The New York Times published an account of John McCain’s funeral tribute in Phoenix. Current and former political leaders from across Arizona attended, including Governor Symington.
As Mr. McCain was lying in state, his immediate family and Arizona political leaders paid tribute to the naval aviator, who endured torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. They remembered him as an example of a statesman striving to unite Americans regardless of their political beliefs.
The Arizona Capitol Times ran a recent article looking at challenges facing Governor Doug Ducey, from teacher strikes to an accident involving Uber’s self-driving car project.
A few comments from former Governor Symington are sprinkled throughout the article.
Regarding Uber’s autonomous vehicle project:
“All new technologies bring risk of some sort,” he said. “Just look at the Apollo program and the astronauts who were killed on the launchpad in Florida. We didn’t shut down the moon program because of it.”
Regarding the teacher pay issue:
“Lawmakers do their best to listen to everybody, but they’re elected to make tough decisions, as is the governor,” Symington said. “They’re going to get the budget out and done and that’ll be the end of it.”
Several news outlets are reporting that the Arizona Capitol Museum has launched a new exhibit on former Governor Symington. Thursday, February 9 marked the first day of the exhibit in the museum’s annex located at 1700 W. Washington St. in Phoenix.
3TV KTVK has more information on what the exhibit will include:
The museum says personal mementoes and a trove of family history items that Symington found in a trunk belonging to his mother form the exhibit’s centerpiece.
Other items include political campaign material and Symington’s Bronze Star from his military service during the Vietnam War.
From last month came some sad news: celebrated Arizona historian Jack August Jr. passed away on January 20. August had been working on a biography of former Governor Symington that was apparently nearly two-thirds complete.
From the Arizona Republic article:
He also “pursued” Republican former Gov. Fife Symington for six or seven years in the hope of writing his life story, says Symington, who adds that he initially was not interested in the project.
Then he met Jack.
“I decided I really liked him,” said Symington. The two began working together about three years ago and became good friends.
And from the New Times article:
“He was into every aspect of my life,” Symington explains. “He’s such a unique person. It would be very, very difficult for anyone to kind of pick it up and keep going. I’m really going to miss him.”
[…]
But the good professor — whose death now is mourned by Arizona’s political elite, from Republican Secretary of State Michele Reagan to Phoenix’s Democratic Mayor Greg Stanton — was at heart a Phoenix boy, who never lost the common touch, and was as much at home with paupers as with princes.
Dan Nowicki wrote a recent article in the Arizona Republic about the re-election support Senator John McCain has received from three former Republican governors of Arizona, including Fife Symington. McCain faces a difficult and crowded Republican primary on August 30 and announced the support of the former governors today. In addition to ringing endorsements from former governors Hull and Brewer, Symington offered his own backing of McCain:
“History will record John McCain as America’s foremost defender of freedom in the early 21st Century,” Symington said. “His deep personal courage, his sharp intellect and his unwavering dedication to America have made him so. There is only one John McCain, and he must be returned to the Senate to continue his life’s work of service to the people of Arizona.”