Don Samuelson

For the Minnesota legislator, see Don Samuelson (Minnesota politician).

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.^[2][3][4] He is the state's most recent incumbent governor to lose a re-election bid (1970).

Don Samuelson
From 1967's Gem of the Mountains, the yearbook of the University of Idaho
25th Governor of Idaho
In office January 2, 1967 – January 4, 1971
Lieutenant	Jack Murphy
Preceded by	Robert Smylie
Succeeded by	Cecil Andrus
Member of the Idaho Senate
In office 1960–1966
Personal details
Born	Donald William Samuelson (1913-07-27)July 27, 1913 Woodhull, Illinois, U.S.
Died	January 20, 2000(2000-01-20) (aged 86) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Resting place	Pinecrest Memorial Park, Sandpoint, Idaho, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Ruby A. Samuelson ​ (m. 1936)​ [1]
Children	2
Education	Knox College (attended)
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	U.S. Navy
Years of service	1944–1946
Unit	Farragut Naval Training Station
Battles/wars	World War II

Early life and education

Born in Woodhull, Illinois, Samuelson grew up on a farm,^[5] 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.^[6] He also had an interest in a business that sold and leased mining and logging equipment.^[5]

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.^[7] 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,^[8][9] Samuelson won handily, 61 to 39%.^[10][11][12]

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 Stanley.^{[13][14][15][16]} The pilot of the twin-engine Piper PA-23 was the only survivor.^[17] Occurring only seven weeks before the election, the Democrats nominated the runner-up in the primary, state senator Cecil Andrus of Orofino,^[18] whom Samuelson defeated by over 10,000 votes.^[19]

During the 1970 gubernatorial campaign, Samuelson supported molybdenum mining in central Idaho's White Cloud Mountains,^[20][21] and was defeated for re-election by Andrus, a staunch opponent of the mining development, and returned to private life.^[22]

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.^[5][23]

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.^[2][24]