Walter Hickel

Walter Hickel

Walter Joseph "Wally" Hickel (born August 18, 1919 in Claflin , Barton County , Kansas , † May 7, 2010 in Anchorage , Alaska ) was an American politician and two-time governor of the state of Alaska for the Republican Party (1966–1969 ) and the Alaskan Independence Party (1990–1994).

Career

Originally from Kansas, Walter Hickel moved to Alaska in 1940 . When the United States entered World War II, he was serving as a civilian flight maintenance inspector for the Army Air Forces . After the war, he founded a construction company in 1947 , which grew into a large company. He also campaigned for Alaska's admission as a state to the United States. After this goal was achieved, he was elected the second governor of Alaska. He first prevailed against Bruce B. Kendall in primary , then against incumbent Bill Egan in the actual election . He held that post on 5 December 1966 to 29 January 1969 and stepped back as his President Richard Nixon in 1969. Interior Minister in his Cabinet convened.

Hickel was committed to environmental protection . He supported a law that oil companies for Ölbohrkatastrophen made liable and demanded environmental safeguards during the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System a. After sharply criticizing President Nixon's stance on the student demonstrations against the Vietnam War , relations with the president deteriorated until Hickel was forced to resign in 1970.

In 1990, Hickel ran one more time for the office of Governor of Alaska. However, he did not stand for the Republicans, who had nominated State Senator Arliss Sturgulewski , but for the Alaskan Independence Party. Their party leadership saw the possibility of winning the votes of conservative Republicans, who were disappointed in the nomination of the more liberal Sturgulewski; their actual candidate John Howard Lindauer then waived in favor of Hickel, who won the election with 38.9 percent of the vote ahead of the Democrats Tony Knowles (30.9 percent) and Arliss Sturgulewski (26.2 percent) and on December 3, 1990 ins Office was introduced. Since he agreed with his new party on fundamental political issues, but did not share their agenda of an independent Alaska, he returned to the Republicans in April 1994. Hickel's tenure ended on December 5, 1994; he did not stand for re-election.

Walter Hickel was married to Ermalee Strutz, with whom he had six sons.

literature

• Governors of the American States, Commonwealths and Territories. National Governors Association, 1993.

Web links

Commons : Walter Hickel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Walter Hickel in the database of the National Governors Association (English)
• Walter Hickel at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia (English)

• Walter Hickel in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Walter Hickel in nndb (English)
• Family Education Network (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ www.ourcampaigns.com (English)