Thomas S. Kleppe

Kleppe was born on July 1, 1919, in Kintyre, North Dakota, the son of Lars O. Kleppe and his wife Hannah Savig Kleppe. He graduated from Valley City High School in Valley City, North Dakota in 1936. Kleppe graduated from Valley City State University, (then Valley City Teachers College). During World War II, Kleppe served from 1942 to 1946 as a Warrant Officer.{{cite web

|url = http://millercenter.org/president/essays/kleppe-1975-secretary-of-the-interior

|title = Thomas S. Kleppe (1975–1977) – Secretary of the Interior

|publisher = Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia

|author = John Robert Greene

|date = January 6, 2016

|access-date = January 1, 2016

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151207225938/http://millercenter.org/president/essays/kleppe-1975-secretary-of-the-interior

|archive-date = December 7, 2015

}}

From 1950 to 1954, Kleppe was the Mayor of Bismarck, North Dakota. From 1946 to 1964, he was the president and treasurer of the Gold Seal Company.

In 1964, Kleppe was the Republican nominee for United States Senate but lost to the popular incumbent Democrat Quentin N. Burdick. In 1966 he was elected to the Ninetieth United States Congress, and he was reelected in 1968 to the Ninety-first United States Congress (January 3, 1967 – January 3, 1971). Kleppe voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/90-1967/h113|title=TO PASS H.R. 2516, A BILL TO ESTABLISH PENALTIES FOR INTERFERENCE WITH CIVIL RIGHTS. INTERFERENCE WITH A PERSON ENGAGED IN ONE OF THE 8 ACTIVITIES PROTECTED UNDER THIS BILL MUST BE RACIALLY MOTIVATED TO INCUR THE BILL'S PENALTIES.}}

With the state's second congressional district by then all but certain to be abolished following the 1970 census, Kleppe opted to seek a rematch against Burdick in 1970. He was once again unsuccessful, losing by a wide margin.{{cite web

|url=http://www.bismarckcafe.com/blogs/wiki/gold-seal-company

|title= Gold Seal Company

|publisher= bismarckcafe

|access-date= January 1, 2016}}

He served as the Administrator of the Small Business Administration, and later served as the Secretary of the Interior for President Gerald Ford. In his capacity as the Secretary of the Interior, Kleppe was the appellant in Kleppe v. New Mexico (1976), when the Supreme Court ruled that Congress has the "power to protect wildlife on the public lands, state law notwithstanding."

File:Gravesite of United States Army Warrant Officer Thomas Kleppe in Section 64 of Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., April 18, 2024.jpg

His first wife, Frieda K. Kleppe, died in 1957. Kleppe married his second wife, Glendora Loew Gompf, on December 18, 1958. He had two children from his first marriage and two daughters from his second marriage. He resided in Bismarck, North Dakota. Kleppe died of Alzheimer's disease, in Bethesda, Maryland, on March 2, 2007. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

{{cite web

|url=http://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/former-rep-tom-kleppe-dies/article_32024338-e625-5d07-be2c-e4f0b3bcd05b.html

|title= Former Rep. Tom Kleppe dies

|publisher= Bismarck (ND) Tribune

|author= Virginia Grantier

|date=March 5, 2007

|access-date= January 1, 2016}}

• North Dakota United States Senate election, 1970
• North Dakota United States Senate election, 1964
• Sagebrush Rebellion
• Kleppe v. New Mexico

{{Reflist|2}}

{{CongBio|K000264}}

• Daynes, Byron W., and Glen Sussman. White house politics and the environment: Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush (2010) pp 139–54.
• Fischman, Robert L., and Jeremiah I. Williamson. "The Story of Kleppe v. New Mexico: The Sagebrush Rebellion as Un-Cooperative Federalism." University of Colorado Law Review 83 (2011): 123+ [https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1454&context=facpub online]

• [http://webapp.und.edu/dept/library/Collections/og63.html The Thomas S. Kleppe Papers (Chester Fritz Library. University of North Dakota)]

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Category:1919 births

Category:2007 deaths

Category:20th-century mayors of places in North Dakota

Category:Administrators of the Small Business Administration

Category:American Lutherans

Category:United States Army personnel of World War II

Category:American people of Norwegian descent

Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery

Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in Maryland

Category:Ford administration cabinet members

Category:Mayors of Bismarck, North Dakota

Category:People from Emmons County, North Dakota

Category:Politicians from Bismarck, North Dakota

Category:Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from North Dakota

Category:United States secretaries of the interior

Category:Valley City State University alumni

Category:United States Army soldiers

Category:Valley City High School alumni

Category:20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives