Evening star., 1946-10-05
Clifford Pinchof Dies;
Served Pennsylvania
Twice as Governor
sy IL. A..oeiot.d Press

BY the Associated Press
NEW YORK. Oct. 5.--Gifford
Pinchot. 81, twice Governor Of
Pennsylvania and an expert on
forestry, died last night In
Columbia Presbyterian Medical
Center here.
Mr.. Pinchot, i'll for some time, had
been in the hospital for week. His
wife was with him when he died at
1890 pm.
Mr.. Pinchot gained national
prominence as supporter Of Presi-
dent Theodore Roosevelt's conserva-
tion program. He was chief OF the
Federal Division of Forestry under
Presidents Mckinley, Roosevelt and
Taft.
Defeated for Third Term.
In Pennsylvania the constitution
prohibits the Governor from sue
ceeding himself. After twice hold
ing the office Of Governor, Mr..
Pinchot lost by $1,000 votes try
for third term in the 1888 Repub-
lican primary to Arthur H. James,
who was subsequently elected.
Mr.. Pinchot then retired to his
country estate at Milford, Pa, but
gave his support to President Frank
lin D. Roosevelt in the 1910 and 1914
campaigns.
Even after giving up active par
ticipation in the political arena, the
Republican insurgent kept after the
conservation fight.
On his last birthday he was work.
ing in his bedroom on book which
was to be called Breaking Ground" ri
q history of conservation from 1884
and, in part, biography of Clifford
Pinchot.
An easy victory had little thrill
for him. He preferred defeat In a
free for all fight to victory won by
compromise or political legerdemain.
He was an outspoken supporter of
prohibition.
His first essay for major political
Office was in 1914 when he cam
paigned as a Bull Mooser against
Senator Boies Penrose for the Re-
publican nomination as United
States Senator from Pennsylvania:
He was soundly beaten, but came
back in 1922 to defeat the Repub-
lican organization and win the
gubernatorial nomination and elec-
ton.
Again in 1926 he ran third in q
three e-cornered fight for the sena-
torial nomination, being beaten by
william S. Ware and Senator George
Wharton Pepper. As Governor he
refused a certificate of election toI
Mr.. Ware and had much to do with
the Senate,s refusal to seat him.
The action intensified the bitterness
of the Republican regulars of Penn
sylvania against Pinchot but in 1880
he not only won the gubernatorial
primary but trimphed in the cleo
ton over the open opposition OF the
Ware organization, which supported
the Democratic candidate.
AS chief of the Forestry Depart
ment his opposition to the Alaskan
conservation policies Of President
Taft's Secretary Of the Interior,
Richard A. Ballinger, was credited
with having been largely responsible
for that official's resignation from
the cabinet in March, 1911.
Helped Split COP.
Mr.. Pinchot was a member of the
famous tennis cabinet Of the
Roosevelt administration, helped his
friend launch the progressive or
ganization that split the Republican
Party in the 1912 presidential cam
paign and kept up the fight against
.'old guard traditions after almost
every other Rooseveltian follower
had returned to the party fold.
Mr.. Pinchot was born at Sims
bury, Conn, August II, 1865. His
ancestors were Pennsylyanians, his
grandfather, Constantine Cyril De-
sire Pinchot, having settled at Mil
ford. Pike County, after being driven
from his home In Breteuil, France,
in 1916 when the Bourbon restora-
ton caused supporters OF the
French republic to flee. Gov. Pin
chot's father, James w. Pinchot, re-
turned to Milford to build the pres
ent homestead, a picturesque place
called Grey Towers. The earlier
Pinchot home was donated to the
town as public library.
Clifford Pinchot was schooled at
Phillips Exeter Academy, then went
to Yale, graduating in 1889. Grad
uating with the degree Of A. B., he
followed this with training in for
estry at Nancy, France, and In sew
eral European countries.
After field work in the United
States and Canada he opened an
office in New York in 1891 as con-
sultant in his speciality and in 1892
began what was said to be the first
systematic forestry work in the
United States, at Biltmore, N. c.
His reputation as conservationist
was well established when he was