Ex-Arizona treasurer to step down as NASA CFO to return home
Associated Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 6 years, 7 months AGO
PHOENIX (AP) — Former Arizona state Treasurer Jeff DeWit is stepping down as chief financial officer at NASA, leaving a job he accepted nearly two years ago after helping run President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
DeWit said Wednesday he will return to Arizona and has no plans to seek another elected office.
“I’m very much looking forward to a simple life of being a Dad who shows up again to all the kids’ sports and school events, and working in the private sector,” he wrote in a note to The Associated Press.
The Republican resigned as state treasurer in March 2018 after he was nominated by Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to the post overseeing the space agency’s $22.6 billion budget.
In a letter to NASA employees announcing his decision Tuesday, DeWit said he had been in discussions about the timing of his resignation since December.
“Many of you know that it has been a sacrifice for my family as they are in Arizona, and I have only been commuting back about one weekend of every three on average,” DeWit wrote. “During busy times ... I have sometimes gone for over five weeks without seeing them.”
DeWit and his wife have three daughters and live in metro Phoenix.
He called working as CFO at NASA headquarters in Washington “the honor of a lifetime.”
“I can hardly describe how wonderful this job is, how many great people I have met here, and how much I love and will miss NASA,” he wrote. “The dedication of everyone here towards the mission is inspiring, and the people here are what I will miss the most.”
DeWit was an early supporter of Trump who served as chief operating officer for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Before running for state treasurer as a political newcomer in 2014, DeWit was CEO of an investment company he founded and worked in financial futures trading.
DeWit’s last day is Thursday.
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