Cecil Andrus, logger who rose to Idaho governor, dies at 85
BOISE, Idaho — Cecil D. Andrus managed huge swaths of public land as a cabinet member in President Jimmy Carter’s administration and was the longest-serving governor in Idaho history, but the former lumberjack was known as an approachable everyman who listed his number in the local phone directory.
The 85-year-old Andrus died late Thursday, the Andrus Center for Public Policy said. His daughter, Tracy Andrus, said he died of complications from lung cancer.
Andrus resigned midway through his second term as Idaho governor in 1977 to become President Jimmy Carter’s secretary of the Interior Department and served until Carter’s term ended in 1981. He then was elected governor two more times, becoming the first four-term governor in Idaho history. He was also the last Democrat to hold the office in red-state Idaho.
Carter declared permanent national monuments on 56 million acres in Alaska in 1978. Despite criticism from many Alaskans, Andrus ordered protection of an additional 52 million acres of public lands in the state the same year.