Former Idaho governor and U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne died Friday evening in Boise at age 74, his family said Saturday. No cause was given; he had been diagnosed with colon cancer last year.
In a written statement, his family said Kempthorne was a devoted husband, father and grandfather whose greatest joy came from time with family and people he met. “He had a rare gift for truly seeing others — remembering names, stories, and the small details that made each person feel known and valued,” they said.
A Republican, Kempthorne was elected mayor of Boise in 1985 at 34 and is credited with revitalizing downtown, including securing an agreement to build a convention center. He served seven years as mayor before winning the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Sen. Steve Symms in 1992. In the Senate he authored legislation, signed by President Bill Clinton, to end unfunded federal mandates on state and local governments.
Kempthorne did not seek Senate reelection in 1998 and instead ran for governor, winning by more than two-thirds of the vote. President George W. Bush appointed him Secretary of the Interior in 2006, a post he held through the end of Bush’s presidency; during that time he lived on a houseboat docked in the Potomac River.
Former President Bush said Kempthorne “was one of the finest public servants I ever knew because he was one of the finest men,” calling him considerate, smart and capable and praising his stewardship of lands and waters.
Environmental groups sometimes criticized Kempthorne as too accommodating to oil, gas and other commercial interests, but in 2008 he pressed to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act because of Arctic sea ice loss — a stance he was reportedly prepared to resign over before Bush supported the listing.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little said Kempthorne, with his wife Patricia, “championed children and families, strengthened public education, and led transformational investments in our transportation system that will benefit Idahoans for generations.”
In a 2023 interview with the George W. Bush Presidential Center, Kempthorne recounted helping evacuate nearly 400 U.S. citizens and Afghan allies in 2021 as many faced threats from the Taliban after the U.S. withdrawal. He and others raised funds and arranged diplomatic support to charter buses and an Airbus A340 to resettle evacuees in the U.S. and Canada. Faced with additional people needing urgent evacuation, Kempthorne said he prayed and had a vision that led to getting approval to add about 50 more people to the flight by having infants sit on parents’ laps.
Kempthorne is survived by his wife, Patricia, their children Heather and Jeff and their families.