Dirk Kempthorne, former Idaho governor and U.S. Interior secretary, dies at 74 : NPR
Former Interior Department Secretary Dirk Kempthorne testifies during a joint hearing of the House subcommittees on Oversight and Investigations and Energy and Environment regarding the Interior Department’s role in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 20, 2010.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
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Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Former Idaho Governor and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne has died at the age of 74, his family announced in a written statement Saturday.
Kempthorne died Friday evening in Boise, the release said. No cause was given. He was diagnosed with colon cancer last year.
“Beyond his public service, he was a devoted husband, father and grandfather whose greatest joy came from time spent with his family and the people he met along the way,” his family said. “He had a rare gift for truly seeing others: remembering names, stories, and the little details that made each person feel known and valued.”
Kempthorne, a Republican, was elected mayor of Boise in 1985 at the age of 34, and is credited with revitalizing downtown by securing a deal to build a convention center. He served seven years before winning the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Senator Steve Symms in 1992.
While in Washington, he authored legislation – signed by Democratic President Bill Clinton – to end unfunded federal mandates on state and local governments.
Rather than running for office in 1998, he ran in an open election for governor, defeating his Democratic opponent by receiving more than two-thirds of the vote.
President George W. Bush appointed him secretary of the Interior in 2006, a position he held until the end of Bush’s presidency — and during which he lived on a houseboat docked in the Potomac River.
“Dirk was one of the finest public servants I ever knew because he was one of the finest men,” former President George W. Bush said in a written statement Saturday. “He was caring, intelligent and knowledgeable. Dirk loved our lands and waters, and as Secretary of the Interior he was an effective manager of our natural resources.”
Environmentalists often found Kempthorne too accommodating to the oil and gas industry and other business interests. But in 2008, he clashed with other White House advisers in insisting that the polar bear should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because of the loss of Arctic sea ice. He was ready to resign when Bush decided to support him.
“As governor, Dirk left a lasting mark on our state,” Idaho Gov. Brad Little said in a written statement. With the partnership of his wife Patricia, Kempthorne “advocated for children and families, strengthened public education, and led transformational investments in our transportation system that will benefit Idahoans for generations.”
During 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 wanted by the Taliban after the chaotic withdrawal of the U.S. military. Kempthorne and others worked frantically for months to raise funds and gain support through diplomatic channels to charter buses and an Airbus A340 to help resettle evacuees in the United States and Canada.
At one point, when the flight was full, organizers received a list of additional people who urgently needed to leave.
“That night, totally at a loss for answers, alone, I knelt in prayer,” Kempthorne recalled. “I said, ‘Dear God, we can’t leave these people behind, please give us a way forward.’ “
He said he then had a vision of Mother Mary holding the baby Jesus. That gave him an idea: Babies on the flight didn’t need their own seats because their parents could hold them. Organizers confirmed this with the airline and were able to add 50 more people to the flight, Kempthorne said.
Kempthorne is survived by his wife, as well as their children Heather and Jeff and their families.
