USU trustee named Utah’s lieutenant gov.
Future Gov. Olene Walker asked Gayle McKeachnie, chair of the Board of Trustees at Utah State University, to serve as Utah’s lieutenant governor Wednesday.
McKeachnie said he thought to himself, “how crazy can I be?” when Walker chose him as her second-in-command.
“It’s hard to say no to people that you respect,” McKeachnie said. “What it means is that for 14 months I’m kind of disappearing from my law practice and focusing my primary efforts there in the lieutenant governor’s job. So it’ll be a change and maybe that’s good for us, but sometimes it’s crazy. It’s probably good for [me] to do new things.”
The present plan is that he will continue to serve as chair for USU’s Board of Trustees, McKeachnie said.
“It’s really been a great experience to be involved with USU,” McKeachnie said. “I’ve met a lot of great people.”
McKeachnie taught classes at the USU’s Uintah Basin extension site for 29 years, including political science, government, business law and management courses. He has served on USU’s Board of Trustees for eight years, two of them as chair. He said his time at USU will help him in his new position.
“Being a trustee has been a very enjoyable experience,” McKeachnie said. “I’m sure I have a better understanding of higher education in the state and its issues, problems and how it benefits the state, than I did before I was a trustee.”
McKechnie’s term as lieutenant governor lasts until January of 2005. He worked with Walker in the mid-1980s when he was majority whip in the Utah House of Representatives and she was assistant majority whip.
“I don’t have an agenda other than to help [Walker] make the best decisions and provide the best leadership that she can in the state,” McKeachnie said.
Walker is replacing Gov. Mike Leavitt because he was sworn in Thursday as the head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. She and McKeachnie will be sworn into their respective offices on Wednesday.
-heidithue@cc.usu.edu