GOP Legislator, Environmentalist
By Matt Schudel Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Gilbert Gude, a former Republican congressman from Montgomery County who championed environmental causes and
introduced a bill to preserve the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and make it a national park, died June 7 of congestive heart
failure at Sibley Memorial Hospital. He was 84.
Mr. Gude (pronounced GOO-dee), a longtime resident of Bethesda, served five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from
1967 to 1977 and was proud of being both a Republican and a liberal. He was an ardent environmentalist who worked to
protect the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay, wild horses in the West and the quality of the nation's air.
A native of Washington, he was also an early advocate for D.C. home rule and a sponsor of legislation that led to the building of
the Metro system. But his crowning achievement may have been saving the scenic C & O Canal, which stretches 185 miles
from Georgetown to Cumberland, Md.
He spearheaded efforts to stop plans for a highway alongside the canal, then introduced the bill that resulted in the restoration
of the 19th-century waterway and the creation, in 1971, of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Park, the country's
narrowest national park.
Possessing a deep knowledge of nature and plants from boyhood, when he worked in his family's nursery business in
Rockville, Mr. Gude stated his environmental principles while introducing a 1969 bill to protect the Potomac River valley.
The choice, he said, is between a river comprised of wilderness, open space, developed recreation areas and farmland,
interspersed with towns and areas of commerce or a mammoth open storm drain running through nightmarish strips of
oversized cities, suburbs and Coney Islands.
In 1975, he led a three-week tour of the upper Potomac, traveling by foot, bicycle, canoe and horseback from Fairfax Stone,
W.Va., to Luke, Md.
It's pretty but without life, he told The Washington Post. The whole length is just dead. There are no birds or insects or any of
the things associated with streams.
Mr. Gude sponsored the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971, which protected wild mustangs in the rural West. He
was alerted to the problem by one of his sons, who told him that hundreds of horses were rounded up by helicopter, killed and
sold for dog food.
Mr. Gude introduced measures to improve air quality in the District and to limit noise pollution around airports. His amendment
to the Clean Air Act of 1970 required auto emission tests to be published annually.
When making his first run for Congress in 1966 in a largely Democratic district, Mr. Gude called himself a liberal on civil rights
and a moderate on fiscal matters. By his second term, his votes matched the recommendations of the conservative Americans
for Constitutional Action only 29 percent of the time. His rating from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action, by contrast, was
67 percent.
He supported limits on cigarette advertising, restrictions on handgun ownership and a tighter rein on military spending. As early
as 1969, he voiced opposition to the Vietnam War, and he was one of the first members of Congress of either party to suggest
that President Richard M. Nixon should be impeached for his role in the Watergate scandal. Mr. Gude received hate mail after
introducing a bill that would have removed J. Edgar Hoover's name from the FBI building.
Nonetheless, he was reelected four times by wide margins, polling 66 percent of the vote during his final campaign in 1974. He
never lost an election.
When he announced his resignation in 1976 to lead a more balanced life, other members of Congress -- and members of his
family -- were stunned.
When you start losing the Gil Gudes, one Capitol Hill aide told The Post in 1976, then Congress is in trouble
Mr. Gude, born March 9, 1923, was the son of a prosperous owner of a nursery and landscaping company. He graduated from
Wilson High School. The family home in North Chevy Chase, Woodend Mansion, is now the headquarters of the Audubon
Naturalist Society.
Mr. Gude served in the Army Medical Corps during World War II and received a bachelor's degree in horticulture from Cornell
University in 1948. He worked in the family business before being appointed to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1953. He
received a master's degree in public administration from George Washington University in 1958.
He was Republican chairman of Montgomery County and served in the state Senate between 1962 and 1967 before going to
Congress.
When Mr. Gude resigned his seat, he received a call from Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin, who offered him the job of
director of the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress. He held that post until 1986 and became an
international authority on legislative libraries.
In his later years, Mr. Gude wrote two books about the Potomac and taught courses on history and the environment at
Georgetown University. He and his wife lived in Bethesda until several weeks ago, when they moved to an assisted living facility
affiliated with Sibley Hospital in Washington.
Survivors include his wife of 58 years, Jane Callaghan Gude of Washington; five children, Sharon Gude of Rockville, Adrienne
Lewis of Washington, Gilbert Gude Jr. of Bethesda and Gregory Gude and Daniel Gude, both of Cabin John; and three
grandchildren.