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. He is the state's most recent incumbent governor to lose a re-election bid (

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

Early life and education

Born in

Woodhull, Illinois Woodhull is a village in Henry County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the village had a population of 811, up from 809 in 2000. History The town was laid out by Maxwell Woodhull on September 30, 1857. An addition was laid out in 1867, and anothe ...

, Samuelson grew up on a farm, and attended Knox College.

Career

Samuelson served in the United States Navy during World War II as a weapons instructor and

gunsmith A gunsmith is a person who repairs, modifies, designs, or builds guns. The occupation differs from an armorer, who usually replaces only worn parts in standard firearms. Gunsmiths do modifications and changes to a firearm that may require a very h ...

at the Farragut Naval Training Station, a major inland training facility at Lake Pend Oreille in

northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

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 Sandpoint ( Kutenai language: kamanqukuⱡ) is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Bonner County, Idaho. Its population was 8,639 at the 2020 census. Sandpoint's major economic contributors include forest products, light manufacturing, ...

. 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 Robert Eben Smylie (October 31, 1914 – July 17, 2004) was an American politician and attorney from Idaho. A member of the Idaho Republican Party, he served as the 24th governor of Idaho for twelve years, from 1955 to 1967. He was the first ...

to run for the state senate in 1960; Samuelson won and was re-elected in 1962 and 1964. After the Democratic landslide of

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

, he decided to run for governor in

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

, 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 Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

, Samuelson won handily, 61 to 39%. 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 Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

Idaho mountains, northwest of The pilot of the twin-engine Piper PA-23 was the only survivor. Occurring only seven weeks before the election, the Democrats nominated the runner-up in the primary, state senator Cecil Andrus of Orofino, whom Samuelson defeated by over 10,000 votes. During the 1970 gubernatorial campaign, Samuelson supported

molybdenum Molybdenum is a chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42 which is located in period 5 and group 6. The name is from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'', which is based on Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lea ...

mining in central Idaho's

White Cloud Mountains The White Cloud Mountains are part of the Rocky Mountains of the western United States, located in central Idaho, southeast of Stanley in Custer County. The range is located within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area (SNRA) and partially ...

, and was defeated for re-election by Andrus, a staunch opponent of the mining development, and returned to private life. Following Samuelson's win in 1966, Democrats won the next six gubernatorial elections in Idaho, through

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

Personal life

He and his wife, Ruby A. Samuelson, were married in 1936 and had two children. 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.

References

External links

National Governors Association
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Samuelson, Don 1913 births 2000 deaths Methodists from Idaho Republican Party governors of Idaho Gunsmiths People from Henry County, Illinois People from Sandpoint, Idaho 20th-century American politicians