Topic: Biographies
Father Francis Xavier Prefontaine was pioneer Seattle's first resident priest. He arrived in 1867 after a stint in Port Townsend, and built Seattle's first Roman Catholic church, Our Lady of Good Help...
Margarita Lopez Prentice was the first woman of Mexican heritage to serve in the state legislature. She became a member of the Washington State House of Representatives in 1988. A registered nurse, nu...
Leno Prestini was an Italian American artist who worked as a modeler for the Washington Brick and Lime Company's terra cotta operation in Clayton (Stevens County). Prestini also fired tiles and sculpt...
Josephine Corliss Preston was the first woman elected to Washington state government after the state's women won the right to vote in 1910. She served as the sixth State Superintendent of Public Instr...
Milt Priggee is an editorial cartoonist based in the state of Washington. His work has been published in Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, a...
John Edmondson Prim was the first African American to serve as deputy prosecuting attorney for King County and the first African American judge in the state.
Ruth Prins was an actor and University of Washington drama teacher in 1949 when she was recruited by KING-TV owner Dorothy Bullitt (1892-1986) as talent in the fledgling station's developing education...
Joel Pritchard was a Washington state legislator, U.S. representative, and Washington lieutenant governor during a 45-year political career. He grew up in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood and was an ...
Scottish-born B. Marcus Priteca (1889-1971) arrived in Seattle around the time of the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. An architect specializing in classical design, a chance encounter with vaude...
Thomas Prosch was a key early journalist, historian, and civic booster in Washington state. He was the son of Charles Prosch, who founded the Puget Sound Herald in Steilacoom in 1858. Thomas grew up h...
Kent Pullen served on the King County Council for 13 years representing the 9th Council District -- the southeast corner of King County. Pullen held public office in Washington state for more than 30 ...
Pete Rademacher was a rugged farm kid from the Yakima Valley who became an Olympic champion boxer and then arranged a match that rocked the boxing world. He fought for the heavyweight championship of ...
Captain Harry Ramwell (1862-1935) built construction and towboat businesses in Everett that created jobs and provided essential services for the lumber, fishing, and fruit-packing industries. Ramwell ...
Northwest photographer Mary Randlett created five distinct bodies of work: architecture, nature, Northwest artists, Northwest writers, and public art. Her resume listed images of more than 500 writers...
Dr. Dixy Lee Ray was a marine biologist, associate professor at the University of Washington, and director of Seattle's Pacific Science Center. In 1972 President Richard Nixon (1913-1994) appointed he...
Mark E. Reed was a state legislator and business leader. Reed was born in Olympia and settled in Shelton, Mason County, after joining the Simpson Logging Company. He went on to take over that company ...
Belle Reeves was Washington's eighth Secretary of State, second woman to hold statewide elective office, and first female Secretary of State. Several times in her 10-year tenure, she was acting govern...
John H. Reid came to the United States as a 4-year-old, was orphaned twice, and overcame a harsh, lonely boyhood to create a full, rich life as a Seattle newspaper publisher, civic activist, and pater...
Captain William Renton was a lumber and shipping merchant, at first based in San Francisco, who established a sawmill on Puget Sound in 1852. In 1863, he relocated to Blakely Harbor, Bainbridge Island...
Randy Revelle, a third-generation Seattleite and King County Executive from 1981 to 1985, was born into a family with a tradition of public service and politics, a tradition he diligently tried to uph...
Lawney Reyes, a Sin-Aikst Indian artist, architect, and author, overcame a childhood of poverty and discrimination to become an award-winning sculptor and a historian of Northwest Native American acti...
Constance Williams Rice, Ph.D., was named in 1985 by Seattle Weekly as one of the 25 most powerful women in Seattle. Two decades later, Rice continues to be a leader in a wide range of civic activiti...
Norm Rice was elected mayor of Seattle in 1989 and served two four-year terms. He was the first African American to win the office and the first in the nation to govern a city that had an African Amer...
Pacific Northwest novelist Tom Robbins, profoundly provoked and inspired by what he calls the "1960s renaissance," is often hailed as a comic/spiritual chronicler of that tumultuous decade. But his ei...