Stewart Udall

Stewart Udall is talking about 50 years of secrecy and deception by government officials obsessed with nuclear weapons, when he is interrupted by a phone call. He spends several minutes in the next room talking to the family of one of hundreds of uranium miners he has represented in a 16-year legal battle with the federal government. Udall returns looking glum. "A new diagnosis of lung cancer," he says. "They just keep coming in."

Stewart L. Udall, who as Interior secretary in the 1960s vastly expanded the country's system of national parks and monuments and developed far-reaching legislation to protect public lands, has died. He was 90. Udall died Saturday morning at his home in Santa Fe, N.M., surrounded by his children, according to a statement from his son, Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico. He died of natural causes after a fall last week that had kept him confined to bed. Udall, who served in Congress and later led a crusade on behalf of victims of radiation exposure, had many accomplishments during his decades of public service.

On a late spring day, with streambeds roaring and the sun breaking through the thin mountain air, Stewart Udall has just crossed a calf-deep creek, rushing with late-season snowmelt from the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico. His corduroy pants are drenched at the cuffs, his sneakers muddied and soaked. Udall is on the Rio en Medio Trail, a popular and well-watered seven-mile hike a good half hour out of Santa Fe.

On a late spring day, with streambeds roaring and the sun breaking through the thin mountain air, Stewart Udall has just crossed a calf-deep creek, rushing with late-season snowmelt from the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico. His corduroy pants are drenched at the cuffs, his sneakers muddied and soaked. Udall is on the Rio en Medio Trail, a popular and well-watered seven-mile hike a good half hour out of Santa Fe.

More than 130 years ago a family tree was planted near Salt Lake City, Utah. It was called Udall. Two brothers, Joseph and David King Udall, were the first American-born generation of a pioneer Mormon family that came from England seeking religious freedom, much like the Pilgrims 230 years earlier. Today there are 1,400 living descendants of the Udall brothers, and the family tree has spread roots throughout the Southwest.

Stewart L. Udall, who as Interior secretary in the 1960s vastly expanded the country's system of national parks and monuments and developed far-reaching legislation to protect public lands, has died. He was 90. Udall died Saturday morning at his home in Santa Fe, N.M., surrounded by his children, according to a statement from his son, Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico. He died of natural causes after a fall last week that had kept him confined to bed. Udall, who served in Congress and later led a crusade on behalf of victims of radiation exposure, had many accomplishments during his decades of public service.

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. . . . Thirty-six days after leaving the Canary Islands, where he refitted and resupplied his ships, he made landfall in the Bahamas. As Columbus himself indirectly acknowledged, it is possible that other intrepid mariners saw the New World before he did, but his landing is rightly celebrated, for it marked the start of continuous, recorded exploration and settlement of the Western Hemisphere, first by Spaniards and then, as Spain declined following the defeat of her Armada, by many other nations.

Heartfelt thanks for "The West's Defender of Wild Places" [July 12] about former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall. I was a Lady Bird Johnson staffer when the two traveled to promote wilderness protection. Can we dream of such a steward of integrity in today's White House? Sadly, not. Joanne Hedge Glendale

China's labor market: An article in the March 28 Section A about labor issues in China referred to the China Labor Watch. The organization's name is the China Labor Bulletin. Stewart Udall obituary: The obituary of former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall in the March 21 California section said that a few years ago he trekked with a grandson 7,000 feet up Bright Angel Trail, from the floor of the Grand Canyon to the South Rim. According to the National Park Service, the elevation change between the canyon floor and the South Rim is about 4,400 feet.

Stewart Udall is talking about 50 years of secrecy and deception by government officials obsessed with nuclear weapons, when he is interrupted by a phone call. He spends several minutes in the next room talking to the family of one of hundreds of uranium miners he has represented in a 16-year legal battle with the federal government. Udall returns looking glum. "A new diagnosis of lung cancer," he says. "They just keep coming in."

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. . . . Thirty-six days after leaving the Canary Islands, where he refitted and resupplied his ships, he made landfall in the Bahamas. As Columbus himself indirectly acknowledged, it is possible that other intrepid mariners saw the New World before he did, but his landing is rightly celebrated, for it marked the start of continuous, recorded exploration and settlement of the Western Hemisphere, first by Spaniards and then, as Spain declined following the defeat of her Armada, by many other nations.

More than 130 years ago a family tree was planted near Salt Lake City, Utah. It was called Udall. Two brothers, Joseph and David King Udall, were the first American-born generation of a pioneer Mormon family that came from England seeking religious freedom, much like the Pilgrims 230 years earlier. Today there are 1,400 living descendants of the Udall brothers, and the family tree has spread roots throughout the Southwest.

Stewart Udall's call for a wide-open Democratic convention ("Democrats' 'Pilots' Must Chart Course," Op-Ed Page, March 24) provoked this thought: Presidential elections in this century show the Republicans can win with mediocre candidates, the Democrats cannot. Besides the Watergate-skewed 1976 election, the Democratic Party has won only by nominating candidates who could stir the passions of Democrats, capture them, make them cry and laugh and feel every emotion in between.

Re "Winding Paths for Roadless Lands," July 26: This story and Stewart Udall's "Bush's Dark Pages in Conservation History" (Commentary, July 26) simply illustrate that President Bush and cronies are no more or less than America's version of Saddam Hussein and sons enriching themselves when they ruled Iraq. The implications of the "Winding Paths" article made me both angry and sick to my stomach. Besides negating more and more wild lands -- an irreplaceable resource -- these roads will consequently contribute to more forest fires and the spectacle and hazard of more and more oversized SUVs driven by cellphone-addicted drivers in places no one should ever have to see or fear them.