Stewart Udall
b. January 31, 1920 - d. March 20, 2010
Role
Secretary of the Interior
Dates of Involvement
1961 - 1969
Context
As Secretary of the Interior during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, Stewart Udall played a central role in sustaining and executing of the Mission 66 program and the overall expansion of the National Park Service. During the planning and construction of Beaver Meadows, park superintendents, through the director of the National Park Service, reported to the Secretary of the Interior. Udall thus served as a governmental intermediary between Mission 66 financial restrictions and Taliesin’s commitment to interior design perfection.
Education
Udall obtained his law degree from the University of Arizona. Udall’s studies were periodically interrupted by his Mormon missionary service and his position in the United States Air Force during World War II. In 1948, following his graduation, Udall and his brother opened up a law practice together (UofAZ Library, 2017).
Career
In 1954, Udall was elected to Congress from Arizona. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s he served in the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, The Education and Labor Committee, and The House Committee on Education and Labor.
During his career in the cabinet, Udall passed The Wilderness Bill and The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. He oversaw the expansion of the “National Park System to include four new national parks, six new national monuments, eight seashores and lakeshores, nine recreation areas, twenty historic sites, and fifty-six wildlife refuges” (UofAZ Library, 2017). Udall clearly had an affinity for nature, both its preservation and the public's ability to access it. Mission 66 goals are the embodiment of these tensions between environmental concerns and accessibility.
