STEWART L. UDALL
STEWART L. UDALL
Steward of the Land
Thomas G. Smith
2017 by Thomas G. Smith
All rights reserved. Published 2017
Printed in the United States of America
22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5 6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Smith, Thomas G. (Thomas Gary), 1945 author.
Title: Stewart L. Udall : steward of the land / Thomas G. Smith.
Other titles: Steward of the land
Description: Albuquerque, NM : University of New Mexico Press, [2017] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016057146 (print) | LCCN 2016057480 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780826357755 (hbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780826357762 (E-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Udall, Stewart L. | Cabinet officersUnited StatesBiography. | LegislatorsUnited StatesBiography. | ConservationistsUnited StatesBiography. | ReformersUnited StatesBiography. | United StatesPolitics and government20th century.
Classification: LCC E840.8.U34 S55 2017 (print) | LCC E840.8.U34 (ebook) | DDC 328.73/092 [B] dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016057146
Cover photograph: Lady Bird Johnson and Stewart Udall Floating the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park, courtesy of LBJ Presidential Library
Designed by Catherine Leonardo
For Sandra, as always, and our eight grandchildren: Jack, Molly, Mick, and Maggie Sullivan and Sam, Henry, Ian, and Lily Smith.
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
Mormon Forebears
CHAPTER TWO
Son of the High Plateau
CHAPTER THREE
Mormon Mission
CHAPTER FOUR
Wartime Mission
CHAPTER FIVE
Tucson
CHAPTER SIX
Storm Warning for Reclamation
CHAPTER SEVEN
House Reformer
CHAPTER EIGHT
Secretary of the Interior
CHAPTER NINE
Kennedy, Conservation, and Khrushchev
CHAPTER TEN
Disgruntled New Frontiersman
CHAPTER ELEVEN
A Ringside Seat at LBJs Round Table
CHAPTER TWELVE
Beauty and the Beast
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The CAP and the Grand Canyon Controversy
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Vietnam: Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Parting Gifts, Parting Ways
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Consultant and Presidential Campaign Manager
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Advocate for American Atomic Victims
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Final Days in Santa Fe
Acknowledgments
The seeds for this biography were sown in 1986 when Stewart Udall gave a talk at Nichols College, where I taught. When I broached the idea, he urged me to hold off while he remained alive. Meanwhile, over the next decade or so we talked and corresponded on a number of Udall-related projects, including Civil Rights on the Gridiron: The Kennedy Administration and the Desegregation of the Washington Redskins, Journal of Sport History (Summer 1987); The Canyonlands National Park Controversy, 19611964, Utah Historical Quarterly (Summer 1991); John Kennedy, Stewart Udall and New Frontier Conservation, Pacific Historical Review (August 1995); and Robert Frost, Stewart Udall, and the Last Go Down, New England Quarterly (March 1997). I thank those journals for permission to use previously published material.
Udalls oldest son, US senator Tom Udall, chose not to respond to my request for an interview, but Stewarts brother Burr and sister Elma, now both in their nineties and enviably sharp minded, were wonderfully cooperative. Both spoke long and lovingly about their brother, and by mail and e-mail Burr never seemed to lose patience answering my requests for more information. He also supplied a photo used in this book and provided information from other family members. I am also indebted to Ambassador Curtis Kammen for talking to me about his and Stewart Udalls 1962 visit with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.
Librarians and school officials across the country gave invaluable assistance. At Nichols College, Jim Douglas, Rosalba Onofrio, Matthew Haggard, and Cindy LaFortune provided research and technical help. During my several visits to Tucson, Roger Myers and the Special Collections staff at the University of Arizona were extremely helpful, as were archivists at Arizona State University in Tempe; the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley; the Western History Department at the Denver Public Library; the Dickinson College Library in Carlisle, Pennsylvania; the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul, Minnesota; the National Park Service; and the JFK and LBJ Presidential Libraries. Ellen Greene at the Arizona State Archives in Phoenix and Andrea Vaughn at the St. Johns Public Library helped me access St. Johns and other Arizona newspapers and yearbooks. And at Eastern Arizona State College, registrar Russell Skinner and alumni officer David Udall provided information about Stewart Udalls academic courses and school activities.
As many historians of recent American history realize, acquiring the rights to illustrations can be a time-consuming and expensive process. I am grateful to the archivists and rights holders who helped smooth the way, including J. Wendel Cox and his associates at the University of Arizona; D. Clark Manning; Allison Ingram at Cond Nast; Mark Madison of the US Fish and Wildlife Service; National Park Concessions; and Thomas Alex, Margaret Harmon, and Rachel Packelhofer of the National Park Service at Big Bend National Park.
I have been fortunate to teach at a small college with caring and cooperative colleagues. Outgoing academic dean and provost Alan Reinhardt, a fellow baseball fan, has been an avid supporter of my projects and a close friend for more than two decades. Incoming academic dean Mauri Pelto, who studies glaciers in the American and Canadian Cascades, has also encouraged my work in the field of environmental studies. Paul Lambert, Ed Warren, and the late James Conrad in the history department have long enabled my academic and classroom efforts with sound advice, as have officemates Don Leonard and, later, Art Duhaime. Colleagues Andrea Becker, Maureen Butler, and Chris Wojnar have buoyed my spirits with their positive outlooks and timely administrative and technical assistance. For financial support I am indebted to Robert Kuppenheimer, a Nichols College alum whose generosity helps fund faculty research and attendance at professional conferences. I have also benefited from a grant from the Lyndon B. Johnson Library.
Executive editor W. Clark Whitehorn at the University of New Mexico Press has encouraged and patiently guided this project from the beginning. Diane Bush has served as an exemplary copyeditor. I also have benefited from the many helpful suggestions from the anonymous manuscript reviewers.
Friends and family, including my sister, Janet, and a gaggle of in-laws in upstate New York, have provided comic and stress relief. Dennis Sexton, a classmate whom I first met in a rural one-room elementary school, has been a lifelong confidant; golfing, hunting, and fishing partner; best man at my wedding; and fellow conspirator in many boyhood and adulthood escapades. My childrenTom Jr., Shannon, Steven, and Matthewtheir spouses, and my eight grandchildren have provided joyous, humorous, and regenerative leisure times, especially at family get-togethers at Ingalls Head, Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada. My wife, Sandra, my high school sweetheart, has been a constant source of love, laughter, patience, and wisdom. She has tried to save me from myself and from errors in this book. My errors within and apart from this book are, alas, my own.
