In Memoriam: Clayton Yeutter

Ambassador and former Secretary of Agriculture Clayton Yeutter died March 4. He was 86. In the days since his death, he has been celebrated as a brilliant, accomplished leader and an extraordinarily generous man whose kindness and humility made politics and policymaking more tolerable.

Yeutter held Cabinet and sub-Cabinet posts under four presidents. He served as chief U.S. trade negotiator under President Reagan from 1985 to 1989 and as U.S. secretary of agriculture under President Bush from 1989 to 1991.

James Baker, who was secretary of the treasury in the Reagan administration, described Yeutter as a “first-class example of the model American public servant. A man who always placed his country’s best interests above any other consideration.”

In 2015, Yeutter and his family donated $2.5 million to the University of Nebraska Foundation to create the Clayton K. Yeutter Institute of International Trade and Finance.