RIP Wally Hickel.

From the AP:

Former Alaska Gov. Walter J. Hickel, who served as Interior secretary under President Nixon until he was dismissed for objecting to the treatment of Vietnam War protesters, has died at age 90.

Wally Hickel was a complex guy, a REAL Alaskan with a boatload of idiosyncrasies and novel ideas about the state, the government, and the future of Alaska .

Just get a load of just some of what he did in his long life.

Hickel was fired from his Interior post in late 1970 after sending Nixon a letter critical of the president's handling of student protests following the National Guard shootings at Kent State and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.

The letter helped to stir national debate about the growing generational rift over the Vietnam War.

"I believe this administration finds itself today embracing a philosophy which appears to lack appropriate concern for the attitude of a great mass of Americans — our young people," Hickel wrote. (You have to love a guy who takes on Richard Nixon on behalf of the hippies.)

Hickel had never held elected office when he upset two-term Democratic Gov. William Egan in 1966.

Hickel resigned in 1969 to become Interior secretary and quickly made national headlines as the environmental movement began to take root in America.

Hickel imposed stringent cleanup regulations on oil companies and water polluters after an oil rig explosion off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif. He also fought to save the Everglades from being destroyed by developers and advocated for making Earth Day a national holiday.

An "Alaska boomer" with complex views on environmentalism and developing the state's oil-rich resources, Hickel railed against "locking up" the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling and used settlement money from the Exxon Valdez oil spill lawsuit to help repair Prince William Sound.

He frequently described Alaska as an "owner state" and advocated that the state's wild frontier should be developed responsibly to preserve its value.

Though I believe Governor Hickel and I are probably, for the most part, on opposite sides of the political fence I have still always been kind of impressed with the guy.  I mean whether it was jumping from the Republican party to the Alaska Independence Party to win the Governor's seat in 1990, to the bizarre story of the "little man" that he claimed whispered advice into his ear, Hickel was as colorful and complicated as the state that he clearly loved above all else.

However without a doubt my favorite memory of Wally Hickel was a fairly recent one, and that was when he said the following in September 2009:

During the presidential primaries last year, I liked what I saw in Barack Obama. I didn't see him as black. I saw him as a young American with a deep understanding of what America was meant to be and how we could regain our moral standing in the world.

When Gov. Sarah Palin surprised us by joining Sen. John McCain on the Republican ticket, I agreed to support her, sticking to my commitment to put "Alaska first." When she took the podium at the Republican National Convention, however, I was greatly disappointed. The race-against-race and class-against-class message of the McCain/Palin campaign was transparent.

I urged Sarah to take control of her message and appealed to her in this column "to rise above the worn-out, negative tactics of presidential politics and assume the role of stateswoman." (Op Ed of September 14, 2008).

My hopes were dashed. Palin became the spokesperson for the divisive voices in American politics. She dismissed the greatness of our immigrant heritage, indeed of today's Alaska, where in Anchorage alone nearly 100 languages are spoken in the homes of the children in our public schools.

She missed a golden opportunity to challenge the rest of the country to adopt the welcoming spirit of the Alaska frontier and the message of mutual respect championed by Bridge Builders of Anchorage and the School District that helped us win All-America City honors in 2002.

I believe that Alaska can be a model for America. We have much to offer, but we will fail if we don't deal with prejudice, not only against newly arrived immigrants but against anyone.

On this topic Wally Hickel and I are as one.

Goodbye Governor Hickel, I hope to one day see Alaska become the model for America that you envisioned it to be.