--- title: John Dean Remembers 'Honest, Fair' William Ruckelshaus description: Watergate-era White House Counsel John Dean remembers a key player in the Saturday Night Massacre: William Ruckelshaus, who has died at 87. canonical: https://time.com/5743203/william-ruckelshaus-john-dean/ author: John Dean article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-12-03T20:01:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T07:51:05.330Z article:section: History og:title: John Dean Remembers 'Honest, Fair' William Ruckelshaus og:description: Ruckelshaus has died at 87 og:url: https://time.com/5743203/william-ruckelshaus-john-dean/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb5531b39c658680a/698a06ef22fb85428ce2a3ff/GettyImages-515108696.jpg?branch=production&width=685&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 685 og:image:height: 385 og:image:alt: William Ruckelshaus og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Dean Remembers 'Honest, Fair' William Ruckelshaus twitter:description: Ruckelshaus has died at 87 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb5531b39c658680a/698a06ef22fb85428ce2a3ff/GettyImages-515108696.jpg?branch=production&width=685&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John Dean: William Ruckelshaus 'Would Do the Right Thing in Virtually Any Situation' > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [John Dean](https://time.com/author/john-dean/) ## John Dean Dec 3, 2019 8:01 PM UTC  Acting FBI Director William Ruckelshaus on May 14, 1973. Acting FBI Director William Ruckelshaus on May 14, 1973. Bettmann/Contributor—Getty Images by [John Dean](https://time.com/author/john-dean/) ## John Dean Dec 3, 2019 8:01 PM UTC I met William Ruckelshaus—who died on Nov. 27 at 87—at the Department of Justice when he ran the civil division, and I was Associate Deputy Attorney General. Ruckelshaus came late to Watergate. He’d been the first administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, starting in 1970, before he took over the FBI in April 1973; President Nixon thought Ruckelshaus looked like an FBI director because he was kind of jowly. I didn’t have regular dealings with him, but one of the more interesting conversations we had over the years was about the Saturday Night Massacre, the firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox on Oct. 20, 1973\. Nixon told Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson wouldn’t do it and resigned. White House Chief of Staff Al Haig called the Deputy Attorney General—who, by then, was Ruckelshaus. Ruckelshaus wouldn’t fire Cox either. Solicitor General Robert Bork, the third in line, did. Later, Ruckelshaus told me he and Richardson pleaded with Bork to do it, because if he resigned too, there was no clear next step. They worried about chaos—who would sign orders? Ruckelshaus also said that Cox, his former law school professor, told him, “You did just what I expected you to do.” I think everyone who knew Ruckelshaus thought he was an honest, fair individual who would do the right thing in virtually any situation. _Dean, who was White House Counsel during Watergate, is now a CNN commentator_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5743203/william-ruckelshaus-john-dean/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5743203/william-ruckelshaus-john-dean/"},"headline":"John Dean: William Ruckelshaus 'Would Do the Right Thing in Virtually Any Situation'","datePublished":"2019-12-03T20:01:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T07:51:05.330Z","description":"Ruckelshaus has died at 87","url":"https://time.com/5743203/william-ruckelshaus-john-dean/","keywords":["remembrance"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb5531b39c658680a/698a06ef22fb85428ce2a3ff/GettyImages-515108696.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"John Dean","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/john-dean/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb5531b39c658680a/698a06ef22fb85428ce2a3ff/GettyImages-515108696.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"William Ruckelshaus","caption":"Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director William Ruckelshaus","creditText":"Bettmann/Contributor—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5743203/william-ruckelshaus-john-dean/","name":"John Dean: William Ruckelshaus 'Would Do the Right Thing in Virtually Any Situation'"}}]}] ```