Gale Norton
| Gale Norton | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 48th United States Secretary of the Interior | |
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In office January 31, 2001 – March 31, 2006 |
|
| President | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Bruce Babbitt |
| Succeeded by | Dirk Kempthorne |
| 35th Attorney General of Colorado | |
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In office January 8, 1991 – January 12, 1999 |
|
| Governor | Roy Romer |
| Preceded by | Duane Woodard |
| Succeeded by | Ken Salazar |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
March 11, 1954 Wichita, Kansas, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Education | University of Denver (BA, JD) |
Gale Ann Norton (born March 11, 1954) served as the 48th United States Secretary of the Interior from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. She was the first woman to hold the position.
Norton was born in Wichita, Kansas and raised in Wichita and Thornton, Colorado, and graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Denver in 1975, and earned her juris doctor degree with honors from that university's College of Law in 1978. She divorced her first husband, Harold Everett Reed, when OutFront, the Denver gay newspaper, reported that he was gay. She is currently married to John Hughes. In the late 1970s, she was a member of the Libertarian Party, and was nearly selected as its national director in 1980. Norton was influenced by the works of novelist Ayn Rand, and has been associated with a number of groups in the "wise use" or "free-market environmentalist" movement such as the Property and Environmental Research Center, of which she is a fellow. She also worked as an assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and, from 1979 to 1983, as a senior attorney at the Mountain States Legal Foundation.
From 1991 to 1999, Norton served as Attorney General of Colorado. Prior to her election as Colorado Attorney General, Norton served as an associate solicitor at the United States Department of the Interior, overseeing legal issues related to endangered species and public lands for the National Park Service and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
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