Tall Paul

Paul Fannin liked to joke that his segue to politics from his career selling natural gas or propane was natural. Both featured lots of “hot air.” He brought customer service and a businessman’s approach to the governor’s office of an emerging Arizona in the late 1950s, actively recruiting economic opportunities and cultivating financial, cultural and environmental ties with the Sonoran state in Mexico where he said, “God made us neighbors. Let us be good neighbors.”

As a two-term US Senator,...