REFERENCE TITLE: death resolution; Stewart Udall

State of Arizona House of Representatives Forty-ninth Legislature Second Regular Session 2010

HCR 2070

Introduced by Representatives Young Wright, Ableser, Adams, Ash, Biggs, Bradley, Cajero Bedford, Campbell CH, Campbell CL, Chabin, Court, Crandall, Driggs, Farley, Fleming, Garcia M, Hendrix, Kavanagh, Konopnicki, Lesko, Lopes, Lujan, Mason, Meza, Miranda B, Pancrazi, Patterson, Quelland, Schapira, Sinema, Williams, Senators Aboud, Aguirre, Allen C, Antenori, Cheuvront, Garcia, Lopez, McCune Davis, Miranda, Rios, Tibshraeny: Representatives Barnes, Barto, Brown, Goodale, McComish, McLain, Meyer, Murphy, Nichols, Reagan, Reeve, Stevens, Tobin, Tovar, Vogt, Waters, Yarbrough, Senators Allen S, Braswell, Bunch, Burton Cahill, Gould, Gray C, Gray L, Hale, Huppenthal, Landrum Taylor, Melvin, Nelson, Verschoor

 

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

 

on the death of stewart l. udall.

 

 

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

 

Stewart L. Udall, distinguished Arizona statesman and noted environmentalist, died at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico on March 20, 2010 at the age of ninety.

Born to former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Levi Udall and Louise Udall on January 31, 1920, Stewart Udall grew up in St. Johns, Arizona.  He served as a Mormon missionary and in the United States Air Force during World War II as a gunner on a B-24, flying fifty missions over Europe.  He attended the University of Arizona, receiving his undergraduate and law degrees, before setting up a private practice in Tucson with his brother, Morris.

With his election to the United States House of Representatives in 1954, Stewart Udall embarked on a remarkable record of public service.  He ably served on the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, the House Education and Labor Committee and the Joint Committee on Navajo-Hopi Indian Administration. He was reelected to Congress three times before President John F. Kennedy tapped him to serve as Secretary of the Interior in 1960.  The first Arizonan ever named to a cabinet post, he was instrumental in the passage of such landmark environmental legislation as the Wilderness Act of 1964 and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and in the establishment of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.  During his tenure as Secretary, the National Parks System expanded 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.  After leaving his post as Secretary in 1969, Stewart Udall taught for a year at Yale University's School of Forestry as a Visiting Professor of Environmental Humanism. 

A tireless advocate of civil rights, social change and environmental stewardship, Stewart Udall worked diligently throughout his lifetime to better the world around him.  As a young attorney, he fought to desegregate Tucson's schools and to prohibit discrimination in hiring.  He and his brother, Congressman Morris Udall, played a key role in the passage of legislation creating the Central Arizona Project, which ensured an adequate water supply for Arizonans for years to come.  His later efforts to provide compensation for Navajo uranium miners who suffered from lung cancer led to the passage of the Radiation Exposure Safety Act in 1990.  Stewart Udall is perhaps best known for his tremendous efforts as congressman and cabinet secretary to maintain our nation's many national treasures and to ensure clean air and water for future generations.

Stewart Udall married Ermalee Webb in 1947 and together they raised six children, Tom, Scott, Lynn, Lori, Denis and Jay.  He will be greatly missed by his many friends, his children and his eight grandchildren.

Therefore

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring:

That the members of the Legislature regret the passing of Stewart L. Udall and extend their deepest sympathies to his surviving family members.