Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 142

tormer governor leads mttmch am my first really solid experience with this terrible thing." As he recounts his 61 years, Pyle does not talk much about the four years he spent as governor from 1951 through 1954. Political observers remembering his administration think of two outstanding features, one positive and one negative. The positive is the fact that Pyle knocked a crack in the solid Democrat facade of Arizona politics and allowed a little Republican to seep in, a trend that has grown since his years in office. When Pyle defeated Ana Frohmil-ler in the 1950 governor's race, he was 44, articulate and well known. A campaign brochure promised a glimpse at "the man behind Arizona's best known voice." His election was a major upset.

He was the only Republican to win statewide office that year. Some think that was the point at which the Republican party began building a two-party system in Arizona, and it may be Pyle's foremost political achievement. His administration showed neither more nor less brilliance than several others. The negative landmark was the raid he ordered in 1953 to clean up the polygamous colony at Short Creek in the Arizona Strip. The case was widely publicized and Pyle was accused of grandstanding and "religious persecution." Pyle declines to talk about the Short Creek affair other than to acknowledge that it hurt him politically.

In 1954, he was defeated at the polls by Ernest W. McFarland. Pyle went to Washington Feb. 1, 1955, as President Eisenhower's deputy assistant for federal-state relations. "The governorship was a labor of love," Pyle said.

"I had developed a passion for Arizona and its people. I felt so strongly about it that nothing could have kept me from trying to do a job as governor. So when it came to a sudden end a little something died in me because a climactic effort on my part was almost brutally terminated. I thought going to Washington would give me a year or two The next 20 years made Pyle an Arizona institution. To anyone ex-Dosed to pre-1950 radio in Arizona, Pyle is remembered as a modulated baritone voice that surged through the tubes delivering a variety of information and entertainment.

Pyle read poetry and delivered newscasts. For his "Arizona Highlights" show, he sought out and interviewed Arizonans on nearly any topic. Listeners meeting him in person for the first time were likely to be surprised that this blocky, 5-foot-9 body could produce his resonant baritone. He founded the annual Easter sunrise services broadcast nationally from the Grand Canyon. For 25 consecutive years he wrote, directed and narrated the production.

In 1945, he broadcast from the World Security Conference in San Franciso where the United Nations was ges-tating. From San Francisco, he took a newfangled wire recorder and went to the South Pacific as a war correspondent, recording interviews with Arizona servicemen. He described the surrender of the Japanese aboard the battleship Missouri, then reported Gen. Jonathan Wainright's return to the United States. "I realize now that those were the happiest years of my life," Pyle said, one leg cocked over the arm of his rocking chair.

In 1950. when he became governor of Arizona, he was a stockholding vice president of KTAR and the Arizona Broadcasting System. It was in the midst of Pyle's radio years that he personally encountered a subject that now preoccupies him, traffic fatalities. In 1930, he had married Lucile Hanna. She was the daughter of Mr.

and Mrs. Jim Hanna, pioneers in the Verde and Salt River valleys. Jim Hanna had freighted over the old Black Canyon road without mishap in his earlier years. In 1939, while he and Mrs. Hanna were bound for Phoenix, their car left the road on Antelope Hill near Cordes.

Both were killed. "We were never able to figure out what hapened," Pyle said. "It was was a 1924 Model Ford. Traffic was light between Phoenix and Tem-pe and Pyle's foot was heavy. "Good driving habits should become second nature to you.

There's an element of character building in the degree to which you behave as standard procedure when there's not an officer around," Pyle said. "I was developing some pretty reckless habits, like going 55 when I should have been going 40 or 35. I had a couple of bad wrecks." Un the late '20s and early '30s traffic police under the direction of Capt. E. W.

Titel leaned heavily on Pyle. Titel lectured him and Titers men nailed him repeatedly for speeding. "They never quit until they finally got to me. They taught me as every young fellow needs to be taught that driving an auto is a pretty responsible thing. "Mechanical knowledge gives a kid a kind of feeling that he knows how a car works so he thinks he can handle any degree of difficulty.

In a sense, that's true. He knows how it works, how it's put together, and what condition it's in. But based on my own behavior at that time I don't think we can rely on mechanical know-how alone for good driving." Pyle said his mechanical knowledge is one of the assorted elements that seem to have combined mysteriously to fit him for his mission with the Safety Council. "When we talk about design standards, now, I know what they're talking about." In 1929, The Arizona Republican bought Radio Station KTAR. The following year, management recruited Pyle from the newspaper advertising staff to become program manager of the station.

Although his singing career was never to be, it was his singing experience and his brief exposure to radio that earned him the job. It was a small staff and Pyle wrote copy, announced and serviced advertising accounts..