010 [3 favorites]

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posted by djeo at 5:12 PM on March 20, 2010

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posted by orthogonality at 5:47 PM on March 20, 2010

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posted by ambrosia at 5:59 PM on March 20, 2010

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posted by Tsuga at 6:16 PM on March 20, 2010

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posted by Coyote at the Dog Show at 6:16 PM on March 20, 2010

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posted by heurtebise at 6:53 PM on March 20, 2010

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posted by jonp72 at 7:26 PM on March 20, 2010

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posted by lunasol at 7:46 PM on March 20, 2010

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posted by faineant at 7:48 PM on March 20, 2010

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posted by brundlefly at 8:32 PM on March 20, 2010

Sad.

Some1: more accepting of the LDS than most Mormons are of me

Maybe you won't like hearing this, but I accept you, and I'm a Mormon. I'll bet Udall would have accepted you too.

And I say that knowing that you're probably gay or otherwise not living a typical LDS lifestyle and feeling persecuted because of it.

I'm pretty sick of being told who I don't accept...

Love, your Mormon pal,

Circular
posted by circular at 9:09 PM on March 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

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posted by Hobgoblin at 11:30 AM on March 21, 2010

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posted by dwbrant at 12:32 PM on April 14, 2010