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Former Idaho Gov. and U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has died at age 74, his family said in a written statement Saturday.<\/p>\n
Kempthorne died Friday evening in Boise, the statement said. No cause was given. He had been diagnosed with colon cancer last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeyond his public service, he was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather whose greatest joy came from time spent with family and the people he met along the way,\u201d his family said. \u201cHe had a rare gift for truly seeing others \u2014 remembering names, stories, and the small details that made each person feel known and valued.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kempthorne, a moderate Republican, was elected mayor of Boise in 1985 at age 34, and he was credited with revitalizing the downtown by securing an agreement to build a convention center and promoting other development. He served seven years before winning the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Sen. Steve Symms in 1992.<\/p>\n
During his time in Washington, he authored legislation \u2014 signed by Democratic President Bill Clinton \u2014 to end unfunded federal mandates on state and local governments.<\/p>\n
Rather than run for reelection in 1998, he entered an open election for governor, trouncing his Democratic opponent by garnering more than two-thirds of the vote.<\/p>\n
President George W. Bush appointed him Interior secretary in 2006, a position he held until the end of Bush’s presidency \u2014 and during which he lived on a houseboat docked in the Potomac River.<\/p>\n
\u201cDirk was one of the finest public servants I ever knew because he was one of the finest men,\u201d former President George W. Bush said in a written statement Saturday. \u201cHe was considerate, smart, and capable. Dirk loved our lands and waters, and as Secretary of the Interior, he was an effective steward of our natural resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
Environmentalists often found Kempthorne too accommodating to industry, citing his efforts to push oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska. More than 100 conservation groups opposed his nomination as Interior secretary, saying that as a senator he had voted to eliminate federal money for recovery of the endangered wolf, to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration, and to sell off federal public lands.<\/p>\n
Yet in 2008, he bucked other advisers in the White House by insisting that the polar bear should be listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act because of the loss of sea ice in the Arctic. He was prepared to resign over it when Bush decided to back him.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Governor, Dirk left an enduring mark on our state,” Idaho Gov. Brad Little said in a written statement. With the partnership of his wife, Patricia, Kempthorne \u201cchampioned children and families, strengthened public education, and led transformational investments in our transportation system that will benefit Idahoans for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
After leaving the federal government, he became the chief executive of a trade association of life insurance companies.<\/p>\n
In a 2023 question-and-answer session with the George W. Bush Presidential Center, Kempthorne recalled helping evacuate nearly 400 U.S. citizens and Afghan allies from Afghanistan two years earlier, as many were being sought by the Taliban following the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal. Kemthorne and others worked frantically for months to raise money and garner the support of diplomatic channels to charter buses and an Airbus A340 to help resettle the evacuees in the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n
At one point, with the flight fully booked, the organizers received a list of more people who needed to leave urgently.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat night, at a total loss for answers, alone, I knelt in prayer,\u201d Kempthorne recalled. \u201cI said, \u2018Dear God, we cannot leave these people behind, please give a path forward.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
He said he then had a vision of Mother Mary holding the infant Jesus. It gave him an idea: The babies on the flight didn’t need their own seats, as their parents could hold them. The organizers confirmed that with the airline and were able to add an additional 50 people to the flight, Kempthorne said.<\/p>\n
Kempthorne was born in San Diego and grew up in Spokane, Washington. His father was a regional representative for Maytag, the appliance company. His mother, a homemaker, once worked as a secretary for the Legislature in Nebraska, her home state.<\/p>\n
Kempthorne attended San Bernardino Valley College in California before transferring to the University of Idaho, where he served as student body president and met his future wife, Patricia. After graduation he worked as executive assistant to the director of the Idaho Department of Lands before joining the Idaho Home Builders Association as the executive vice president.<\/p>\n
Kempthorne is survived by his wife, as well as their children Heather and Jeff and their families.<\/p>\n
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Johnson reported from Seattle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n