Thomas Kleppe | Ex-Interior secretary, 87
Thomas Kleppe, 87, who served as Interior secretary under President Gerald R. Ford, died March 2 of Alzheimer's disease at his home in Bethesda, Md.
Mr. Kleppe, who had served two terms in the House as a Republican from North Dakota, was an unexpected choice for the job as the nation's top guardian of the environment. He was director of the Small Business Administration when Ford nominated him in 1975.
One of his first moves was to approve the sale of oil and gas drilling rights off Southern California, much to the disappointment of environmentalists.
On Jan. 19, 1977, one day before he left office, Mr. Kleppe proposed legislation to permit private companies to develop oil and natural gas fields on Alaska's North Slope.
A month later, a federal judge ruled Mr. Kleppe had violated federal environmental laws in an earlier decision to permit oil companies to lease offshore properties in the Atlantic Ocean.
In one of his most controversial rulings, he announced that lead pellets no longer could be used in shotgun shells for hunting waterfowl. The decision angered hunters, but it saved about two million ducks a year from dying after ingesting the lead shots.
In April 1976, Mr. Kleppe blocked the construction of a hydroelectric dam on North Carolina's New River, preserving the scenic mountain waterway - the second oldest river in the world, after the Nile - and nearly 1,000 homes.
Thomas Savig Kleppe was born in Kintyre, N.D., and grew up on his family's farm. He attended Valley City State University in North Dakota for a year.
He entered banking in Bismarck, N.D., then served as an Army warrant officer during World War II. In 1946, he joined Gold Seal Co., a Bismarck manufacturer of household cleaning products, and rose from bookkeeper to company president.
He served as mayor of Bismarck from 1950 to 1954, making him one of the nation's youngest mayors.
In 1964, Mr. Kleppe ran unsuccessfully for the Senate, losing to Democratic incumbent Quentin Burdick. Two years later, Mr. Kleppe was elected to the House and served two terms.
Mr. Kleppe resigned from the House in 1970 to make a second run for the Senate, but again lost to Burdick.
After heading the Interior Department, Mr. Kleppe taught at the University of Wyoming, worked as a consultant, and served on the boards of directors of several banks and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
His first wife, Frieda Kleppe, died in 1957.
Survivors include his wife of 48 years, Glendora Kleppe of Bethesda; two children from his first marriage, Janis Cunningham of Walland, Tenn., and Thomas Kleppe of Pembroke Pines, Fla.; two daughters from his second marriage, Jane Sutermeister of Bluemont, Va., and Jill McClelland of Bethesda; 11 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. - Washington Post