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D168504-3
Date(s)
- 1978-03-07 (Creation)
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Washington Governor Dr. Dixy Lee Ray attends the annual meeting of the Downtown Tacoma Association on March 7, 1978, where she was the feature speaker. She indicated that she would ensure the Tacoma Spur met no delay from environmental opposition. Dr. Ray stated that she did not want a repeat of the I-90 situation in Seattle. She praised the business community for the self-improvement Tacoma has already shown. Governor Ray was then in the middle of her sole term as state chief executive. She was the first woman governor of Washington and the first woman, and last chairperson, of the Atomic Energy Commission. Born in Tacoma in 1914 in a working-class family, she worked her way through college to emerge with a doctorate in zoology from Stanford University. She served on the faculty of the University of Washington, specializing in marine biology, and was the director of Seattle's Pacific Science Center before accepting an appointment by President Nixon to the Atomic Energy Commission. She made a successful bid for the governor's chair in November, 1976, defeating Republican John D. Spellman. Following her term in office, she retired to her Fox Island home and co-authored two books on environmentalists with her biographer, Lou Guzzo. Dr. Ray died on January 2, 1994 at the age of 79. Photograph ordered by the Downtown Tacoma Association. ALBUM 10. (Seattle/King Co. HistoryLink.org; TNT 3-8-78, A-5)
Governors; Ray, Dixy Lee, 1914-1994; Meetings--Tacoma--1970-1980;