Biography
CongressmanWalt Minnick
Walter C. “Walt” Minnick is serving in his first term as the Congressman from Idaho’s First Congressional District. He took the oath of office for the 111th Congress on January 6, 2009.
Walt serves on the House Agriculture Committee, where he helps craft policy for Idaho farmers and where he helps oversee the U.S. Forest Service lands throughout Idaho and the west. Walt also serves on the House Financial Services Committee, where he helps craft the nation’s economic policy and regulations. Both committees fit well into Walt’s focuses on crafting a sensible, consensus-based approach to public lands, improving care and services for veterans, and creating more good-paying jobs here in Idaho.
Walt grew up near Walla Walla, Washington, on his family’s dryland wheat farm. He earned an economics degree from Whitman College in his hometown before moving east. He graduated from Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, and spent two years in the U.S. Army. From there he went to work in the White House Office of Management and Budget, but resigned from the Nixon Administration in protest the day after the president fired a special prosecutor investigating the Watergate burglary.
Walt moved to Idaho soon after and began his 35-year career as a businessman. He went to work for Trus Joist, a wood-products company headquartered in Boise. He rose quickly through the ranks, and would eventually serve more than 15 years as its CEO, growing the company to more than $700 million in sales. After an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in 1996, Walt founded Summerwinds, a company which has grown into one of the 10 largest retail-nursery chains in the country. He resigned as chairman of the board after winning election to Congress in November 2008.
Walt has served a host of foundations and on numerous boards, but has a special love for education. He has been a trustee for two universities, co-founded a statewide initiative by businesses to help improve Idaho education and helped guide the Boise State University business school through accreditation. Walt is also an avid outdoorsman with a deep affection for Idaho’s backcountry. When not serving in Congress, he is often back home in Idaho rafting rivers, fishing mountain lakes and hiking peaks.
Walt has four children and three grandchildren. He is married to A.K. Leinhart-Minnick.
