The former First Lady of Washington State went far beyond renovating a mansion, embracing a woman’s right to make her own reproductive health decisions, and pursuing an array of interests and good works.
Tag: Obituaries
Henry Kissinger: 1923–2023
Transfixed with power, Kissinger had little regard for small countries or people perceived as getting in the way.
Steve Pool: 1953–2023
Born November 5th, 1953, Pool grew up in Western Washington. He went to Tyee High School in SeaTac and served his peers as student body president. He went to college at the University of Washington and became a KOMO intern during those years. After he graduated in 1978 with a major in communications, he was hired to work at the station full time as a reporter, covering hard news and sports.
Don Bonker: 1937–2023
Read NPI’s obituary of contributor Don Bonker, a former United States Representative from Washington who served in Congress with distinction for many years.
Dori Monson: 1961–2022
Longtime right wing talk radio host Dori Monson died suddenly this weekend of an unspecified condition after being hospitalized, his employer Bonneville Seattle announced on its website today. Monson was sixty-one.
Don Young: 1933–2022
The longest-serving member of the United States House of Representatives and the only person to have represented the State of Alaska in Congress since the Watergate era has unexpectedly passed away.
Nevada’s Harry Reid, a lion of the U.S. Senate and a conservation champion, passes on
Harry Reid served thirty years in the Senate. His biggest achievement for his state was arguably killing the U.S. Department of Energy’s plans to use Yucca Mountain as a repository for “spent” but highly radioactive fuel rods from the nation’s nuclear power plants — which he did almost single-handedly.
Justice Mary Fairhurst: 1957–2021
One of Washington State’s best, most distinguished jurists has passed on. Read NPI’s appreciation of Justice Mary Fairhurst, who served the people of Washington for decades on the Supreme Court.
Republican State Senator Doug Ericksen has died after contracting COVID-19 last month
Ericksen, fifty-two, represented the 42nd Legislative District, which currently encompasses much of Whatcom County, including portions of the City of Bellingham.
George Fleming passes on: He ran wild in the Rose Bowl, later served twenty years as a sturdy, progressive state legislator for Seattle
The death of Fleming at eighty-three has evoked Baby Boomer memories of when the Dawgs upset favored foes two New Year’s Days in a row, and of the first African-American to serve in the State Senate and champion of such causes as the Martin Luther King holiday.
So long, soldier: The dour side, the bright side and wit of Bob Dole, dead at ninety-eight, the last of our “Greatest Generation” politicians
Read NPI contributor Joel Connelly’s remembrance of former Republican presidential candidate and Senate leader Bob Dole.
Walter Mondale: 1928–2021
Read NPI’s appreciation of the late Vice President Walter Mondale, a stalwart progressive leader from Minnesota, authored by Joel Connelly.
The airbrushing of the late Rush Limbaugh: A mocking, racist demagogue is depicted as shy, private, and “enormously generous”
For decades, Rush Limbaugh heaped abuse on people as a syndicated practitioner of hate speech. Now he’s gone. His contemporaries in right wing media are now trying to memorialize a Rush who never existed.
Jay Pearson, 1948–2020: Mellow manager of Democrats’ victories and comebacks helped build Washington’s governing party
Read NPI contributor Joel Connelly’s celebration of the life and accomplishments of Jay Pearson, who for decades worked to help elect Democrats and empower them to govern well once in office.