Don Samuelson

{{for|the Minnesota legislator|Don Samuelson (Minnesota politician)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Don Samuelson

|image = Don Samuelson.jpg

|image_size = 210px

|caption = From 1967's Gem of the Mountains,
the yearbook of the University of Idaho

|order = 25th

|office = Governor of Idaho

|term_start = January 2, 1967

|term_end = January 4, 1971

|lieutenant = Jack Murphy

|predecessor = Robert Smylie

|successor = Cecil Andrus

|office1 = Member of the Idaho Senate

|term_start1 = 1960

|term_end1 = 1966

|birth_name = Donald William Samuelson

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1913|7|27|mf=y}}

|birth_place = Woodhull, Illinois, U.S.

|death_date = {{Death date and age|2000|1|20|1913|7|27}}

|death_place = Seattle, Washington, U.S.

|resting_place = Pinecrest Memorial Park,
Sandpoint, Idaho, U.S.

|spouse = {{Marriage|Ruby A. Samuelson|1936}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aKFfAAAAIBAJ&pg=5223,443150|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|location=(Idaho)|agency=Associated Press|title=Former first lady of Idaho dies at 88|date=April 17, 2002|page=8A}}

|children = 2

|education = Knox College (attended)

|party = Republican

|allegiance = {{USA}}

|serviceyears = 1944–1946

|branch = {{flag|United States Navy|name=U.S. Navy}}

|rank =

|unit = Farragut Naval Training Station

|battles = World War II

|footnotes=

}}

Donald William Samuelson (July 27, 1913 – January 20, 2000) was an American Republican politician who served as the 25th governor of Idaho, from 1967 to 1971.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=V7VeAAAAIBAJ&pg=4603%2C1731177 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|location=(Idaho)|agency=Associated Press|last=Warbis|first=Mark |title=Ex-Gov. Don Samuelson dies at 86 of heart attack|date=January 21, 2000|page=C1}}{{cite web |url=http://issuu.com/uidahodigital/docs/gem1967/24 |work=Gem of the Mountains|publisher=University of Idaho |title=Governor Donald W. Samuelson |year=1967 |page=20}}{{cite web |url=http://issuu.com/uidahodigital/docs/gem1969/36 |publisher=Gem of the Mountains, University of Idaho yearbook |title=Governor Donald W. Samuelson |year=1969 |page=33}} He is the state's most recent incumbent governor to lose a re-election bid (1970).

Early life and education

Born in Woodhull, Illinois, Samuelson grew up on a farm,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=O7teAAAAIBAJ&pg=3086%2C476586|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|location=(Idaho)|agency=Associated Press|last=Lloyd |first=Paul G.S.|title=Winner foresaw success|date=August 4, 1966|page=1}} and attended Knox College.

Career

Samuelson served in the United States Navy during World War II as a weapons instructor and gunsmith at the Farragut Naval Training Station, a major inland training facility at Lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho.

After the war, Samuelson stayed in the area; he brought his family out from Illinois and opened a sporting goods store in nearby Sandpoint.{{cite journal | last = Love | first = Marianne | title = Sailors Ahoy! | url = http://www.sandpointonline.com/sandpointmag/sms96/Farragut.html | journal = Sandpoint Magazine | publisher = Keokee Co. Publishing, Inc. | date = Summer 1996}} He also had an interest in a business that sold and leased mining and logging equipment.

=Governor of Idaho=

A conservative, Samuelson was encouraged by Governor Robert Smylie to run for the state senate in 1960; Samuelson won and was re-elected in 1962 and 1964.{{Cite web|title=Don William Samuelson|url=https://www.nga.org/governor/don-william-samuelson/|access-date=2021-10-10|website=National Governors Association}} After the Democratic landslide of 1964, he decided to run for governor in 1966, which was still held by three-term incumbent Smylie, a moderate Republican from Boise and former state attorney general. In a heated race that drew national attention to the Republican gubernatorial primary,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=eTciAAAAIBAJ&pg=1052,2744359|newspaper=Owosso Argus-Times|location=(Michigan)|title=Governor Smylie in deep trouble|last=Boissat|first=Bruce|agency=NEA|date=July 30, 1966|page=4}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=prxeAAAAIBAJ&pg=4865,4513425|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|location=(Idaho)|agency=Associated Press|title=Goldwater isn't taking sides on Smylie-Samuelson|date=July 29, 1966|page=1 }} Samuelson won handily, 61 to 39%.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=O7teAAAAIBAJ&pg=3086%2C476586 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|location=(Idaho) |last=Myers|first=Robert|agency=Associated Press|title=1964 post-election fight seen as factor in Smylie's sound defeat by Samuelson|date=August 4, 1966|page=1}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=OrteAAAAIBAJ&pg=3699%2C306923|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|location=(Idaho)|agency=Associated Press|title=Smylie loses, Herndon holds edge on Andrus|date=August 3, 1966 |page=1}}{{Cite journal|last=Duncombe|first=Herbert S.|last2=Martin|first2=Boyd A.|date=1967|title=The 1966 Election in Idaho|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/446084|journal=The Western Political Quarterly|volume=20|issue=2|pages=568–575|doi=10.2307/446084|issn=0043-4078|url-access=subscription}}

Following their wins in the early August primary, Samuelson and attorney Charles Herndon of Salmon were slated to face each other in the November general election. In mid-September, while flying from Pocatello to Coeur d'Alene, Herndon and two others were killed in a private plane crash in the central Idaho mountains, northwest of {{nowrap|Stanley.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xFdYAAAAIBAJ&pg=6490%2C3969092|work=Spokane Daily Chronicle |location=(Washington) |agency=Associated Press |title=Idaho nominee for governor is crash victim |date=September 15, 1966 |page=1}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JP9XAAAAIBAJ&pg=2341%2C3456793 |work=The Bulletin |location=(Bend, Oregon) |agency=UPI |title=Idaho Democratic candidate is killed |date=September 15, 1966 |page=1}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DOUQAAAAIBAJ&pg=7092%2C2932968 |work=Eugene Register-Guard |location=(Oregon) |agency=Associated Press |title=Idaho Crash Claims Governor Candidate |date=September 15, 1966 |page=4A}}{{cite news|url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_i1IAAAAIBAJ&pg=2709,2050908|newspaper=Morning-Record|location=(Meriden, Connecticut)|agency=Associated Press|title=Air crash kills Idaho candidate for governor|date=September 16, 1966|page=17 }}}} The pilot of the twin-engine Piper PA-23 was the only survivor.{{cite news|url=https://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=22661&key=0|publisher=NTSB|title= SEA67A0023, Piper PA-23, N4242P|date=September 14, 1966|access-date=March 15, 2013}} Occurring only seven weeks before the election, the Democrats nominated the runner-up in the primary, state senator Cecil Andrus of Orofino,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=B6tWAAAAIBAJ&pg=7488,1822422|newspaper=Spokesman-Review|location=(Spokane, Washington)|title=Andrus Democratic nominee|agency=Associated Press|date=September 21, 1966|page=13}} whom Samuelson defeated by over 10,000 votes.{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kw0zAAAAIBAJ&pg=6697%2C2977228|newspaper=Spokesman-Review|location=(Spokane, Washington)|agency=Associated Press|title=Conservatism given credit by Samuelson|date=November 10, 1966 |page=1 }}

During the 1970 gubernatorial campaign, Samuelson supported molybdenum mining in central Idaho's White Cloud Mountains,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=btJRAAAAIBAJ&pg=5524,2870546|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|location=(Idaho)|agency=Associated Press|title=Samuelson reiterates support of mining in White Clouds|date=September 17, 1969|page=1}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=BVlWAAAAIBAJ&pg=3558,8530927&dq=molybdenum&hl=en |newspaper=Spokesman-Review|agency=Associated Press|last=Kenyon|first=Quane|title=Priest Lake question colors Idaho politics|date=April 29, 1985|page=A1}} and was defeated for re-election by Andrus, a staunch opponent of the mining development, and returned to private life.{{cite news|date=November 4, 1970|title=Andrus tops Idaho vote|page=1|newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle|agency=Associated Press|location=(Washington)|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=5jkVAAAAIBAJ&pg=1584%2C1088404}}

Following Samuelson's win in 1966, Democrats won the next six gubernatorial elections in Idaho, through 1990.

Personal life

He and his wife, Ruby A. Samuelson, were married in 1936 and had two children.{{cite web|title=Don Samuelson|url=http://www.nga.org/cms/home/governors/past-governors-bios/page_idaho/col2-content/main-content-list/title_samuelson_don.html|access-date=25 September 2012|publisher=National Governors Association}}

Samuelson died at age 86 of a heart attack on January 20, 2000, at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. He is interred at Pinecrest Memorial Park in Sandpoint, Idaho.{{cite web|title=Don Samuelson|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/samson-samul.html#030.13.19|publisher=The Political Graveyard|access-date=25 September 2012}}

References

External links

[http://www.nga.org/cms/home/governors/past-governors-bios/page_idaho/col2-content/main-content-list/title_samuelson_don.html National Governors Association]
[http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/samson-samul.html#030.13.19 The Political Graveyard]
{{Find a Grave|7012663}}

{{Succession box

|title=Republican Party nominee, Governor of Idaho

|before=Robert E. Smylie

|after=Jack M. Murphy

|years=1966 (won), 1970 (lost)

}}

{{Succession box

| before= Robert E. Smylie

| title= Governor of Idaho

| years= January 2, 1967 – January 4, 1971

| after= Cecil Andrus

}}