Ruckelshaus, William D.
William D. Ruckelshaus grew up in a distinguished Indiana family. Starting in the mid-nineteenth century, a succession of Ruckelshaus lawyers have practiced in Indianapolis. They have also had long associations with politics. William Ruckelshaus's grandfather worked actively for the Republican Party and in 1900 became state chairman. The son of this political stalwart, John K. Ruckelshaus, followed his father's example, serving as Chairman of the Platform Committee at five Republican Conventions.
William Doyle Ruckelshaus entered the family on July 24, 1932. The middle child of John K. and Marion Doyle Ruckelshaus, he had an older brother, John, and a younger sister named Bonney. Although he and his mother were very close, his father exercised the predominant influence over his life. A highly accomplished man with diverse personal qualities, the elder Ruckelshaus was at once athletic and intellectual, charming and devout. A clever storyteller on the political stump and in courtroom appearances, he actually preferred to teach law and read philosophy. The Ruckelshaus children matured in a supportive household, but John Ruckelshaus set high standards and demanded excellence.
William Ruckelshaus lived up to expectations. He attended parochial schools until the age of 16, then finished High School in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, at the Benedictine Portsmouth Abbey. After graduation, he served for two years in the U.S. Army, became a drill sergeant, and left the service in 1955. During the next five years, Ruckelshaus quickly completed his college degrees: an A.B. (cum laude) from Princeton, followed in 1960 by an L.L.B. from Harvard Law School. After passing the Indiana bar, he joined the family firm of Ruckelshaus, Bobbitt, and O'Connor.
At the same time, the 28 year old lawyer was appointed Deputy State Attorney General, assigned to the Indiana Board of Health. Here he gained direct environmental experience. As counsel to the Indiana Stream Pollution Control Board, Ruckelshaus obtained court orders prohibiting industries and municipalities from gross pollution of the state's water supply. He also helped draft the 1961 Indiana Air Pollution Control Act, the state's first attempt to curb the problem.
After two years in this assignment and two more as Chief Counsel for the Attorney General's Office, Ruckelshaus embarked on a political career. He ran in 1964 as a moderate Republican for an Indiana Congressional seat, but lost in the primaries to a candidate from the Conservative wing of the party. Following a year as Minority Attorney for the State Senate, he joined the Republican tidal wave in the Indiana House of Representatives and won a seat; more than that, he became Majority Leader in his first term. Clearly a rising political star, Ruckelshaus was nominated by his party in 1968 to oppose Democrat Birch Bayh in a U.S. Senate race. Bayh won the election.
William Ruckelshaus then entered a period of federal service in which he held a series of important administrative positions. He was called to Washington at the start of President Richard Nixon's first term and assumed the duties of Assistant U.S. Attorney General for the Civil Division, overseeing all civil litigation involving the federal government. Meantime, in spring 1970, rumors circulated in Washington that the president's Executive Council on Reorganization—which was reviewing all aspects of executive branch structure for the new Administration—would recommend the unification of federal environmental activity in a single governmental institution. One week after the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, the council urged Mr. Nixon to form an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The president approved the suggestion and initiated the planning process in the White House. While the first by-product, known as Reorganization Plan Number 3, underwent congressional scrutiny during summer 1970, many names vied as candidates for EPA Administrator. William Ruckelshaus was mentioned often and his boss, Attorney General John Mitchell, broached the matter with him. About one month after Ruckelshaus confirmed his willingness to serve, Mitchell nominated him to the president, who accepted him for the position.
William Ruckelshaus held the office of administrator from the agency's first day of operation on December 4, 1970, until April 30, 1973. In two and one-half years, he laid the foundation for EPA by hiring its leaders, defining its mission, deciding priorities, and selecting an organizational structure. But as the Watergate scandal broke in successive waves over the Nixon administration, it finally affected the EPA as well. During the cabinet reshuffling following the resignations of White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman and Domestic Affairs Advisor John Ehrlichman, Ruckelshaus's success at EPA and well-known integrity made him a likely candidate for one of the openings. He agreed to leave the EPA and serve as Acting FBI Director. Soon, however, newly-appointed Attorney General Elliott Richardson invited him to be his Deputy at the Justice Department. He accepted, but this assignment also proved short-lived. When the president demanded that Richardson fire Special Watergate Prosecutor Archibald Cox, the Attorney General chose instead to resign. William Ruckelshaus was then ordered to remove Cox, but joined Richardson in quitting the Administration. Acting Attorney General Robert Bork finally dismissed Cox, who together with Richardson and Ruckelshaus became known as the victims of the October 1973 "Saturday Night Massacre."
During the next decade, William Ruckelshaus chose a quieter life outside government service. Late in 1973 he joined the Washington law firm of Ruckelshaus, Beveridge, Fairbanks, and Diamond. Two years later, he and his wife and five children moved to Seattle, Washington, where he accepted a position as Senior Vice President of the Weyerhaeuser Company. The family lived happily there, not expecting to return to the trials of Washington, D.C.
But during President Ronald Reagan's first term, Ruckelshaus observed increasing turmoil at EPA. When the deterioration became clear to the public, the same qualities of forthrightness which led him away from EPA during the Watergate scandal, drew him back ten years later. In spring 1983, White House Chief of Staff James Baker asked him to return to the agency. Intent on restoring the institution he had founded 13 years before, Ruckelshaus overcame his own and his family's resistance, on the condition the White House allow him maximum autonomy in the choice of new appointees.
Between May 15, 1983, and February 7, 1985, Administrator William Ruckelshaus attempted to win back public confidence in the EPA. It proved to be a difficult period, in which a skeptical press and a wary Congress scrutinized all aspects of the agency's activities and interpreted many of its actions in the worst possible light. Yet when Ruckelshaus left EPA, he did so with a sense of satisfaction. He had filled the top-level positions with persons of competence, turned the attention of the staff back to the mission, and raised the esteem of the agency in the public mind. He returned to private life at the start of President Reagan's second term, joining the Seattle law firm of Perkins and Coie. Three years later, he assumed the roles of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Browning Ferris Industries of Houston, Texas.
Further Reading
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency Gottleib, Robert. Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement. Covelo, CA: Island Press, 1995. Hays, Samuel P. Beauty, Health and Permanence: Enviornmental Politics in the United States, 1955-1985. NY: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Sale, Kirkpatrick. The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 1962-1992. NY: Hill and Wang, 1993.
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