<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of the Spokesman-Review at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/boise/2013/sep/29/pete-cenarrusa-idahos-longest-serving-elected-official-dies-age-95/">http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/boise/2013/sep/29/pete-cenarrusa-idahos-longest-serving-elected-official-dies-age-95/</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------</div><div><h1 style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 24px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);"><a href="http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/boise/2013/sep/29/pete-cenarrusa-idahos-longest-serving-elected-official-dies-age-95/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: invert none medium; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(38, 70, 93);">Pete Cenarrusa, Idaho’s longest serving elected official, dies at age 95</a></h1><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img src="cid:3FD8AFAE-8386-44D4-8C38-57806BD0DD02" alt="Pete-Freda-Cearrusa_t620.jpg" id="3FD8AFAE-8386-44D4-8C38-57806BD0DD02" width="250" height="250"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pete Cenarrusa and wife Freda in 2007</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pete Cenarrusa, Idaho’s longest-serving elected official ever, died today at the age of 95 at his Boise home, after a three-year battle with cancer. Cenarrusa, who was Idaho’s elected secretary of state from 1967 to 1998, also served nine terms in the Idaho House, including three as speaker; that adds up to 52 straight years of service in Idaho’s Capitol. Born in Carey, Idaho to Basque immigrants, Cenarrusa is a direct descendant of the first Spanish ambassador to the United States, who furnished clothing and munitions to George Washington during the Revolutionary War. A University of Idaho graduate, he was a national collegiate boxing champion, a teacher and coach, a Marine Corps veteran, a private pilot, and with wife Freda, a successful and prominent sheep rancher for more than four decades.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cenarrusa, for whom Idaho’s largest state government office building at 450 W. State St. is named, is survived by Freda, his wife of 66 years; his daughter-in-law Jean Cenarrusa-Jacobson, two grandsons, two great-grandsons and numerous nieces and nephews; he was preceded in death by his parents, his four siblings, and his son Joe, who died in a plane crash in 1997. You can read Cenarrusa’s <a href="http://media.spokesman.com/documents/2013/09/cenarrusa-obit.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-color: rgb(38, 70, 93); outline: invert none medium; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">full obituary here</a>.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">--------------------</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img src="cid:774E4371-392A-4469-910F-686FE8ED9ACE" alt="Pete_Cenarrusa_euskal-estatubatuarra.jpg" id="774E4371-392A-4469-910F-686FE8ED9ACE" width="222" height="295"></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="s3" style="font-weight: bold; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">OBITUARY - PETE CENARRUSA</span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Pete T. </span><span class="s4" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Cenarrusa</span><span class="s4" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> was born in Carey, Idaho on December 16, 1917. He passed away at the age</span><span class="s4" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> of </span><span class="s4" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">95 today, September 29</span><span class="s4" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">, 2013</span><span class="s4" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> , at his home in Boise after a 3 year battle with cancer.</span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4">His parents were Joe </span><span class="s4">Cenarrusa</span><span class="s4"> and Ramona </span><span class="s4">Gardoqui</span><span class="s4">, who immigrated to the United States</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">from the Province </span><span class="s4">ofBizkaia</span><span class="s4"> in the Basque Country of Spain. Pete's father was from </span><span class="s4">Munitibar</span><span class="s4"> and his</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">mother from the Basque symbolic capital city of </span><span class="s4">Gernika</span><span class="s4">. Although the two cities were only eight</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">miles apart, his parents did not meet until 1914 in Shoshone, Idaho, where they later were married.</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">Pete's mother's sixth generational grandfather was Diego </span><span class="s4">Gardoqui</span><span class="s4">, who was the first Spanish</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">Ambassador to the United States. Ambassador </span><span class="s4">Gardoqui</span><span class="s4"> was an ocean shipping magnate who furnished</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">George Washington with munitions during the Revolutionary War against Great Britain. He also</span><span class="s4">f</span><span class="s4">urnished a boat-load of clothing for Washington's army at Valley Forge during the freezing winter.</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4"><br></span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4">Joe </span><span class="s4">Cenarrusa</span><span class="s4"> worked as both a sheepherder and sheep foreman for several years before</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">purchasing his own sheep business along with range land north of Carey. He added a home in</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">Bellevue, where this wonderful couple reared a family of five children. Pete was the second child born</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">and the last to die as his younger brother and three sisters predeceased him. All five children learned</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">the Basque language at home prior to entering primary school in Bellevue, where they learned English.</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">Pete's love and promotion of the Basque language was </span><span class="s4">lifelong</span><span class="s4">.</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4">Pete graduated from Bellevue High School in 1936 and from University of</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">Idaho in 1940, with</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">degrees in agriculture and animal husbandry. He was a National Collegiate Boxing Champion at the</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">University. After college, he was a high school teacher in Cambridge, Carey and </span><span class="s4">Glenns</span><span class="s4"> Ferry, Idaho.</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">Pete taught both agriculture and chemistry and served as the football coach. He enlisted in the United</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">States Marine Corps in 1942. As an officer in the V-5 Naval Aviation Corps he received flight training</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">in Seattle and Pasco, Washington and subsequently Corpus Christi, Texas, where he received his basic</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">and advanced training. In 1942, he received his Navy Wings of Gold and was commissioned a 2</span><span class="s5" style="vertical-align: super;">nd</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">Lieutenant in the Marines. Pete was an instructor in Naval Aviation in Corpus Christi - known as the</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">University of the Air - for 18 months. He finally received his long anticipated orders to go to the Fleet.</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">After completing the required aircraft carrier landings in an F4U fighter on the aircraft carrier</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">Wolverine in Lake Michigan, he was ordered to EI Toro Marine Base in Santa Ana, California, where</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">he was attached to Marine Aircraft Fighter Squadron 462. That is where he learned that President</span><span class="s4"></span><span class="s4">Roosevelt had died, which he recorded in his flight logbook on April 12, 1945. He was then ordered to</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">Cherry Point, North Carolina to train in an SB2C-4 "Hell diver" dive bomber in preparation for the</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">invasion of Japan. President Truman ordered the atomic</span><span class="s4">bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">1945, thus ending the war. Pete himself saw an atomic bomb explosion in 1955, where he witnessed a</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">30-kiloton detonation of a bomb at Yucca Flats, Nevada. He then went into the inactive reserve, where</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">he flew with VMF 216 Squadron in Spokane, Washington until his retirement in July, 1963 with the</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">rank of Major. Pete followed as a private pilot who flew for 59 years without an accident. He logged</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">over 15,000 hours of flight time, most of which were in the operation of his family business.</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4"><br></span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4">In 1946, Pete was hired to teach institutional on-farm training in Blaine County to veterans of</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">the war who had subsequently gone into farming and livestock operations. In 1947, he married the love</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">of his life, a sheep man's daughter, Freda Coates. Their marriage produced a son, Joe </span><span class="s4">Cenarrusa</span><span class="s4">, a</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">graduate of the University </span><span class="s4">ofIdaho</span><span class="s4"> in 1970, husband, father, and a successful Boise businessman and</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">avid pilot. Joe and his wife, Jean, added two grandsons to the </span><span class="s4">Cenarrusa</span><span class="s4"> family, Andrew and Tyler. Joe</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">died in a tragic aircraft accident in 1997.</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4"><br></span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4">Pete and Freda owned and managed a successful sheep operation from 1954 until 2000,</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">operating in Idaho, Nevada, Arizona and California. In 2000, they left the sheep business when they</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">sold their entire operation to Lava Lake Land and Livestock.</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4"><br></span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4">Pete was encouraged to enter politics in 1950 and was elected as a Representative to the Idaho</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">House of Representatives. He served nine terms, three of which he was selected as Speaker of the</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">House. On May 1, 1967, he was appointed as the Idaho Secretary of State by Governor Don Samuelson</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">to fill the vacancy created when incumbent Secretary </span><span class="s4">Edson</span><span class="s4"> Deal died. Pete was elected and served as</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">Secretary of State for almost 36 years. Upon his retirement he was the longest serving State official in</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">the history of the Idaho. His last election was in 1998, retiring on January 6</span><span class="s4">,2003</span><span class="s4"> at age 85. He was</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">succeeded by his longtime Chief Deputy and current Secretar</span><span class="s4">y of State, fellow Basque Ben </span><span class="s4">Y</span><span class="s4">sursa</span><span class="s4">.</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4"><br></span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4">As Secretary of State, Pete published the first edition of the Idaho Government Blue</span><span class="s4"></span><span class="s4">Book, which has been published every two years through to the present Secretary Ben</span><span class="s4">Ysursa's</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">publications after Pete's retirement. A quote from Secretary Y </span><span class="s4">sursa</span><span class="s4"> in his dedication to Pete in an</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">edition of the book reads, "Pete is the epitome of a true public servant, and is respected and admired by</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">all Idahoans for his integrity and passionate devotion to making government more accessible and</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">responsive to citizens' needs." At the time of his death, Pete was the longest serving Secretary of State</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">in the history of the entire United States.</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4"><br></span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4">He was inducted into seven Halls of Fame - Agriculture, Athletic, Republican, Basque of the</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">World, Idaho Hall of Fame, </span><span class="s4">U</span><span class="s4"> of! Alumni Hall of </span><span class="s4">Fame,</span><span class="s4"> and in 2010 awarded the illustrious</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">recognition Light of </span><span class="s4">Bizkaia</span><span class="s4">, Basque Country Hall of Fame by the Government</span><span class="s4">ofBizkaia</span><span class="s4">. He was</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">appointed to the first Idaho Human Rights Commission in 1971. He is listed in Who's Who in America</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">and Who's Who in the West. Pete served as Chairman of the first Idaho Legislative Council and as</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">President of the Idaho Flying Legislators. The state's largest government building was named after him</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">in thanks by Governor Phil</span><span class="s4">Batt</span><span class="s4"> in 1998. Pete also volunteered for Republican Party service and was</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">selected as the Chairman of the Idaho Ronald Reagan Committee of Idaho in 1968 and again in 1984.</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4"><br></span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s4">Pete is survived by his wife Freda, his daughter-in-law Jean </span><span class="s4">Cenarrusa</span><span class="s4">-Jacobson and her</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">husband Greg. He has two grandsons, Andrew, and great grandson Joey, and Tyler, his wife Lindsay</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">and new baby great grandson, all of Boise, and numerous nephews and nieces in Idaho, California and</span><span class="s4"> </span><span class="s4">Washington.</span></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p class="s2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="s4" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He was preceded in death by his parents, his four siblings and his son Joe.</span></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Rest well, Mr. Cenarrusa.<br><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div> </div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>