and that was the end of wally hickel's tenure of u.s. secretary of the interior. went back to alaska, became governor again. that said, around the time that nixon was firing walter j. hickel, nixon was also doing something really important when it came to the u.s. government and specifically the way the u.s. government works on issues that were totally relevant to wally hickel's cabinet agency, this agency that was being run by the dreaded wally hickel, president nixon was right then sort of reorganizing the way the u.s. government dealt with those kinds of issues, department of the interior kinds of issues. in 1970, richard nixon was needle of creating a new federal agency called noaa. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration. even though it was a new agency being created in 1970, the component parts of noaa weren't new. in fact, they were some of the oldest continue iing parts of t u.s. government, dating back to the weather bureau which was founded in 1870 or the bureau of commercial fisheries, which was founded in 1871. parts of it been traced back t

hickel was known as "wally" when he was a kid.s boxer. as a young man, he struck out on his own to seek his fortune in california. ultimately he made his way alone up to alaska. his obituary in "the new york times" after he died said that he started in alaska working as a bartender, then a carpenter, then he was an aircraft inspector. then he bought a half-finished house. he finished it himself, sold it. bought two morehouse, sold them. eventually he became a major home build