Dirk Kempthorne

Dirk Arthur Kempthorne was born on October 29, 1951, in San Diego, California, to James H. Kempthorne and Maxine Kempthorne. He grew up in San Bernardino, California, with an older brother, James H. Kempthorne II, and a brother, Mark W. Kempthorne. He graduated from San Gorgonio High School in San Bernardino. The family was of Cornish ancestry.

Kempthorne attended San Bernardino Valley College, which later inducted him into its alumni hall of fame, before transferring to the University of Idaho in Moscow. In February 1974 he was elected president of the Associated Students of the University of Idaho. He graduated in 1975 with a bachelor's degree in political science. In a state government class there he became friends with Brad Little, the future Idaho governor. In December 2025, on the 50th anniversary of his graduation, the university awarded him its President's Medallion.

After graduating, Kempthorne served from 1975 to 1977 as an assistant to the director of the Idaho Department of Lands, then became executive vice president of the Idaho Home Builders Association. He managed Lieutenant Governor Phil Batt's 1982 campaign for governor, which Batt lost to John Evans, and in 1983 became state public affairs manager for FMC Corporation.

Mayor of Boise (1986 to 1993). Elected at 34 in 1985, he took office on January 6, 1986, and was reelected unopposed in 1989. He presided over a period of growth and economic development in the city.

United States Senate (1993 to 1999). In 1992 he won the seat of retiring senator Steve Symms, defeating Democrat Richard Stallings with 56.5 percent of the vote. He sponsored the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 and introduced the 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act amendments, signed by President Bill Clinton on August 6, 1996. He worked on fisheries and wildlife issues and served one term.

Governor of Idaho (1999 to 2006). He won the open governorship in 1998 with about 68 percent of the vote against Robert Huntley and was reelected in 2002 over Jerry Brady. He launched the Generation of the Child agenda on immunization, early learning, reading and children's health insurance; pushed GARVEE bonds to finance highway expansion including Interstate 84; announced the 2004 Snake River Water Rights Agreement with the Nez Perce Tribe; worked toward a state based approach to restoring salmon runs; helped create the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery; and chaired the National Governors Association from August 2003 to July 2004.

Secretary of the Interior (2006 to 2009). Nominated by President George W. Bush on March 16, 2006, he was confirmed on May 26, 2006, and resigned as governor that day. He managed the national parks, wildlife refuges and federal lands, pursued initiatives on Native American education and on expanding oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico and offshore Alaska, launched the National Park Centennial Initiative, and in May 2008 listed the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. He left office on January 19, 2009, and was succeeded by Ken Salazar.

Later career. He founded The Kempthorne Group consulting firm in 2009, co-chaired the Democracy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and led the American Council of Life Insurers as president and chief executive from 2010 to August 2018. He joined the board of Robert Half in January 2019 after years on its Protiviti advisory board, served on the Wolf Trap Foundation board, joined The Peregrine Fund board in November 2019 and later became its chair, and chaired the advisory committee for the commissioning of the submarine USS Idaho (SSN 799).

Kempthorne married Patricia Kempthorne, a fellow University of Idaho graduate, in 1977. As Idaho's first lady she was a public champion of his Generation of the Child agenda. They had two children, Heather (married to Drew Myklegard) and Jeff (married to Natasha Kempthorne), and seven grandchildren, who called him Pop Dirk. He was a Methodist. His family's obituary recalled his love of quiet mornings with coffee, evenings by the fire with records on the turntable, Chianti by the fire pit in McCall, time at the cabin and on the boat, riding his Harley, and Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line."

A Western Republican, Kempthorne consistently argued that states and local governments should not be saddled with federal mandates Washington would not fund, the principle behind his best known Senate law. He favored balancing conservation with resource development and, as interior secretary, supported expanded domestic oil and gas production. On the polar bear he accepted the scientific finding that sea ice loss threatened the species but argued the Endangered Species Act should not become a tool for climate policy. Friends and colleagues across party lines described his politics as rooted in personal decency, remembering names and stories, and a refusal to accept that something was impossible.

Kempthorne served as a city mayor, United States senator, governor and cabinet secretary over a public career of nearly 25 years. In Idaho his legacy includes early childhood programs that continue under the Department of Health and Welfare, the GARVEE funded expansion of the Treasure Valley freeway system, the Snake River water settlement, and the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery where he now rests. Nationally, his Unfunded Mandates Reform Act remains on the books and his polar bear listing protected the species on the basis of sea ice loss projected by climate models. The engine room of the USS Idaho carries a plaque in his honor, and in his last years he steered The Peregrine Fund's work protecting birds of prey.

Chair of the National Governors Association (2003 to 2004). Hall of fame honoree of San Bernardino Valley College. President's Medallion of the University of Idaho (December 2025). Engine room of the submarine USS Idaho (SSN 799) named in his honor (announced January 2026), with a plaque reading "The Honorable Dirk A. Kempthorne, A Driving Force for the Great State of Idaho, Whose Legacy Endures, Above and Below the Waves." Named recipient of the Mountain States Policy Center's 2026 Elevation Award. Lay in state in the Idaho State Capitol rotunda (May 15, 2026).

Kempthorne appeared frequently on Idaho Public Television, including a three part Dialogue interview as interior secretary in 2009, and gave the 2008 ESRI user conference keynote introduction for the U.S. Geological Survey. In 2025 he recorded a long career interview for the Ahlquist podcast, and after his death Idaho Reports and KTVB aired retrospective specials on his life.

Environmental groups criticized Kempthorne's record. As a senator he scored below 1 percent on League of Conservation Voters scorecards, and as interior secretary he went more than a year without adding a single species to the endangered list, earning a 2007 Rubber Dodo award from the Center for Biological Diversity. A December 2008 inspector general report on former deputy assistant secretary Julie MacDonald described political interference in endangered species decisions, and a September 2008 report detailed gifts, drug use and improper relationships among Minerals Management Service royalty officials (a whistleblower had first complained before Kempthorne took office). Late in his term the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace and Defenders of Wildlife sued over rules exempting many federal actions from Endangered Species Act review. In January 2009 CNN criticized a roughly $235,000 renovation of his office bathroom; the department said it came in under budget, was approved by the General Services Administration, and that reported monogrammed towels did not exist.

On March 31, 2025, Kempthorne announced he had been diagnosed with colon cancer and would begin chemotherapy. His daughter later said the disease had progressed to stage 4. He died in Boise on the evening of Friday, April 24, 2026, aged 74, surrounded by his family. The family statement gave no cause, while Idaho media reported he died after battling colon cancer. Governor Brad Little ordered flags to half staff. He died the night before the USS Idaho was commissioned at Naval Submarine Base New London on April 25, 2026. He lay in state in the Idaho Capitol rotunda from May 15, 2026, and a public funeral was held at the Cathedral of the Rockies in Boise on May 16, 2026, with tributes from Governor Little, Senator Mike Crapo, his former chief of staff Phil Reberger, friend Greg Casey, Patricia and their children. His casket left to "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles, and he was buried at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery. A celebration of life in Washington, D.C. was planned. The family suggested donations to the Dolphin Scholarship Foundation (USS Idaho Scholarship Endowment) or The Peregrine Fund.