Anne M. Burford

Anne M. Burford (April 21 1942 – July 18 2004) was the first female Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 1981-83, serving under President Ronald Reagan.

Born Anne Irene McGill in Casper, Wyoming, she was one of five daughters and a son. A distinguished student, she studied at the University of Colorado at Boulder, earning both a bachelor and law degree there.

She was also a Fulbright Scholar, studying criminal law in India. She was an assistant district attorney and later deputy district attorney in Denver, was a corporate attorney for Mountain Bell, and also served in the Colorado House of Representatives for two terms (1976 – 1980).

Known as Anne M. Gorsuch (or Anne McGill Gorsuch), she later remarried and was also known as Anne M. Burford.

Arriving at the EPA, she advocated regulatory reform and budgetary cuts. Under her leadership, the EPA's budget (excluding Superfund) dropped by $200 million and staff was slashed 23%. Burford was later compelled to resign with twenty of her top employees after being found in contempt of Congress in a 259-105 vote after refusing to disclose documents related to a conflict of interest involving the Superfund program.

Family

She was married twice, first to David Gorsuch (whom she divorced) and later to Bureau of Land Management head, Robert Burford (whom she also divorced although the lengthy process was not completed before he died). She and Gorsuch had two sons and a daughter. One of her sons is Neil M. Gorsuch, now a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Anne Gorsuch died of cancer, aged 62, in 2004.