Topic: Biographies
James "Jimmie" Durkin gained notoriety in the Inland Empire of Eastern Washington as Spokane's legendary liquor tycoon. Wild tales abound regarding his outlandish exploits and stunts, but beyond becom...
Marjorie Ann Duryee was an artist and adventurer who pursued several careers in her lifetime – teacher, photographer, painter, poet, photo journalist – and achieved success in all. Bo...
Zoe Dusanne, Seattle's first professional modern-art dealer, introduced modern art to many residents of the Puget Sound region, and helped to catalyze the rise and international fame of the Northwest ...
Gene Duvernoy headed the land-conservation nonprofit Forterra (previously known as the Cascade Land Conservancy) from its start in 1991 through 2018. Trained as an environmental engineer and a lawyer,...
August Dvorak had a variety of accomplishments as an efficiency specialist in the Navy and as an education professor at the University of Washington. But the invention that bears his name, and that he...
William Lee Dwyer was born in Tacoma, the only child of Charles and Ila Dwyer. His parents divorced when he was 5 years old and he and his mother moved to Seattle, where she worked as a stenographer t...
Polly Dyer was a Seattle conservationist and environmentalist. Her dedication to safeguarding Washington's Olympic coastline and forests and to protecting wilderness areas across the state had a profo...
Joni Earl (b. 1953) was the executive director and CEO of Sound Transit from 2001 to 2016, responsible for rescuing Puget Sound's massive rapid transit agency from disaster. When she joined Sound Tran...
Nathan Eckstein was a prominent Seattle citizen who came to the region after being in the grocery business for 10 years in New York. He married Mina Schwabacher in 1902 and served as vice president an...
Alex Edelstein was a noted communications theorist and a professor at the University of Washington School of Journalism, where he taught for a third of a century and served for eight years as director...
Edward "Ed" Edson was a settler in Lynden, located in Whatcom County, who made numerous contributions to the town's early development. He operated the City Drug Store in Lynden for more than 50 years...
Myrtle Edwards served on the Seattle City Council from 1955 to 1969, and in March 1969 became president of the council. She carried out her work in public life within the League of Women Voters, the G...
Ben B. Ehrlichman was an investment banker and developer who played a key role in the commercial and civic life of the Puget Sound region from the 1920s through the 1960s. As the president of a holdin...
John D. Ehrlichman was a former Seattle land use lawyer who experienced both a meteoric rise and a dramatic fall from grace as a result of his loyalty to President Richard M. Nixon. He was rewarded fo...
Chief Seattle's parents were from tribes on both sides of Elliott Bay and the Duwamish River. He lived during a time of change for his people and the Puget Sound region. He welcomed the Collins and De...
Marcus and Narcissa Whitman were missionaries who came to the Walla Walla Valley from New York. They wanted to teach Indians about their religion. They also wanted the Indians to change the way they w...
Kikisoblu, the daughter of Chief Seattle was a friend to early Seattle pioneers. One of the pioneer women, Catherine Maynard, thought Kikisoblu should have a name that would let everyone know that she...
Walter Alvadore Bull was one of the first settlers of the Kittitas Valley in Central Washington. In 1869, he arrived in the region and joined about a dozen other families and unmarried men who had alr...
Known for grand-scale public artworks at outdoor sites around the country, Ellensburg artist Richard C. Elliott (1945-2008) turned the common bicycle reflector into a sophisticated art medium. He desi...
A retired municipal bond lawyer, James R. Ellis never held public office, never headed a major corporation, and was never rich. Yet, as a citizen activist for more than half a century, he left a bigge...
John Ellis, former head of Bellevue-based Puget Sound Power and Light (now Puget Sound Energy), is best known for leading the effort to keep the Mariners in Seattle and build the team a new baseball s...
Helen Engle is an environmental activist with a formidable resume of involvement, especially in issues involving South Puget Sound. Early on she joined the Seattle Audubon Society and in 1969 co-found...
In his more than three decades as the head gardener at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, Carl S. English Jr. created and nurtured the gardens that now bear his name. Sar...
Jesse Epstein was the primary force behind the creation of the Seattle Housing Authority and was just 29 years old when he was appointed its first director in 1939. He was working for the University o...