Denison Kitchel, 94, Chief of Goldwater Campaign -- Rest in Peace

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Subject: Denison Kitchel, 94, Chief of Goldwater Campaign

Author:
died on Oct. 10

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Date Posted: October 26, 2002 7:10:48 EDT

Denison Kitchel, a close friend and the most influential adviser to Barry M. Goldwater in his presidential campaign in 1964, died on Oct. 10 at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 94.

Mr. Kitchel had a deep influence on foreign policy in the campaign. He encouraged Mr. Goldwater's enthusiasm for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He also convinced Mr. Goldwater that he was mistaken in his original opposition to the Supreme Court school integration decision and the use of federal troops to enforce the court's decisions to integrate schools in the South.

Mr. Kitchel arrived at the campaign as a virtual unknown, with little national experience. In 1952, he ran Mr. Goldwater's successful campaign for Senate. His thoughtful and judicious manner contrasted with Mr. Goldwater's self-admitted tendency to "shoot from the hip."

From nearly the moment of his appointment as campaign manager in January 1964, Mr. Goldwater was pressured to replace Mr. Kitchel. Some of Mr. Goldwater's largest financial contributors tried to tap a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, Leonard Hall, for the position.

In the campaign, Mr. Kitchel said frankly that he did not enjoy politics but liked dealing with issues, drafting policies and working out broad strategies. He drafted most of Mr. Goldwater's policy statements, including the Senate speech explaining his vote against the civil rights bill.

In July 1964, Mr. Kitchel was introduced at a breakfast caucus of the Oregon delegation to the Republican convention by Gov. Mark O. Hatfield as a "man of little background in national politics."

"Just as voters this year have been confounding the pollsters," Mr. Hatfield said, "this man has confounded the professional politicians."

Mr. Kitchel and Mr. Goldwater, who died at 89 in 1998, had been friends since 1935, when Mr. Goldwater was a department-store executive.

Born on March 1, 1908, in Bronxville, N.Y., Mr. Kitchel graduated from Yale University in 1930 and the Harvard Law School in 1933. He studied at Harvard under Felix Frankfurter, who became a justice on the Supreme Court in the Roosevelt era.

After law school, Mr. Kitchel moved to Phoenix and joined the firm of Ellinwood & Ross, which became Evans, Kitchel & Jenckes.

In April 1941, Mr. Kitchel married Naomi Douglas. After serving three years in the Army Air Forces in England in World War II, he was discharged as a lieutenant colonel.

Mr. Kitchel, an authority on constitutional, labor and international law, wrote two books, "Too Grave a Risk" (1963), about the World Court, and "The Truth About the Panama Canal" (1978), on the consequences of agreements between the United States and Panama.

Along with his wife, surviving are two sons, James, of Scottsdale, and Harvey, of San Diego, and four grandchildren.

Mr. Kitchel's distaste for politics never waned. In New Hampshire for the primary, a mother thrust her baby into Mr. Goldwater's arms. Mr. Kitchel, standing on the edge of the crowd, said, "If he kisses that baby, I resign."

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