John Stender; First Director of OSHA

John Stender, 76, appointed by President Richard M. Nixon as the first director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. He was named head of OSHA, which oversees workplace safety in the United States, in 1973. In 1975, he was appointed by President Gerald R. Ford as assistant secretary of the Selective Service Administration and the next year to a labor affairs job in the Environmental Protection Agency. In 1962, Stender was elected to the Washington state Senate, where he served three terms before being named to the OSHA post. In Federal Way, Wash., on Saturday of bone cancer.