Morris King Udall (June 15, 1922 – December 12, 1998) was an American attorney and politician who served as a U.S. representative from Arizona from 1961 to 1991. As a member of the Democratic Party, he was a leading contender for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, but ultimately lost to eventual president Jimmy Carter. Udall was noted by many for his independent and liberal views.
In 1961, Udall won a special election to succeed his brother, Stewart Udall, as the congressman for Arizona's 2nd congressional district. In Congress, Udall became a prominent and popular figure for his independent ways, his leading role in the conservation and environmental protection movements, his key role in reforming Congress and political campaigns, and his pioneering role in opposing the Vietnam War.
Udall sought the Democratic Party nomination in the 1976 presidential election, but was defeated by Carter. He supported Ted Kennedy's strong challenge to Carter in the 1980 Democratic primary, and delivered the keynote address at the 1980 Democratic National Convention.
Udall served as chairman of the House Interior Committee from 1977 to 1991. Diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1980, he resigned from Congress in 1991 as the effects of the disease worsened. He died in 1998. His son, Mark Udall, represented Colorado in the United States Senate from 2009 to 2015, and his nephew Tom Udall served as a United States Senator from New Mexico from 2009 to 2021. Both also served multiple terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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Early life and education
Udall was born in 1922 in St. Johns, Arizona, one of six children (New York Times says three sons, two daughters) of Louisa (née Lee) and Levi Stewart Udall. His father was a lawyer who served as Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court from 1946 to 1960. His mother was a writer keenly interested in Indian life and culture. His father preached the importance of responsible people entering public service. Udall and his siblings attended local schools in St. Johns.
At age six in 1928, his right eye was cut by a friend's pocket knife while the friend and he were trying to cut some string; he lost the eye because his family lacked the money to get him prompt treatment. Udall wore a glass eye for the rest of his life, and he later indicated that the loss of his eye influenced both his personality and his politics.
He described his early rural/small-town life in the desert as harsh and primitive, in a town where "everybody worked." Noting they had "no tractors," he added, "we had horses and plows."
While in high school, despite the lost eye, Udall was a star athlete in basketball, and in football as quarterback leading an undefeated team. He also marched in the school band, wrote a political column for the school paper, and took the lead in the school play.
Military service
Udall attempted to enlist in the Army Air Forces during World War II, and almost succeeded by covering his glass eye each time he was told to alternate during the eye exam. After he was medically cleared, another potential enlistee complained that he had been medically rejected for flat feet, while Udall had passed with one eye. The examiners retested Udall under closer scrutiny, and he was rejected. Later, medical standards changed and Udall served in the Army. He joined the Army Air Forces as a private in 1942 and later received his commission as an officer. He commanded an all-black squadron for two years in Louisiana, an experience of which Udall later said, "That really shaped my life," because he had "fought their fights with them... over local discrimination." Udall later served in the South Pacific and achieved the rank of captain before being discharged in 1946.
Higher education and basketball career
After the war, Udall completed his bachelor's degree at the University of Arizona, where he was a star basketball player (team co-captain), President of the Associated Student Government, and a member of Sigma Chi fraternity.
For one year following graduation, Udall played professional basketball with the Denver Nuggets during the 1948–49 National Basketball League season. At the same time, he attended the University of Denver College of Law. He completed his studies at the University of Arizona's law school, where he graduated in 1949 with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree.
Career statistics
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Personality and philosophy
Udall was a tall (6'5"), Lincolnesque figure with a self-deprecating wit and easy manner. Because of his wit, columnist James J. Kilpatrick deemed him "too funny to be president", which also ended up being the title of his autobiography in the 1980s.
He once said that his physical stature and one eye kept him from ever having a date in high school, and led to his use of self-deprecating humor to survive.
Known for his humor, his irreverent and casual style (particularly his colorful western wear and cowboy boots), and his ethics, Udall was summarized by leading political journalist James M. Perry as "funny, smart, down-to-earth, honest, sassy, patient."
Despite being raised Mormon, his spiritual views changed during his later years. He ceased being active in church by the time he returned from military service. While in college, as he read philosophy and history, Udall abandoned his Mormon faith. In particular, he rejected the cultural view among some Church members of the time that black people were "cursed."
Early career
In 1949 Udall, with his brother, Stewart, started the law firm of Udall & Udall in Tucson, Arizona, practicing law in Tucson until 1961.
Udall was elected as the Pima County chief deputy attorney (1950–1952) and county attorney (1953–1954). In 1954, he failed in a bid to be nominated for a Superior Court judgeship.
He taught labor law at the University of Arizona law school (1955, 1956). In 1961 he became vice-president of the Arizona Bar Association. Udall co-founded the Bank of Tucson, and the Catalina Savings and Loan Association, and in 1960 became president of Tucson's YMCA.
Political career
Throughout his early life, Udall dreamed of public office, but—under pressure from his wife—deferred a congressional race opportunity to his older brother, Stewart Udall. The latter won Arizona's 2nd congressional district seat in 1954. The younger Udall's hopes for a seat on the Arizona Supreme Court (where their father had served) were dashed when the seat went to his ultra-conservative uncle, Jesse Addison Udall, instead.
Congressman
In 1961, his brother was appointed as Secretary of the Interior in the John F. Kennedy administration. Mo then won a special election for his brother's vacant seat by 2,000 votes, with 51% of the vote. He won the seat in his own right in 1962, and was reelected 13 more times. He faced only one other close race, in 1978, when he received 52 percent of the vote. He held the post until his resignation May 4, 1991.
For his first term, Udall represented the entire state outside of Maricopa County. After the 1960s round of redistricting, his district was reduced to the southern portion of the state, centered on Tucson. After a mid-decade redistricting ordered as a result of Wesberry v. Sanders, his district absorbed some outer portions of the Phoenix area.
From 1977 until his retirement in 1991, Udall chaired the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs (on which he'd served since 1963). He also served as ranking member of the Committee of the Post Office and Civil Service, chairman of the Office of Technology Assessment and was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
Udall first gained national political notice for a speech October 23, 1967, in Tucson at a major regional civic meeting, with an audience of 2,800—largely civic leaders, mostly supportive of President Johnson's policy on the Vietnam War. Despite their leanings, Udall gave a firm and direct speech calling the nation's involvement in Vietnam "a mistaken and dangerous road." He called for reversing American escalation of the war, and eventual U.S. withdrawal—the first major figure in the U.S. Democratic Party to openly oppose the Democratic president on the war. The speech drew a standing ovation, and reverberated nationwide, drawing national media and political attention, and initiating the Democratic Party's gradual split over the war.
On labor legislation, however, Udall was less liberal. Though he opposed right-to-work laws that undermined labor unions, his constituents very strongly supported them, so Udall did, too—particularly in a 1965 congressional vote that labor leaders held against him for years.
On conservation and environmental protection, Udall's record was mixed—and extreme in both directions—though he is largely credited with being generally a defender of those causes (he first joined the House Interior committee in 1961), particularly as chairman of the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. He fought for environmental protection, and expansion of the National Park System, ushered legislation through Congress absorbing 8 million acres into the federal wilderness system across 20 states, and attempted to restructure the energy industry.
Presidential campaign
In 1976, Udall ran for the Democratic nomination for President as a liberal alternative to Jimmy Carter, the former Governor of Georgia. Carter had gone from obscure maverick to front runner after a string of early caucus and primary victories, beginning in Iowa and New Hampshire. At the time of the Wisconsin primary in April, most of the original 10 candidates had dropped out, leaving Udall, Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington, Governor George Wallace of Alabama, and Carter. It appeared that Udall would win the primary, which might have slowed Carter's momentum. Udall was projected the winner, exclaiming "Oh, how sweet it is". But Carter eventually won in Wisconsin.
Some newspapers proclaimed Udall the winner because of his lead late the night before.
Carter won in Wisconsin by 1%, no more than 7,500 votes. He won 37% to Udall's 36%, gaining one more convention delegate than Udall. Despite the small margins, Carter got the headlines and a further boost to his momentum and pulled away from Udall and the other candidates. Udall finished second in the New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New York, Michigan, South Dakota, and Ohio primaries, and won the caucuses in his home state of Arizona, while running even with Carter in the New Mexico caucuses. Udall finished a distant second to Carter at the Democratic National Convention, where his name was placed in nomination by Archibald Cox, and Udall's speech received great applause from his supporters.
During the Michigan primary Coleman Young, the mayor of Detroit, accused Udall of racism for belonging to the LDS church. At the time, it still prohibited blacks from serving in the church's priesthood (this was changed in 1978 by LDS Church President Spencer W. Kimball). Udall had been a longtime critic of that church policy, and had ceased being an active member because of it. Carter's subsequent sweeping of the black vote in the Michigan primary was key to his crucial and narrow victory in Michigan.
Udall supported Senator Edward Kennedy's challenge to President Carter in 1980, and Kennedy won the Arizona caucuses, one of only three wins for Kennedy in the West. Udall delivered the keynote speech at the 1980 Democratic National Convention. He considered running for president again in 1984, but he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1979 and his illness kept him on the sidelines. At the convention that summer, Udall introduced his former opponent, President Carter.
Legacy
In 1992, the US Congress founded the Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy Foundation. It is an agency of the executive branch of the federal government, and among other functions, gives scholarships to students of environmental policy. In 2009, Congress added Mo's brother, Stewart Udall, as an honoree of the foundation by renaming it as the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation.
Federal funds for Parkinson's research are designated through the Morris K. Udall Parkinson's Disease Research Act of 1997. The legislation funded a national network of "Centers of Excellence" to diagnose and treat Parkinson disease patients and to refer patients into research protocols.
In 1996 Udall received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Clinton.
Point Udall on Guam, considered the westernmost point of the United States, was named for him in 1987. The easternmost spot, Point Udall, U.S. Virgin Islands, was named for his brother Stewart in 1968. This means that "America's day ... begin(s) and end(s) at a Point Udall."
In Tucson, Arizona, the main post office was named in his honor in 2007 as well as a local park.
Personal life
Udall was married three times. In 1949, he married Patricia "Pat" Emery, with whom he had six children. Patricia, who hated politics, had arthritis and spent much time in a wheelchair. She and Udall rarely saw each other due to his hectic political schedule. By Mo Udall's own account, Pat had become unsatisfied with her life caused by her illnesses and disinterest in politics. She was also a high-spirited person who had a tendency to frequently start arguments.
Pat Udall struggled emotionally due to the strain of raising six children while struggling with arthritis. Unwilling to undergo psychological counseling due to social stigma, she finally acquiesced and filed for divorce in 1966. Mo Udall, who was opposed to the divorce, did not object to the dissolution of the marriage, mainly because he was more focused on politics than on his family.
Both the Udalls later regretted the divorce, explaining that the marriage ended because Pat had failed to get counseling or help and had simply acquiesced to pressure and made a poor impulse decision. Pat Udall herself stated that she was "ashamed" by her decision to end the marriage. Pat went on to marry and divorce three more times in the seven years following her split from Udall, all of which were brief marriages that she later regretted. Mo and Pat eventually reconciled, and they remained close friends for the rest of his life.
Two years after the divorce, Mo Udall married Ella Lee Royston, a marriage that would last until Royston's suicide in 1988. In 1989, he married his third wife, Norma Gilbert, and they remained together until his death in 1998. His years in retirement were plagued by Parkinson's disease.
Udall's son Mark Udall was elected to the U.S. Congress from Colorado's 2nd district in 1998, and to the U.S. Senate in 2008. His nephew Tom Udall of New Mexico was also elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008. Mo Udall's second cousin, Republican Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon, was defeated for re-election the same year.
Books and archives
With the exception of Udall's first book, his books have been described as "humorous and informative works."
Arizona Law of Evidence (1960).
The Job of a Congressman (1966) – a guidebook for freshmen Congressmen.
Education of a Congressman (1972).
Too Funny to Be President (1988) — his autobiography.
Udall's archives of his professional career and personal life are located the University of Arizona Libraries, Special Collections in Tucson, Arizona.
MS 325 Papers of Morris K. Udall, 1920–1995
UAL Special Collections is also home to the Morris K. Udall Oral History Project, MS 396 that includes interviews from former Presidents, former and current Congressmen, Senators, journalists, key staff members, campaign aides, family and friends of Mo Udall and the Udall family.