Topic: Biographies
After a long journey by wagon train from Illinois, William and Sarah Bell and their four daughters arrived in Portland, Oregon Territory, on October 15, 1851. There Bell met Arthur A. Denny (1822-1899...
Jack Benaroya was a real-estate developer, civic leader, and philanthropist. He was a pioneer in the development and packaging of industrial parks in the Pacific Northwest and sold his holdings in 198...
Tacoma's Eddie Bentz was never as famous as some of his partners in crime, such as Machine Gun Kelly or Baby Face Nelson, but then, Eddie never liked cheap publicity. J. Edgar Hoover, or more probably...
Henry F. "Dode" Bercot, the "Monroe Bearcat," was a welterweight boxer, fighting matches in the Pacific Northwest in the 1920s and early 1930s. By trade a high rigger in the logging camps around Monro...
Duane Berentson served for 18 years (1962-1980) as a Washington state legislator representing Burlington, Skagit County, and specializing in transportation issues. In 1981, he became the first non-eng...
Considered one of the Pacific Northwest's most influential landscape architects, Tom Berger was born in northern California on March 7, 1945. He moved with his parents and six siblings to Port Orchard...
Don Julian Bernier, known as Wenatchee’s godfather of rock and roll, helped introduced Central Washington to America’s newest pop-music genre in the late 1950s. Born in Winthrop in 1937, B...
C. M. "Mike" Berry was president of the Seattle First National Bank. His service to the community included volunteer work with Seafair and involvement with the Salvation Army, the Mother Joseph Founda...
Primarily known for his historical novels of early Oregon country -- Trask, Moontrap, and To Build a Ship -- Don Berry lived and worked from 1974 until his death in 2001 as a writer, painter, musician...
Overton Berry, a kindly pianist who lived in Seattle from 1945 until his death in 2020, saw and did it all, from podunk lounge gigs to major jazz festivals, from one-nighters to years-long extended en...
James Bertrand was one of northern Whatcom County's earliest settlers. He was there not only during many key moments in the county's early history, but also during key moments in the early history of ...
Bob Betz (b. 1948) is a leader and pioneer in the Washington wine industry. After growing up in Seattle, he took several trips to Europe and fell in love with the culture of winemaking. He abandoned h...
During a career spanning about 45 years, sculptor Richard S. Beyer created more than 90 works of public art installed in cities and towns, primarily in Oregon and Washington state. In 1968 he received...
Father William J. "Bix" Bichsel was a working-class Catholic priest who became a radical antinuclear activist and community builder in Tacoma, Pierce County. Bichsel grew up in Tacoma and received his...
From his home workshop/film studio in SeaTac, famously reclusive and idiosyncratic Pacific Northwest animation artist Bruce Bickford for three decades produced undeniably visionary art films. Although...
Sue Bird, a point guard for the Seattle Storm, was one of the most accomplished players in the history of women's basketball and among the best professional athletes in Seattle’s sports history....
John Doyle Bishop operated one of Seattle's most fashionable retail establishments for three decades and positioned himself as a style leader in the city. He provided his customers with luxury ready-t...
The political careers of the Bishop brothers, Thomas G. and William Jr., spanned a critical transition period for Coast Salish people in Western Washington between 1900 and 1935 that shaped subsequent...
After the Puget Sound "Indian War" of 1855-1856, a number of high-status Coast Salish refugees relocated to Chimacum Prairie, south of Port Townsend at the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula. T...
Gregory Blackstock (1946-2023) worked for decades at menial jobs, and then suddenly, in his 50s, gained international acclaim for his extraordinary artwork. Born with a prodigious memory for subtle va...
David Blaine and Catharine Paine Blaine came to Seattle from Seneca Falls, New York, the site of America's first women's rights convention, in which Catharine Paine participated. The Blaines were Meth...
Alden J. Blethen purchased The Seattle Daily Times, a newspaper with a minuscule circulation, in 1896. Moving from Minneapolis to Seattle, Blethen then built the paper's circulation by introducing lar...
Prentice Bloedel was a leader of the timber industry. He left a brief teaching career to join the management of his family's far-flung timber empire and led the industry's forest-conservation efforts....
Kenny Boas, a laid-back piano player, was born and raised in Seattle's Central Area. Boas hung out and performed, often as the only Jewish musician, with jazz heavyweights including Floyd Standifer (1...