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Gunn McKay papers, 1950-1985

Overview of the Collection

Title
Gunn McKay papers
Dates
1950-1985 (inclusive)
Quantity
506 boxes, (253 linear feet)
Collection Number
UUS_COLL MSS 86
Summary
Correspondence files, case files, legislative files, central files, public affairs files, personal files, and democratic party files accumulated during five sessions of the U.S. Congress.
Repository
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives Division
Special Collections & Archives
Merrill-Cazier Library
Utah State University
Logan, UT
84322-3000
Telephone: 4357978248
Fax: 4357972880
scweb@usu.edu
Access Restrictions

Some restrictions on use, contact the manuscript curator: not available through interlibrary loan.

Languages
English
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Biographical Note

K. Gunn McKay was born February 23, 1925, in Huntsville, Utah, the first of eight children to James Gunn McKay and Elizabeth "Bessie" Peterson McKay. During his youth, McKay worked on the family dairy farm while attending Weber High School. After graduating from high school, McKay served in the U.S. Coast Guard. Upon completing his military service, McKay served as a missionary for two years in England for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On May 5, 1950, McKay married Donna Biesinger. During the 1950s, McKay operated a farm in Fairfield, Utah, and taught history in various high schools in Ogden, Utah.

In the late 1950s, McKay enrolled in Utah State University, and in 1962, McKay received a BA in education. That same year McKay became active in politics of the Democratic Party and was elected to the Utah Legislature and served two terms. In 1968, he became an administrative assistant to Governor Calvin L. Rampton. In 1970, McKay was elected to Utah's First District of the House of Representatives and served in this capacity for a decade. During this time, he was appointed by House Speaker Carl Albert to the Appropriations Committee.

During his political career, McKay was a strong advocate of resource development in Utah but also worked to ensure Utah's natural wonders. McKay secured funding that further developed the Glen Canyon, Arches, and Zion National Parks. He also drafted language making Utah's Lone Peak Wilderness Area a model and succeeded in modifying language in the Clean Air Act.

During this time period, McKay also served as chairman of the Military Construction Subcommittee, which allowed him to reopen Utah's Minuteman Missile production line for an additional year and secure the F-16 fighter mission for Hill Air Force Base, Utah. McKay was highly influential in strengthening work at Hill Air Force Base, bringing the base to a 37-year high in activity in 1978. His committee also appropriated $17 million dollars to increase security at a nerve gas storage facility in Tooele, Utah.

In 1980, less than a month after McKay had left Congress, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called McKay to serve for three years as a mission president over the Scotland-Northern Ireland Mission. After completing his term as a mission president, McKay and his wife volunteered to serve a two-year mission in Kenya, Africa, and later a second two-year mission in Malaysia. McKay and his wife also served a third mission in Pakistan, but returned home early due to illness. Thereafter, McKay and his wife resided in Huntsville. Gunn McKay passed away at his home in Huntsville on October 6, 2000.

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Content Description

This collection contains the papers of former Congressman Gunn McKay and forms a substantial portion of the USU Special Collections & Archive's holdings. This 506-box collection contains McKay's correspondence files, case files (included here are military liaison files and Ogden constituent files), legislative files, central files, public affairs files, personal files, and Democratic Party files accumulated during five sessions of the U.S. Congress. These materials document much of the government involvement in Utah during the 1970s. Some of the topics covered in McKay's papers are: environmental issues, including materials concerning the Golden Spike National Historic Site upgrade; the creation of several of the national parks in southern and eastern Utah, the question of wilderness policy in the West, the growth of the Central Utah Project; and defense issues, including materials which discuss the planned deployment of the MX missile system, the ongoing controversy over the army's testing of nuclear bombs in the 1950s, copies of the radiation victims' hearings held in Utah, and materials concerning Hill Air Force Base. In addition to these Utah topics, the collection contains material about the Vietnam War, the environmental movement, Watergate, and other national issues of the time.

The material in this collection has been arranged to reflect and retain McKay's original office filing system. Within each congress (92nd-96th), there are roughly five repeating series, such as: correspondence files, case files (included here are military liaison files and Ogden constituent files), legislative files, central files, public affairs files, personal files, and Democratic Party files. The files, with the exception of the central files, are all filed alphabetically by subject or surname and usually run for one session of a congress and then start over for the next session. Thus, for example they are designated as being from the 93rd Congress, 2nd Session. The central files which contain research material about different issues have two different filing systems. In the 92nd and the 96th congresses, the records are filed alphabetically by subject. In the 93rd-95th congresses, the filing system changed to a numeric system that indicates the year the file was established and the number of its creation. This second number runs consecutively through the three congresses, for example, 73-401 and 74-402.

Use Restrictions. Because of the sensitive nature of a congressional collection, certain problems of constituent confidentiality arise. With this in mind, the records entitled case files (these being the files in which McKay was called upon by a constituent to aid them with problems they were having with the federal government) are restricted. Also restricted are the correspondence files that contain carbon copies of all of McKay's outgoing correspondence. These latter files may be used upon consultation with the staff of the Special Collections & Archives.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.

Permission to publish material from the Gunn McKay papers must be obtained from the Special Collections and Archives manuscript curator and/or the Special Collections and Archives department head.

Preferred Citation

Initial Citation: COLL MSS 86, Box [ ]. Special Collections and Archives. Utah State University Merrill-Cazier Library. Logan, Utah.

Following Citations: USU_COLL MSS 86, USUSCA.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically.

Processing Note

Processed in May of 2006.

Acquisition Information

The materials that comprise this collection were donated to USU Special Collections & Archives in 1981 by Congressman Gunn McKay.

Bibliography

Obituary, Deseret News , 10/08/2000
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Detailed Description of the Collection

Finding aid/Register created by Special Collections & Archives
2011

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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