Dixy Lee Ray | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 17thGovernor of Washington | |
| In office January 12, 1977 – January 14, 1981 | |
| Lieutenant | John Cherberg |
| Preceded by | Daniel J. Evans |
| Succeeded by | John Spellman |
| 1stAssistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs | |
| In office January 19, 1975 – June 20, 1975 | |
| President | Gerald Ford |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Frederick Irving |
| Chair of theAtomic Energy Commission | |
| In office February 6, 1973 – January 18, 1975 | |
| President | Richard Nixon Gerald Ford |
| Preceded by | James Schlesinger |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Marguerite Ray (1914-09-03)September 3, 1914 Tacoma, Washington, U.S. |
| Died | January 2, 1994(1994-01-02) (aged 79) Fox Island, Washington, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education | Mills College (BS,MS) Stanford University (PhD) |
| Signature |  |
Dixy Lee Ray (September 3, 1914 – January 2, 1994) was an American academic, scientist, and politician who served as the17th governor of Washington from 1977 to 1981. Variously described as idiosyncratic and "ridiculously smart," she was the state's first female governor and was in office during the1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. She was a supporter ofatomic energy.
A graduate ofMills College andStanford University, where she earned a doctorate in biology, Ray became an associate professor at theUniversity of Washington in 1957. She was chief scientist aboard the schoonerSSTe Vega during theInternational Indian Ocean Expedition. Under her guidance, the nearly bankruptPacific Science Center was transformed from a traditional, exhibit-oriented museum to an interactive learning center, and returned to solvency.
In 1973, Ray was appointed chairman of theUnited States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) byPresidentRichard Nixon. Under her leadership, research and development were separated from safety programs, andMilton Shaw, the head of the powerful reactor development division, was removed. She was appointedAssistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs by PresidentGerald Ford in 1975, but resigned six months later, complaining about lack of input into department decision making.
Ray ran for election asGovernor of Washington as aDemocrat in1976. She won the election despite her blunt, sometimes confrontational, style. As governor, she approved allowingsupertankers to dock inPuget Sound, championed support for unrestrained growth and development, and continued to express enthusiasm for atomic energy. On April 3, 1980, she declared astate of emergency as a result of thevolcanic eruption ofMount St. Helens. She retired after losing her re-election bid for the Democratic nominationlater that year.
Ray was bornMarguerite Ray inTacoma, Washington, to Frances Adams Ray and Alvis Marion Ray, the second in a family of five girls. She joined theGirl Scouts and, at the age of 12, became the youngest girl, up to that time, to summitMount Rainier.[1][2] In 1930, at age 16, she legally changed her name to "Dixy Lee"; as a child she had been referred to by family members as "little Dickens" (an idiom for "devil") and Dixy was a shortened form of the nickname.[3] She chose "Lee" because of a family connection toRobert E. Lee.[3]
Ray attended Tacoma'sStadium High School and graduated as valedictorian fromMills College inOakland, California, in 1937, working her way through school as a waitress and janitor.[2] She went on to earn a master's degree in 1938. Her thesis was titledA Comparative Study of the Life Habits of Some Species of BurrowingEumalacostraca. Ray spent the next four years teaching science in theOakland Unified School District. In 1942, a John Switzer Fellowship allowed her to enter a doctoral program in biology atStanford University.[4] Ray's dissertation wasThe peripheral nervous system ofLampanyctus leucopsarus, a lanternfish.[5] She completed the research for her dissertation in 1945 at theHopkins Marine Station inPacific Grove,California.[6] She is known to have lived a rather unconventional lifestyle, calling her house trailer and two dogs home, and therefore contributing a diverse perspective to theWashington bureaucracy.[7]
In 1945, Ray returned to Washington to accept a position as an instructor in thezoology department at theUniversity of Washington. She was promoted to assistant professor in 1947 and, five years later, received a prestigiousJohn Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship grant, which she used to undertake six months ofpostdoctoral research atCaltech.[8] In 1957, she was made an associate professor at the University of Washington. During her time there, she also served as chief scientist aboard the schoonerSSTe Vega during the International Indian Ocean Expedition.[4] Her reputation in the classroom swung between wild extremes; students either "loved her or loathed her", as did faculty members. One fellow professor reportedly described her as "an intemperate, feeble-minded old bitch".[9]
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Intrigued by her reputation as a person who could "make science interesting," producers atKCTS-TV, Seattle'sPBS member station, approached Ray about hosting a weekly television program on marine biology. The show,Animals of the Seashore, was a hit and helped propel her into the public eye beyond campus. Her growing popularity led thePacific Science Center to invite Ray to take over the nearly-bankrupt science museum for an annual salary of $20,000. Ray jumped at the opportunity and immediately began a top-to-bottom overhaul of the center, declaring "I'll be damned if I'm going to become a landlady to a hoary old museum." Under Ray's guidance, the Pacific Science Center was converted from a traditional, exhibit-oriented museum to an interactive learning center.[9]
Ray's hands-on approach to running the Pacific Science Center reflected at every level. She kept a police whistle in her desk that she would use to run off loiteringhippies.[10] Jim Anderson, who would eventually teach fisheries science at the University of Washington, recalled a typical encounter with Ray, for whom he worked at the Pacific Science Center in 1968:[11]
Her driving was infamous and my one ride with her, in a three-quarter-ton flatbed truck, was wholly memorable. Admittedly, it was an early Sunday morning, but sliding through stop signs, a few crosswise, was disconcerting at best. The ride went over the top when we reached the Science Center. The lot was full of cars without permits. Trying to fit in a very small space with a large flatbed truck, she dented two cars, broke the taillight off a third, and finally vaporized the rear window of a fourth.
Ray led the Pacific Science Center back into financial solvency. Her aggressive fundraising for the center also helped introduce her to many of the city's most influential citizens, including SenatorWarren Magnuson.[3]
An advocate ofnuclear power, in 1973 Ray was appointed byRichard Nixon to chair theU.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) on the recommendation of SenatorWarren Magnuson. The offer of appointment came via a telephone call after she was paged in an airport. After being told she would have to relocate toWashington, D.C., Ray declined the offer, saying "I'm living where I like to live." Nonetheless, she ultimately relented after being persuaded by her longtime friendLou Guzzo.[10][12]
Following her appointment to the commission, news of her personal eccentricities began to emerge after reporters discovered she was living out of a 28-footmotor home, which was parked on a lot in ruralVirginia.[3] Each morning she was chauffeured from her RV to the AEC offices inGermantown, Maryland, accompanied by her 100-pound (45 kg)Scottish deerhound Ghillie and aminiature poodle named Jacques.[3][13] Media reports commented on her unusual hosiery (white knee socks).[3]
Her personal quirks were widely perceived as a weakness by tenured bureaucrats. A profile by Graham Chedd inNew Scientist explained that,
Almost everyone found the eccentricities delightful, and preserved theirmacho with speculations of the mincemeat that would be made of her by such AEC "heavies" as Milton Shaw, head of the powerful division of reactor development, andChet Holifield, the iron man of the congressionaljoint committee on atomic energy.[14]
However, less than a year after taking over, Ray had forced Shaw out, ordering that research and development be separated from safety programs as some environmental groups had demanded.[14] In addition to its research responsibilities, the AEC was charged with the manufacture of nuclear weapons for the U.S. military. Ray would later fondly recall the first time she saw a nuclear warhead, describing it "like a piece of beautiful sculpture, a work of the highest level of technological skill."[2]
During her time as commission chair, which lasted until the AEC was abolished in 1975,[15] Ray presented a 17-year-oldEric Lander with first place in theWestinghouse Science Talent Search.[16]
In 1975, Ray was appointedAssistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs byGerald Ford, but resigned five months later, complaining about lack of input into department decision making. She subsequently told aUnited States Senate committee that she "saw Secretary of StateHenry Kissinger only once – the day she was sworn in as an assistant secretary of state."[3][17] In a parting shot as she left D.C., Ray declared that "anything the private sector can do, the government can do it worse."[10]
To the surprise of many, Ray announced in 1975 she would seek election asGovernor of Washington. Later asked why she decided to make her first run for public office the highest office in the state, she would reason, "I was much too old to start at the bottom, so I decided to start at the top."[12] Though previously politically unaffiliated, she declared herself aDemocrat.[3]
Ray displayed a blunt, sometimes confrontational, style on the campaign trail, for which she would later become known. During a visit with the Dorian Society, a Seattlegay rights group, she was asked by one member if she had met any gay federal employees and if they ever felt under pressure. Ray responded, "I don't know any – you can't tell by looking at them," drawing applause from attendees.[18] In another instance, she declaredSeattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Shelby Scates, who had deluged her with tough questions on the campaign trail, would "learn what the wordspersona non grata really mean" after her election.[10]
Ray narrowly won the Democratic nomination overSeattle mayorWes Uhlman, having spent almost no money on her campaign, having no experience in running for elected office, and having little support from the state's political class.[10] Despite opposition from all major newspapers and predictions from pundits that the state was not ready "for an unmarried woman who gave herself a chainsaw for Christmas," Ray went on to winthe general election with a victory overKing County ExecutiveJohn D. Spellman, 53%–44%.[19] On election night, asked by a reporter to explain her surprise victory, she offered, "it can't be because I'm so pretty?"[1]
After assuming office, Ray tightened Washington state spending and began an audit of state salaries and programs. She balanced the state budget and during her tenure as Governor oversaw the state's first full funding for basic public education. As the first resident of theGovernor's Mansion without aFirst Lady, Ray hired her elder sister Marion R. Reid to serve as her official hostess.[3]
Nonetheless, she quickly alienated fellow Democrats with her conservative views on energy and the environment. She approved allowingsupertankers to dock inPuget Sound, championed support for unrestrained growth and development, and continued to express enthusiasm for atomic power.[3] She likewise alienated the state's Republican establishment after she fired 124 appointees of her predecessor, three-term governorDaniel J. Evans, offering to send them "a box ofkleenex with their pink slips."[19] She filled their places with old colleagues, described by some as "yes men."[20] Her treatment of the media was similarly dismissive. Local television reporter Paul Boyd once interviewed the governor while she was dressed in "a rattyBan-lon sports shirt,sweat pants covered with dog hair, red socks, and tennis shoes."[10]
Ray's uncompromising belief in the correctness of her views occasionally spilled over state lines. During what was supposed to be a routine joint press conference inBoise, Idaho, by the governors of Washington,Oregon, andIdaho in which the three touted the benefits ofenergy conservation, Ray reacted with barely concealed disdain to Oregon governorRobert W. Straub's call for legislation to encourage the installation ofhome insulation. "I don't believe our citizens are lax, or lazy, or indifferent," Ray fired. "In Washington we have a strong voluntary energy conservation program. We don't need legislative incentives."[21]
Back in Washington, Ray sometimes engaged in elaborate ceremony; on her inauguration she hosted not just one but nine inaugural balls.[10] To promulgate House Bill 491, a relatively minor $13 million appropriations measure, she had nearly 1,000 people assembled in the rotunda of the Legislative Building (theAssociated Press noted, at the time, that it was ordinarily "unusual for more than a dozen people to show up" to bill signings, which would customarily be held in the governor's office).[22]
Press and political opposition solidified in the face of her unyielding style of governance. In a critical 1977 article inMother Jones,Ray Mungo labeled Ray as a "slightly wackyMiss Marple" and described the increasingly madcap atmosphere in Washington:
For the first time in the four years that I've lived in Seattle, the political climate is volatile, exciting, terrifying. Each day's newspapers bring fresh atrocities from Olympia, the state capital. The opposition is mounting with volcanic pressure, and the press is almost universally merciless with Dixy. But she plows forward with a stamina that could belong only to someone who, when not living in the governor's mansion, lives on an island, in a mobile home, with five dogs.
Ralph Nader, during a visit to the state, called Ray's administration "gubernatorial lunacy."[10] Ray's own campaign manager, Blair Butterworth, vaguely quipped, "we thought she would be the best governor Washington ever had, or the worst, and we were right."[23] Support from her fellow scientists, however, was often positive;Edward Teller called Ray "a very wonderful lady" and said he would support her if she ran forPresident of the United States in the 1980 election.[24]
On April 3, 1980, Ray declared astate of emergency as a result of the worsening threat ofvolcanic eruption posed byMount St. Helens. Warning that "the possibility of a major eruption or mudflow is real," she urged a sometimes skeptical public to stay away from the mountain.[25]
The emergency decree was followed, on April 30, by the declaration of a "red zone" in southwestern Washington where public access would be banned and relocation of the population would be compelled by state troops, if necessary. Ray ordered theWashington National Guard mobilized and the deployment of theWashington State Patrol to reinforce the sheriffs ofCowlitz County andSkamania County in carrying out her declaration, with violation punishable by six months imprisonment. TheU.S. Forest Service later credited the red zone restrictions with saving 5,000 to 30,000 people from certain death.[26] At the same time, however, Ray was criticized for establishing a parallel "blue zone" where the public was generally banned, butWeyerhaeuser loggers were permitted. (When the mountain finally erupted, 11 of those killed were loggers operating in the blue zone. A subsequentlawsuit by families of the deceased, alleging negligence against the state, would be summarily dismissed in court for lack of evidence.)[27] After the eruption, Ray would falsely claim that all killed were near the mountain illegally while it was found all but one individual was allowed to be there. On the day of the eruption a request to expand the blue zone sat on Ray's desk unsigned.[28]
As a scientist, Ray was fascinated by the possibility of an eruption. In the weeks leading up to the fateful event, Ray flew to the mountain in the governor's plane, circling the peak and remarking, "I've always said I wanted to live long enough to see one of our volcanoes erupt."[29] The cataclysmiceruption of the mountain, which occurred on May 18, 1980, killed 57 people. The level of devastation caused by the ensuing ash cloud, earthquakes, electrical storms, and flooding was unprecedented and, the following day, Ray invoked her emergency powers to postpone local elections, which had been scheduled for May 20.[30]
Ray ran for reelection in 1980, enlistingRepublican consultantMontgomery Johnson to head her campaign after her former manager, Butterworth, had defected to her rival, then-State SenatorJim McDermott. She lost to McDermott in a contentious Democraticprimary election, 56%–41%, during which bumper stickers emblazoned with "Nixy on Dixy" and "Ditch the Bitch" became popular campaigntchotchkes. McDermott himself went on to lose in the general election to RepublicanJohn D. Spellman.[20]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Booknotes interview with Ray onTrashing the Planet, June 16, 1991,C-SPAN |
After leaving office, Ray retired to her farm onFox Island. She was frequently in the news giving her opinion of current events. TheSeattle Post-Intelligencer quoted her as saying she favored "abolishing political parties and taking away voting rights from anyone who fails to vote in two consecutive elections."[3] During her retirement she co-authored two books withLou Guzzo critical of theenvironmentalist movement. In one of those books,Trashing the Planet, she described environmentalists as "mostly white, middle to upper income and predominantly college educated ... they are distinguished by a vocal do-good mentality that sometimes cloaks a strong streak ofelitism that is often coupled with a belief that the end justifies the means."
Dixy Lee Ray died on January 2, 1994, at her home. Shortly before her death, it was reported that she had had a bronchial infection, which led topneumonia, as the cause of her death.[31] Later, controversy erupted after it emerged that employees of thePierce County medical examiner's office had kept autopsy photos of Ray as souvenirs.[32]
Ray's death was met with opinionated reflections on her life by her many friends and enemies. She was eulogized by her successor as governor,John Spellman, as "one of a kind." "She had a brilliant mind," Spellman said. "Her strength was as a teacher and a lecturer. She had this really bubbling personality. People weren't quite used to anybody that outspoken. But whatever she said, people still loved her."[20]
Former state senatorGordon Walgren, who had been indicted on federalracketeering charges based on evidence collected by theState Patrol during Ray's term, recalled her in different tones. "I'm sure she made valuable contributions as an educator," Walgren noted. "I can't remember any as governor."[20]
Ray's friend and a co-author in two of her books, Lou Guzzo, concluded that "she should have never gone into politics." "We thought it was time for someone in politics who tells the truth all the time," Guzzo recalled. "It didn't work."[20]
In 2014, veteran Seattle journalistKnute Berger opined that Ray was ahead of her time. "It's interesting to note that many of her views are either mainstream or are creeping back into acceptability," Berger wrote.[33]
After her death, theAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) established an award in Dixy Lee Ray's honor for engineering contributions to the field of environmental protection. The award, which consists of a bronze medal with the governor's likeness and a cash grant, was first given to Clyde W. Frank in 1999 and has been made annually since.[34]
Ray's papers, totaling 190 boxes of records and memorabilia spanning her career, are in deposit at theHoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford University.
Ray was the recipient of twenty honorary doctorates from U.S. and foreign universities.[1]
The subject of Dixy Lee Ray's sexual orientation was carefully avoided in public discussion both during and after her life. While there were many rumors regarding her sexuality, the specific word "lesbian" was never used to describe her and many people have dismissed those rumors as speculation born of Ray'stomboy characteristics and unmarried status, rather than informed assessment.[19][37]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Dixy Lee Ray | 205,232 | 35.1 | |
| Democratic | Wes Uhlman | 198,336 | 33.9 | |
| Democratic | Marvin Durning | 136,290 | 23.3 | |
| Democratic | Duke Stockton | 5,588 | 1.0 | |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Dixy Lee Ray | 821,797 | 53.14 | |
| Republican | John Spellman | 689,039 | 44.43 | |
| American | Art Manning | 12,406 | 0.80 | |
| OWL | Red Kelly | 12,400 | 0.80 | |
| Socialist Labor | Henry Killman | 4,137 | 0.27 | |
| Libertarian | Maurice W. Willey | 4,133 | 0.27 | |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Jim McDermott | 321,256 | 56.37 | |
| Democratic | Dixy Lee Ray (incumbent) | 234,252 | 41.10 | |
| Democratic | Caroline (Hope) Diamond | 4,184 | 0.73 | |
| Democratic | Robert L. Baldwin | 3,578 | 0.63 | |
| Democratic | Lloyd G. Isley | 2,723 | 0.48 | |
| Democratic | Douglas P. Bestle | 2,481 | 0.44 | |
| Democratic | Jef Jaisun | 1,476 | 0.26 | |
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| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Chair of theAtomic Energy Commission 1973–1975 | Position abolished |
| New office | Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs 1975 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forGovernor of Washington 1976 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of Washington 1977–1981 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
