Ruckelshaus was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on July 24, 1932, the son of Marion Doyle (née Covington) and John K. Ruckelshaus.[3] He was from a distinguished family with a long history of practicing law in Indianapolis and serving in Republican Party politics.[4][5]
In 1960, Ruckelshaus married Ellen Urban, who died the following year from complications incurred after giving birth to their twin daughters.[4] In 1962 he remarried, to Jill Strickland, with whom he had three children.[9]
After passing the Indiana bar exam, Ruckelshaus joined the family law firm of Ruckelshaus, Bobbitt, and O'Connor.[11]
In 1960, at age 28, he was appointed as Deputy Attorney General of Indiana, and served through 1965.[5][11] For two years he was assigned to the Indiana Board of Health. As counsel to the Indiana Stream Pollution Control Board, Ruckelshaus obtained court orders prohibiting industries and municipalities from heavily polluting the state's water supply; he also helped draft the Indiana Air Pollution Control Act of 1961, the state's first attempt to reduce that problem.[4][11] After that assignment, he spent two years as Chief Counsel for the Attorney General's Office.[11]
In 1964, Ruckelshaus ran as a moderate Republican in the U.S. House election in Indiana's 11th district, losing in the primary to Don Tabbert, a candidate from the conservative wing of the party. He subsequently spent a year as minority attorney for the Indiana Senate.[4][11]
Ruckelshaus sworn in as first EPA Administrator. The people in the photo from left to right are: President Richard M. Nixon, William Ruckelshaus, Jill Ruckelshaus, and Chief Justice Warren Burger.Administrator Ruckelshaus on a tour of the Four Corners Air Quality Region by EPA airplane
Ruckelshaus became the US Environmental Protection Agency's first administrator when the agency was formed on December 2, 1970 by Nixon. Although many people were mentioned as possibilities for the new position, the choice of Ruckelshaus had been based upon the strong recommendation of US Attorney GeneralJohn N. Mitchell. Ruckelhaus had been suggested in a Newsweek opinion column by a friend without his knowledge and was later approached Mitchell about the position.[16]
The burning of the Cuyahoga River had created a national outcry. The Justice Department under Mitchell filed a civil lawsuit against the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company "for discharging substantial quantities of cyanide into the Cuyahoga" at Ruckelshaus's request and sought an injunction "to halt the discharge of these deleterious materials into the river...."[4][17]
Also during his first tenure at the EPA, Ruckelshaus advocated for and enacted a ban on the insecticide DDT.[4]
Ruckelshaus laid the foundation for the EPA by hiring its leaders by defining its mission, deciding on priorities, and selecting an organizational structure. He also oversaw the implementation of the Clean Air Act of 1970.[18][19]
Saturday Night Massacre (1973)
In April 1973, during the growing Watergate scandal, there was a major reshuffling of Nixon administration posts because of the resignations of White House Chief of StaffH. R. Haldeman and Domestic Affairs Advisor John Ehrlichman. Ruckelshaus's record of success at EPA and Justice and his reputation for integrity led to his being appointed acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to replace L. Patrick Gray III, "who had allowed Nixon aides to examine Watergate files and had even destroyed evidence in the case."[4] Later that year, Ruckelshaus was promoted to Deputy Attorney General.[4][5]
On October 20, 1973,[4] in the event known as the "Saturday Night Massacre," Attorney General Elliot Richardson and then Ruckelshaus resigned their positions, rather than obey orders from Nixon to fire the Watergate special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, who was investigating official misconduct by Nixon and his aides and sought "tape recordings that... would incriminate" Nixon.[20] After the resignations, the third in command at the Justice Department, US Solicitor GeneralRobert Bork immediately effected the firing and the abolition of the special prosecutor's office, completing the "Massacre." However, 300,000 telegrams, release of the tapes, the reinstatement of a special prosecutor, and (ultimately) Nixon's resignation in August 1974 would occur over the next 10 months.[4]
Private law (1973–1983)
After leaving the Justice Department, Ruckelshaus returned to the private sector as an attorney at the Washington law firm of Ruckelshaus, Beveridge, Fairbanks, and Diamond from 1973 to 1975.[21]
In 1975, Ruckelshaus moved to Seattle, Washington, where he accepted a position as senior vice-president for law and corporate affairs of the Tacoma-based Weyerhaeuser timber company.[4][22] Ruckelshaus remained in that position until 1983.[22]
In 1983, with the EPA in crisis due to mass resignations over the mishandling of the Superfund program,[24] President Ronald Reagan appointed Ruckelshaus to serve as EPA Administrator again. This time it was White House Chief of StaffJames Baker who was Ruckelshaus's champion in asking him to return to the agency.[5] The White House acceded to Ruckhelshaus's request to allow him maximum autonomy in the choice of new appointees.[5]
Ruckelshaus's predecessor, Anne Gorsuch Burford (mother of future U.S. Supreme CourtJusticeNeil Gorsuch),[25] had depleted the EPA by asking Congress to cut the agency's budget, eliminating jobs and halting enforcement activities.[4][6] On his second day after taking over for Burford, Ruckelsaus fired four people on the agency's management team.[6]
Ruckelshaus attempted to win back public confidence in the EPA, a challenging task in the face of a skeptical press and a wary Congress, both of whom scrutinized all aspects of the agency's activities and some of whom interpreted a number of its actions in the worst possible light.[4] Nonetheless, Ruckelshaus filled the top-level staffing slots with persons of competence, turned the attention of the staff back to the agency's fundamental mission, and raised the esteem of the agency in the public mind.[4][6]
On November 28, 1984, Ruckelshaus announced that he would be retiring as EPA head, effective January 5, 1985, around the start of President Reagan's second term. He remained Administrator until February 7, 1985, when his successor, Lee M. Thomas, was confirmed.[25]
Of his two tenures at EPA, Ruckelshaus later reflected:[26]
I've had an awful lot of jobs in my lifetime, and in moving from one to another, have had the opportunity to think about what makes them worthwhile. I've concluded there are four important criteria: interest, excitement, challenge, and fulfillment. I've never worked anywhere where I could find all four to quite the same extent as at EPA. I can find interest, challenge, and excitement as [board chair of a company]. I do have an interesting job. But it is tough to find the same degree of fulfillment I found in the government. At EPA, you work for a cause that is beyond self-interest and larger than the goals people normally pursue. You're not there for the money, you're there for something beyond yourself.[26]
From 1988 to 1999, he served as chief executive officer of Browning-Ferris Industries of Houston, Texas, a major and expanding waste-removal firm.[5] During his tenure, Browning Ferris shifted from a focus on hazardous wastes to recycling. As the company expanded its operations into New York City, Ruckelshaus "helped investigators infiltrate a Mafia-dominated carting conspiracy, leading prosecutors to obtain indictments."[4]
After leaving Browning-Ferris, Ruckelshaus became a partner in the private investment firm, Madrona Venture Group.[5]
President Bill Clinton appointed Ruckelshaus as a member of the President's Council for Sustainable Development from 1993 to 1997,[5] and as U.S. special envoy in the implementation of the Pacific Salmon Treaty from 1997 to 1998.[5][22] He was also appointed Chairman of the Salmon Recovery Funding Board for the state of Washington.[27]
2000s and 2010s
Ruckelshaus speaks in 2010 at an EPA event celebrating the agency's 40th anniversary.
In 2008, Ruckelshaus was appointed to the Washington State Puget Sound Partnership, an agency devoted to cleaning up Puget Sound.[36] In early 2012, Ruckelshaus was appointed co-chair of the Washington Blue Ribbon Panel on ocean acidification.[37]
In August 2018, Ruckelshaus drew parallels to the actions of President Donald Trump's administration relating to special prosecutor Robert Mueller and Ruckelshaus's own experiences during the Massacre and with President Nixon's "disrespect for the rule of law" in an opinion-editorial in The Washington Post.[20]
^An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century: Final Report of the United States Commission on Ocean Policy, United States Commission on Ocean Policy (2004).
^"William Ruckelshaus". The William D. Ruckelshaus Center, Washington State University. Archived from the original on February 18, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2012.