Nathan Boyd Tenney

Legislative Resolution

View Legislative Resolution File for Nathan Boyd Tenney

Biographical Information

The following is from the Legislative death resolution:

The Honorable Nathan Boyd Tenney died on December 6, 2005 at the age of ninety.

Born on June 22, 1915 in Stanley, Arizona, Boyd Tenney spent his early childhood in southeastern Arizona, the fifth of ten children born to Nathan and Myrtle Tenney.  The family moved to Prescott in 1925 after droughts and other hardships hurt his father's goat and cattle businesses.  A motivated worker from an early age, Boyd Tenney herded goats for his father, and during the school year he sold local newspapers.  Following his graduation from Prescott High School, he continued to help his father in the goat business.  He served as a full-time missionary in the Mexican and Spanish American Missions from 1934 to 1936, teaching in Texas, Colorado and New Mexico, a task for which he learned Spanish.

Boyd Tenney married Rachel Teeples in the LDS temple in Salt Lake City in 1939 and they settled in Prescott, where they raised six sons and two daughters and welcomed into their home approximately thirty other individuals who were in need of a temporary place to live.  He worked in several different businesses before buying the same ranch his father had started out in 1925.  He also bought a feed store, and his hard work and long hours brought success and prosperity to both endeavors.

In 1962, Boyd Tenney embarked on a twenty-year record of public service with the Arizona legislature.  He served one term in the House of Representatives before being elected to the Senate, where he served nine terms.  He ably served his constituents in this capacity, working diligently on behalf of educational and rural issues.  He was instrumental in bringing the London Bridge to Arizona and played a vital role in establishing various state parks, museums and historical societies, including the Arizona Pioneers' Home, Yavapai College and the Sharlot Hall Museum.  Known as a consensus builder, Senator Tenney was known as a hard-working and dependable public servant and he earned the respect and admiration of individuals on both sides of the political aisle.

Despite the demands of his ranching and business endeavors and his legislative service, Boyd Tenney gave freely of his time, energy and efforts on behalf of such worthwhile community organizations as the PTA, 4-H and the Cub Scouts.  He served on the boards of the Sharlot Hall Museum and Yavapai College, and served on the Arizona Livestock Board.  In recognition of his tremendous record of service, Boyd Tenney was honored by such groups as the state Future Farmers of America, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Sharlot Hall Museum, and the Yavapai College Board named its library the Boyd Tenney Library in honor of his many contributions to that facility.

Employment

Arizona Legislative Service

Sources

Birth:  Arizona Legislative Biography sheet, AZ birth record; Death: SSDI: N. Boyd Tenney, Legislative death resolution; Occupation(s): Arizona Legislative Biography sheet, Arizona Pioneers' Home obituary; cemetery:  Arizona Gravestones.org