[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 74 (Monday, May 17, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3820-S3821]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                      REMEMBERING WALTER J. HICKEL

 Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, on Saturday morning, May 8, 
Alaskans awakened to the sad news that our beloved former Governor, 
Walter J. Hickel, passed away at the age of 90.
  While those in my State viewed him as an Alaska legend, students of 
American political history may recall Governor Hickel more vividly as 
President Nixon's first Secretary of the Interior. They may recall that 
Hickel left that position after criticizing President Nixon for his 
handling of the Vietnam war and the student protests that gripped the 
Nation over our involvement in Southeast Asia.
  In 1970, following what has come to be known as the ``Kent State 
Massacre,'' Secretary Hickel wrote a letter urging President Nixon to 
give more respect to the views of young people critical of the war. 
That letter included the passage, ``I believe this administration finds 
itself today embracing a philosophy which appears to lack appropriate 
concern for the attitude of a great mass of Americans--our young 
people.''
  On November 25, 1970, Governor Hickel was fired over the letter. His 
firing came days after he told ``60 Minutes'' that he had no intention 
of quitting. He said he would only go away ``with an arrow in my heart, 
not a bullet in my back.'' The Nixon administration was all too pleased 
to oblige.
  If President Kennedy were still alive, he surely would have viewed 
this series of events as a ``profile in courage.'' To this day, when 
Alaskans are asked for one word that describes Walter Hickel, the word 
``backbone'' immediately comes to mind.
  They may have fired Wally Hickel but they didn't silence him. 
Governor Hickel left the national political scene following this 
incident to focus on Alaska and the Arctic, and his independence, his 
judgment, and his backbone inspired leaders of Alaska for decades to 
come.
  Governor Hickel appreciated that public policy is a team effort, not 
an individual sport. Two of Governor Hickel's enduring legacies to the 
State--Commonwealth North, Alaska's leading public affairs forum, and 
the Institute of the North, a public policy think-tank--continue to 
shape public discourse today. Governor Hickel would be proud that last 
week, even as Alaskans grieved his loss, the Institute of the North 
conducted its annual Emerging Leaders Dialogue in Sitka.
  Governor Hickel's life was large, as large as all of Alaska. Alaska 
is one of the few corners of America in which legends can still be 
made. And Governor Hickel surely will go down in history as an Alaska 
legend.
  Born August 18, 1919, in Kansas, Walter J. Hickel came to Alaska in 
1940 with 37 cents in his pocket. As he sailed into Prince William 
Sound on the S.S. Yukon, overwhelmed by the breathtaking natural 
beauty, Hickel remarked, ``You take care of me, and I'll take care of 
you.''
  The words were prophetic. After working as a bartender, a carpenter, 
and an aircraft inspector, Governor Hickel saved enough money to 
purchase a half-completed house. He finished building the house, sold 
it, and then built two more. Eventually, he built several hundred 
homes.
  Long time Fairbanks newspaper columnist Dermot Cole recalls Governor 
Hickel's success in enlisting community support to build Fairbanks' 
first modern hotel in 1955. Fairbanks needed a hotel, and Governor 
Hickel needed financing. He asked the Fairbanks community to invest in 
its future by purchasing bonds to finance the project, and 583 
bondholders invested in the project. The smallest investment was $10, 
the largest $25,000. The project was built in 7 months. The bondholders 
were paid back by 1960. And that hotel, The Travelers Inn, still greets 
visitors to Alaska's Golden Heart City. Today, it is known as the 
Westmark Fairbanks.
  Governor Hickel went on to build Anchorage's Captain Cook Hotel, as a 
show of confidence in the economy of Southcentral Alaska following the 
1964 earthquake. Today, the Captain Cook Hotel offers 547 rooms, in 3 
towers, and is Alaska's member of the Preferred Hotel Group.
  Alaska sure took care of Wally Hickel, and Governor Hickel more than 
fulfilled his promise to take care of Alaska, proving that economic 
development and environmental conservation are not mutually exclusive 
concepts. His life demonstrates that a developer can be a 
conservationist and a conservationist can be a developer. One is left 
to wonder which title he preferred.
  Governor Hickel believed that economies can be grown through big 
projects. He certainly was not one who shared the view prevalent in 
some circles of the Lower 48, that Alaska should be locked up as a 
museum to compensate for poor land use decisions made elsewhere in 
America. During a 1978 interview, he referred to Alaska as a ``happy, 
young, vibrant country.'' Blunt and honest, he lamented those who 
argued, ``Don't walk here. Don't walk there. Don't step on the 
dandelions. You can't use this.'' He referred to this kind of thinking 
as ``What a bunch of bull.''
  Yet this is the same Walter Hickel who dispatched legions of Interior 
Department employees to commemorate the first observance of Earth Day 
in 1969; the same Walter Hickel who told the National Petroleum Council 
in 1970, ``The right to produce [petroleum] is not the right to 
pollute. America must prove to itself as well as to others worldwide 
that it has the ability to clean up the garbage it has left in its 
wake.''
  He insisted that those who benefited from the development of Alaska's 
resources pay Alaskans their due. And during Governor Hickel's second 
stint as Governor during the 1990s, the major oil companies were 
persuaded to pay the State more than $4 billion in disputed back taxes 
and royalties. Historian Stephen Haycox refers to this as ``a very 
significant legacy . . . because he forced the oil companies to 
acknowledge that they had a debt they owed to Alaska.'' In the wake of 
the Exxon Valdez oilspill, Governor Hickel used settlement funds to 
purchase land for Kachemak Bay State Park and Afognak State Park.
  I could go on all day about the life of Wally Hickel. A man who 
constantly struggled with dyslexia, he authored several books and 
monographs and many articles. A self-educated individual, he received 
numerous honorary degrees and befriended foreign heads of state.
  A fighter for Alaska's statehood, Hickel attended the birth of the 
State of Alaska. And history will remember that very little of 
significance happened in Alaska in the ensuing 50 years that Walter J. 
Hickel was not involved in. It is no overstatement to suggest that 
Governor Hickel had a substantial hand in Alaska's start, its present, 
and its future.
  During Alaska's 50th anniversary of statehood celebration last year, 
I marveled at the fact that so many of the people who made our history 
are still alive and available to inspire succeeding generations of 
Alaskans as we continue to grow our State. I would like to think that 
giants such as Wally Hickel could live forever.
  On behalf of all of our Senate colleagues, I extend condolences to 
Governor Hickel's wife Ermalee, his children, grandchildren, and great 
grandchildren. Thank you for sharing this

[[Page S3821]]

great American with Alaska and our Nation.

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