Howard Pyle Photograph Collection

John Howard Pyle, ninth governor of Arizona, was born at Sheridan, Wyoming on March 25, 1906. He was the son of the Reverend Thomas Miller Pyle and Marie (Anderson) Pyle. On August 9, 1930, he married Lucile Hanna at Tempe, Arizona. Their two daughters were named Mary Lou and Virginia Ann. He held honorary doctoral degrees in Laws from the University of Redlands (1950) and in Humane Letters from Chapman College (1953).

After graduation from high school at Columbus, Nebraska in 1924, Pyle found employment as a radio singer at Lincoln, Nebraska until his family moved to Tempe. In 1930, following periods of activity as a railway timekeeper, a realtor, and an advertising writer with the Arizona Republican newspaper, Pyle was named program manager and vice president of the Phoenix area affiliate of the National Broadcasting Corporation, KTAR radio. In 1935 he organized the annual Grand Canyon Easter Sunrise broadcast. In the 1930's, he also began radio narrations of the Flagstaff (Arizona) All Indian Pow Wows.

Pyle was an NBC correspondent in the Pacific Theater of Operations in the Second World War, where he prepared a radio program comprising interviews with Arizonans in the military services in various combat zones. He also reported the Japanese surrender, the American occupation of Japan, and the World Security Conference at San Francisco.

In 1948, Pyle circulated nominating petitions for the office of Governor of Arizona but withdrew his candidacy before the primary election. In 1950, however, his campaign was successful. He was re-elected in 1952. As a part of his campaign of that year, he delivered the address What is Right for America at the Republican National Convention at Chicago, Illinois. Pyle was defeated in the gubernatorial race by former senator Ernest W. McFarland in 1954. Some analysts subsequently attributed his defeat to a raid conducted by state police, in that year, on a community of polygamists at Short Creek, Arizona. While Governor, Pyle was a de facto member of the Arizona Board of Regents of the University and State Colleges. He was also a Trustee of the University of Redlands.

A month after leaving the Governor's Office, Pyle was appointed an administrative assistant to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the area of intergovernmental relations. He was soon promoted to deputy assistant for federal state relations. Among his duties were the publishing of an Administration newsletter among departmental and party leaders and planning for the President's committee on traffic safety.

Pyle left the White House in 1959 to assume the presidency of the National Safety Council. He described the Council's life saving accomplishments during his tenure as the most rewarding of experiences. He remained president until his retirement in 1973 and thereafter continued his appointment as a Director. In connection with his safety related activities, Pyle also became Chairman of the OSHA National Advisory Committee upon the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.

In 1980, Pyle was elected a director of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, which was established by the same election to administer the distribution of waters brought to Arizona by the Central Arizona Project canal network. He remained in this directorship until his death at Tempe in 1987.

In addition to his official and professional posts, Governor Pyle was active in civic affairs and occupied numerous chairmanships and directorships in community service and philanthropic organizations, including the Western Governors' Conference, the Tempe Historical Society, the Tempe St. Luke's Hospital, the Arizona Boys' Ranch, Tempe's Chamber of Commerce and United States Bicentennial Committee, and the Phoenix Stock Show.

SOURCES:

Carr, Janelle Howard Pyle 1981, Pyle Collection, Box 103, Folder 4.

Gryder, Robert John Howard Pyle, 1951-55, in John Myers, ed. The Governors of Arizona, 1912-1990 (Phoenix, Arizona: Heritage Publishers, Inc.) 1989.

Howard Pyle, Pyle Collection, Box 25, Folder 1.

Howard Pyle: The Man Behind Arizona's Best Known Voice, unattributed pamphlet, Pyle Collection, Box 99, Folder 5.