Orval H. Hansen

American politician

Orval Howard Hansen (August 3, 1926 – November 2, 2017) was an American politician who served as a congressman from Idaho. He served three terms as a Republican in the House from 1969 to 1975, representing the state's 2nd district.

Born in Firth, Idaho to Lily Dorothy Miriam (née Wahlquist) and Farrel L. Hansen, his mother the daughter of Swedish immigrants and his father of Danish descent. Hansen was raised in Idaho Falls and graduated from Idaho Falls High School in 1944. After military service in World War II, he attended the University of Idaho in Moscow, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Chi fraternity, and extremely active with campus activities. Hansen earned a B. A. summa cum laude in 1950 from UI and then attended George Washington University in Washington, D. C., and received a J. D. from its Law School in 1954. He also earned an LLM (awarded in 1973) and a Ph. D. in political science (awarded in 1986) from GWU. He served in the U. S. Navy from 1944 to 1946, including one year in the Pacific on the aircraft carrier Saratoga, and was a member of the U. S. Air Force Reserve until his retirement as a lieutenant colonel in 1978.

Hansen's political career began in the state legislature, where he served four terms in the House, beginning in 1956. He served as House Majority Leader from 1961 to 1962. In his first run for Congress in 1962, he won the GOP nomination in a June runoff, but lost the general election to incumbent Ralph Harding. He returned to the Idaho House for another two year term, followed by one term in the state senate. Hansen ran again for Congress, won the Republican primary over two others, and was elected to the open seat in 1968. He served three terms before being ousted in the 1974 Republican primary in August by the man he succeeded six years earlier, George Hansen (no relation). (George Hansen had vacated the seat in 1968 to run for the U. S. Senate, but lost to incumbent Frank Church.) U. S. Senator Mike Crapo got his first taste of Washington politics as an intern for Orval Hansen during the summer of 1972. + U. S. House elections (Idaho's 2nd district): Results 1962, 1968–1972YearDemocratVotesPctRepublicanVotesPct3rd PartyPartyVotesPct1962Ralph Harding (inc.)83,15252.8%Orval Hansen74,20347.2%1968Darrel V. Manning54,25643.9%Orval Hansen65,02952.6%Joel AndersonAmer. Indep.4,3773.5%1970Marden E. Wells31,87231.6%Orval Hansen (inc.)66,42865.8%Joel AndersonAmerican2,6252.6%1972Willis H. Ludlow40,08127.0%Orval Hansen (inc.)102,53769.2%John L. ThiebertAmerican5,5603.8%

Following his service in Congress, Hansen returned to private law practice, and founded the Columbia Institute for Political Research in 1977.

Hansen was married to the former June Duncan of Southport, England; they have seven children. In 2006, Hansen's son Jim D. Hansen won the Democratic nomination for the 2nd district seat, but was defeated by incumbent Mike Simpson. Hansen died at his home in Boise on November 2, 2017, of complications from cancer at the age of 91.