Nebraska native Clayton Yeutter, who held a handful of high-level jobs during the Reagan-Bush era, died on Saturday of cancer at age 86. Energetic and engaging, Yeutter was U.S. trade representative for President Reagan and became agriculture secretary following the election of George H.W. Bush in 1988, moving at Bush’s request to chair the Republican National Committee in 1991 and becoming counselor to the president a year after that.
After his stint as a top federal official, he was part of a Washington law firm and “continued to be active in promoting agriculture, global trade and the sustainable use of water,” said the Omaha World-Herald. His widow, Cristena, said, “He always had to be working, needed to stay busy. If he didn’t, I think it would have driven us both crazy.”
Yeutter’s chief interest was trade policy. He donated $2.5 million to the University of Nebraska in 2015 to establish an international trade and finance institute, said the World-Herald. Yeutter was a dedicated proponent of free trade and the removal of barriers to commerce.