Cecil Andrus: Idaho's Greatest Governor

As a teenager, Cecil Andrus dropped out of college after his first year and drove off with his girlfriend to get married in Reno. The year was 1949. Twenty years later, now a Korean War navy veteran, still married and with three daughters the gypo-logger-turned-industrial-accident-insurance-salesman and veteran state senator from Orofino was elected to the first of four terms as Idaho’s governor—a record unlikely ever to be equaled. Andrus, however, was also embarking on a national career that would see him hailed as one of the greatest interior secretaries and the architect of the nation’s greatest conservation accomplishment—saving the “crown jewels” of Alaska for future generations.

How did Cecil Andrus emerge from an ordinary background to become one of not just Idaho’s but the nation’s most extraordinary and successful politicians? Through a series of stories and anecdotes, Andrus’s long-time press secretary, Chris Carlson, relates a personal reminiscence of Andrus’s rise to the governorship, reveals the “political rules” Andrus practiced, and unveils the exceptional personal qualities of the man who arguably has had the greatest impact on Idaho in modern times.

Chris Carlson is a former newspaper man, press secretary for Cecil Andrus, and founding partner of the Gallatin Group, a public affairs advisory firm, in Boise. He continues to write and champion causes that are important to him and to the West.