Howard (John Howard) Pyle
25 Mar 1906 - 29 Nov 1987
bornSheridan, Wyoming, USA
diedTempe, Arizona, USA
SchooltblData
BiographyGovernor of Arizona, 1951-1955; President of the National Safety Council in the late 1950s.Came to Tempe in 1925.
Graduated from high school in Columbus, Nebraska, in 1924. The following year his family came to Arizona and settled in Tempe. He worked as a timekeeper for the Southern Pacific Railroad, a real estate salesman for R. A. Windes Realty Co. in 1928, a salesman for R A Windes in 1929, '30, .secretary of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce, and a free-lance writer. In 1930, he became an announcer for radio station KFAD, (which later became KTAR),radio director in 1931, '32, and ultimately he became the station’s program director and a vice president of its parent company. During the 1930s and ‘40s he was said to have had "Arizona's best known voice". He was a war correspondent during World War II, and in 1945, he broadcast live coverage of the surrender of the Japanese on the USS Missouri and went to Japan with the American occupation forces. Although he was a lifelong Republican, he was not active in politics until 1950, when he ran for governor of Arizona. He served two terms as governor, 1951-1955, but was defeated in the 1954 election by Ernest W. McFarland. His approval of a notorious 1954 raid on the polygamous community of Short Creek in northwestern Arizona is said to have contributed to his defeat.
Early in 1955 President Eisenhower appointed Pyle as an administrative aide at the White House, and he later he served as deputy assistant to the Chief Executive. In the late 1950s, he became president of the National Safety Council, and chairman of OSHA, and maintained his office in Chicago until 1974, when he retired and returned to his home in Tempe. He became active in efforts to preserve the Hackett House and the Niels Petersen House. He was also active in the Arizona Boys Ranch (he was one of its founders), Salvation Army, Rotary Club, and YMCA. He wrote a column in the Tempe Daily News three days a week. He received honorary doctorates for Arizona State University, Chapman College, University of Redlands, and Bradley University. The Pyle Senior Center in Tempe was named in honor of Howard and Lucille Pyle.In 1926 was a student. In 1928 was a salesman for R A Winder. In 1926, 1928, '29.lived at 805 Myrtle Ave. 1120 S. Ash Avenue in 1940. In 1930, '31, '32 lived at 932 [920] Van Ness Ave.
OSB 52; OSB 87
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BIO-Pyle, Howard
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Tempe Telephone Directory, 1940
Painter Scrapbook, p. 101
Double Butte Cemetery, Tempe. Tempe CD 1928, '29, '30, '31, '32
Person TypeIndividual
