Steve Symms, a Republican who represented Idaho for four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and two terms in the U.S. Senate, died Thursday. He was 86.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little ordered that all U.S. and state of Idaho flags be lowered Friday until sunrise Monday to honor Symms’ service to the state. Symms served in the U.S. House from 1973-1981 and in the U.S. Senate from 1981-1993. Symms unseated four-term Democratic Sen. Frank Church in the 1980 election.
According to his obituary , Symms was born on April 23, 1938, in Nampa. His father Darwin and his uncle Doyle Symms ran the Symms Fruit Ranch in Caldwell. His mother, Irene Knowlton Symms, was a schoolteacher and homemaker. Symms attended Sunny Slope School, a two-room school house, where he and his classmates often rode their horses to school. He followed his siblings to Marsing High School and then transferred and graduated from Caldwell High School in 1955. He attended the University of Idaho in Moscow, where he played football for the Vandals, lettering all four years, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture in 1960. According to the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, he served in the United States Marine Corps from 1960-1963 and worked as a private pilot and fruit rancher.
“Senator Steve Symms was a true patriot — a military veteran and dedicated public servant whose roots in agriculture helped informed his decisions back in D.C. representing Idaho’s interests,” Little said in a news release issued Friday. “A conservative who was elected during the ‘Reagan Revolution,’ Steve Symms routinely pushed back on government overreach, stood up for the working people of Idaho, and defended the freedoms we hold dear as Americans. God bless this fighter for Idaho values.”
Little said he and his wife, Teresa, share their condolences for the family and friends of Symms.
U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said in an emailed statement that Symms was a friend to him and his wife, Vicki, and that they also extend their condolences to the family.
“He was a staunch defender of conservative values in Washington, D.C., for the people of Idaho,” Risch said. “His commitment to Idaho and conservative principles has stood as an inspiration for our state leaders. We will never forget the great day President Reagan came to Boise to rally for Steve’s reelection to the Senate. What a team they were.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, said in a statement posted on social media that he and his wife Kathy “are deeply saddened” by the death of Symms.
“Steve was an exceptional public servant whose dedicated years of service and unwavering commitment to Idahoans have left a lasting legacy on our state,” Simpson wrote.
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