William Ruckelshaus

William Doyle Ruckelshaus (July 24, 1932 – November 27, 2019) was an American attorney and government official. He worked during the Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan presidencies. He was known for resigning under the Nixon administration after he refused to carryout Nixon's orders to fire key investigators of the Watergate Scandal.

Ruckelshaus was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He studied at Harvard University and at Princeton University.

He served as the first head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970, was subsequently acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and then Deputy Attorney General of the United States. During 1983 through 1985 he returned as EPA Administrator.

In 1968, he ran for the United States Senate in Indiana, but narrowly lost the election to Birch Bayh with 51.7% to 48.2%.

In November 2015, Ruckelshaus was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama during a ceremony at the White House.

Ruckelshaus died at his home in Medina, Washington on November 27, 2019 at the age of 87.

Other websites

• "Federal Bureau of Investigation: Directors, Then and Now". Archived from the original on April 9, 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
• Bio at National Council for Science and the Environment Archived 2006-04-27 at the Wayback Machine
• Ruckelshaus Appearances on C-SPAN
  • C-SPAN Q&A interview with William and Jill Ruckelshaus, January 16, 2005