More than 100 gather to remember former Congressman Don Clausen

FORTUNA - A stunning, river- bend panorama in his beloved Humboldt County played backdrop Friday to a final salute to former North Coast Congressman Don Clausen.

The celebration in Fortuna remembered Clausen, who served under six presidents through his 20 years in the House of Representatives, as a plain-spoken man who loved his country and didn’t value political gamesmanship or glory.

Son-in-law Robert Mendenhall of Texas, who’s married to Clausen’s stepdaughter, Bev Mendenhall, recalled one of mantras of the former Del Norte County supervisor and World War II naval pilot, “There’s no telling how much good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

The service at the River Lodge, on the banks of the Eel River, was a labor of love for Clausen’s other son-in-law, Jim Baumgartner of Fortuna. He cared for the former congressman over the past three years.

Even as Clausen’s health and acuity declined, he told the crowd of about 150, “He was still loving and kind and appreciative. There wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t thank me.”

For the past year, Baumgartner also has served as caregiver to his wife, the late congressman’s daughter, Dawn. Her husband said she would not have missed her father’s funeral service but she is hospitalized in Fortuna from complications of a recent surgery and from a stroke that she suffered a year ago.

The rites for Clausen, a Republican known for his ability to work amicably with the opposition, included full military honors. Just before an honor guard fired volleys on a patio deck overlooking the Eel River, two Coast Guard MH65 Dolphin helicopters flew over in tribute to the former fighter-bomber pilot, who all his life loved to fly.

Speakers recalled that among Clausen’s proudest achievements as a federal lawmaker were his roles in creating and expanding the Redwood National Park and dedicating within it the Lady Bird Johnson Grove. He contributed much as well to the construction of Warm Springs Dam and the Humboldt Bay Harbor, and to the creation of the Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Representatives of Rep. Jared Huffman, state Sen. Mike McGuire and Assemblyman Jim Wood lauded the late lawmaker also for his leadership in protecting the Eel, Russian and Klamath rivers.

Clausen, a native of the historic Humboldt County village of Ferndale, died Feb. 7 at age 91. He had served seven years as a Del Norte County supervisor when, in 1962, he ran for Congress against Democratic incumbent Clement Miller.

Shortly before the election, Miller and his son were killed in a plane crash. Clausen urged all voters to cast their votes for Miller, who posthumously won the election. Clausen was sent to Congress through a special election early in 1963.

Before year’s end, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Clausen would come to know and to work also with presidents Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. When Clausen was unseated by Democrat Doug Bosco in 1982, Reagan appointed him the Federal Aviation Administration’s director of special projects. He retired in 1990.

Clausen’s wife, Ollie, died in 2012.

His sons-in-law both offered some personal insights into the lawmaker and family man. Bob Mendenhall noted that in addition to earning excellent grades and letters in five sports at Ferndale High, his father-in-law also was the school’s ambidextrous drum major.

“Don could twirl a pitchfork just like a baton,” Mendenhall shared. “In fact, he could twirl, one in each hand. I wish you could have seen it.”

Jim Baumgartner told the audience in a conference room overlooking the river that right up until shortly before he died, Clausen relished going to the Ferndale Museum and sitting at his former Congressional desk, part of a permanent exhibit honoring his service.

Baumgartner urged everyone to visit the museum and see what it’s like to sit in Clausen’s chair.

“As soon you go into door, you run into his desk.”

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@CJSPD.