Former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington joins the Think Tank

Perspectives on Arizona History, Part 3 of 4: Gov. Fife Symington

He is our sole guest in this our third of four shows retracing Arizona history. We promise a fascinating insight into a most interesting man — and at least one blockbuster statement.

You’ll have to listen in to know what that one is, but it was staggering and relevant to our current presidential politics.

Symington is known in town as a successful developer, a former governor and a pastry chef. We’ll even discuss how the latter came about and why. In this interview, we explore some of the lesser known aspects of his life including some of the more incongruous:

• His childhood friendship with John Waters, the producer of some of the weirder stuff to come out of Hollywood (“Pink Flamingos?” Not the sort of stuff anyone would normally associate with the straight-laced blue-blooded Symington)
• His encounter with a young Bill Clinton when both were in college. Symington actually saved Clinton’s life, a fact that never went over well in Republican precinct meetings.
• While the Clinton encounter has been reported elsewhere, another interesting factoid concerns and early life encounter with Al Gore — they literally and violently butted heads.

While he was governor, Symington was convicted of financial crimes for actions during his time as a developer. While his case was on appeal, he knew that, should he lose the appeal, he would have to report to prison on 24-hour notice. This was a very real to him: He actually had a duffle bag packed for that eventuality. How did he go about living his life with this Wword of Damocles hanging over his head?

A fascinating and fast-paced interview with former Gov. Fife Symington.