Defied Nixon during Watergate
WILLIAM RUCKELSHAUS 1932-2019
William Ruckelshaus, the first head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency who later became a heroic figure for resisting President Richard Nixon’s attempts to cover up the Watergate scandal, died Wednesday at his home in Seattle. He was 87.
Ruckelshaus took charge of the newly created EPA in 1970 and pushed through health-based standards for air pollutants and car emissions, and banned the pesticide DDT.
In 1973, he defied Nixon’s order to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who had subpoenaed the White House for what became known as the Watergate tapes.
After Nixon had cleaned house in his administration following the resignations of top aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, Ruckelshaus became acting director of the FBI and, quickly, deputy attorney general.
Following the 1973 ouster of vice-president Spiro Agnew, Richardson told Ruckelshaus that Nixon wanted Cox fired in order to avoid turning over the incriminating tapes.
Richardson refused to fire Cox and resigned on Oct. 20, 1973, as did Ruckelshaus. Their departures and Nixon’s firing of Cox was known as the Saturday Night Massacre.
Ruckelshaus then became senior vice-president of Weyerhaeuser Co. in Seattle, but was persuaded in 1983 to return to the EPA. He helped the agency impose controls on hazardous waste, restore and protect Chesapeake Bay and ban the use of pesticide ethylene dibromide on farms.
William Doyle Ruckelshaus was born July 24, 1932. He earned his law degree from Harvard in 1960.
He was deputy attorney general in Indiana from 1960 to 1965 and later a member of its House of Representatives.
In 1985, Ruckelshaus joined Seattle law firm Perkins Coie before becoming CEO of Browning-ferris Industries in 1988 and was its chairman for 11 years. He was next a principal at private investment firm Madrona Investment Group.
“Ruck” was also chairman of the World Resources Institute, a special envoy to the Pacific Salmon Treaty between the U.S. and Canada, and a member of the President’s Council for Sustainable Development.
His first wife died in childbirth, leaving him with twins. In 1962, he married Jill Strickland, with whom he had three children.