Draft:John Stender

John H. Stender (July 16, 1919 – January 19, 1993) was an American politician and government official.

Early life
Stender was born on July 16, 1919, in Ismay, Montana. He had a sister, Evelyn, and a brother, Carl. He grew up on a ranch and attended Ismay High School, where he graduated from in 1932. He graduated from Billings Polytechnic Institutite (now Rocky Mountain College) in Billings, Montana at the age of 18, and moved to Seattle, Washington, where he worked at a shipyard. He became a member of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders, Forgers and Helpers, and later one of the union's business agents, remaining in the union for 40 years and rising to the rank of international vice president. Stender married his wife Mary Ruth and had a daughter, JoAnne, two sons, John Jr. and James, and a step-daughter, Joan.

Political career
A Republican, Stender became an executive board member of the King County Republican Club and in 1961, he was elected Republican Man of the Year. He ran for the United States House of Representatives to represent the 7th district of Washington in the 1960 elections. Stender won the Republican primary with 15,800 votes, compared to 10,500 votes for Dan Danilov and 6,400 votes for Robert H. Howard. He ran in the general election against Democrat Don Magnuson, who had drunkly collapsed in a restaurant shortly after the primaries. Stender found his campaign taken over by a public relations company and, receiving large numbers of donations, ran on his union background, including printing a brochure showing him with Nelson Rockefeller, the Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell and blue collar workers. After initially being presumed to be the winner, he lost the election to Magnuson after a full count of the absentee ballots. The Republicans demanded a recount, which maintained Magnuson's victory with a margin of 139 votes.

Stender was first elected to the Washington State Senate in 1962 for the 30th district and served three terms until his resignation on March 19, 1973. In 1970, he introduced legislation to require state colleges to expel students for disruptive behavior. He was appointed by President Richard Nixon in 1973 to lead the newly-established Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration as its first director.

Stender was appointed to the Selective Service Adminstration in 1975 by President Gerald Ford as an assistant secretary until 1977, when he became an assistant secretary for labor affairs within the Environmental Protection Agency.

Death and legacy
Stender died on January 16, 1993, at the Hallmark Nursing Home in Federal Way, Seattle. He died of bone cancer at the age of 76.