James G Watt

James G. Watt, who as President Ronald Reagan’s first Interior secretary tilted environmental policies sharply toward commercial exploitation, touching off a national debate over the development or preservation of America’s public lands and resources, died on May 27 2023 in Arizona. He was 85. James Gaius Watt was born in Lusk, Wyo., on Jan. 31, 1938, to William and Lois Mae (Williams) Watt. His father was a lawyer and homesteader. James shared ranch chores, repairing fences and pumping water for cattle. He attended high school in Wheatland, Wyo., and graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1960 and from its law school in 1962. In 1957, he married his high school sweetheart, Leilani Bomgardner. They had two children: Erin and Eric. They all survive him. In Washington, he was a legislative assistant to Wyoming’s Republican senator, Milward L. Simpson. After attending a gospel meeting, he became a born-again Christian in 1964. In 1966, he was hired as a lobbyist for the United States Chamber of Commerce. When former Gov. Walter J. Hickel of Alaska became President Richard M. Nixon’s Interior secretary, Mr. Watt was named a deputy with oversight for water and power resources. In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford named him to the Federal Power Commission. In 1977, Mr. Watt became president and chief counsel of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, created by the Colorado brewer Joseph Coors to protect property rights. After leaving the government, Mr. Watt was a lobbyist for builders seeking contracts from the Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1984 to 1986. In 1995, he was charged with 25 counts of perjury and obstructing justice by a federal grand jury investigating fraud and influence-peddling during his lobbying at HUD. But the prosecution’s case deteriorated, the felony charges were dropped and he pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor and was sentenced to a $5,000 fine and 500 hours of community service. Watt, who had a home in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and in recent years lived in Wickenburg, Ariz., co-wrote “The Courage of a Conservative” (1985, with Doug Weed).