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Dewitty, Thelma (1912-1977)

Thelma Dewitty was the first black teacher to be hired by the Seattle Public Schools. She joined the corps in September 1947, after intervention on her behalf by the Seattle Urban League, NAACP, the C...

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Dicks, Norman "Norm" (b. 1940)

As a longtime U.S. Representative, Norm Dicks (b. 1940) spent his career in Congress representing the same blue-collar, working-class district in which he was born and raised. A native of Bremerton, D...

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Dillard, Annie (b. 1945)

Place has primacy in the writing of Annie Dillard, and the history and geography of Washington figure notably in several of her books. Even though she resided only four years in the state, two of thos...

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Dobie, Gilmour (1879-1948)

Gilmour Dobie was a legendary coach for the University of Washington football team. The team has been called Huskies ever since 1922, but in the Dobie era it did not have an official name or mascot. I...

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Doig, Ivan (1939-2015)

Ivan Doig spent much of his adult life in the Seattle area but his imagination rarely wandered far from his native Montana. The author of 13 novels and three nonfiction books, including the acclaimed ...

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Dore, John Francis (1881-1938)

John Francis Dore served as Mayor of Seattle twice during the Great Depression. He entered office a staunch advocate of fiscal economy (budget cuts), but he lost reelection after he alienated the unem...

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Dorpat, Paul (b. 1938)

Well known for his many books and publications on Seattle, past and present, Paul Dorpat has contributed more than 1,300 "Now & Then" features to The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine. Dorp...

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Douglas, William O. (1898-1980)

William O. Douglas, who grew up in Yakima, was appointed to the United States Supreme Court at the age of 40 and served for more than 36 years, longer than any other justice in the Court's history. Bo...

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Dover, Harriette Shelton Williams (1904-1991)

Daughter of Chief William Shelton -- the famed Tulalip storyteller, wood-carver, and cultural leader -- Harriette Shelton Williams Dover, followed her father's fine example and invested her entire adu...

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Dugdale, Daniel E. (1864-1934)

Daniel E. Dugdale was born in Peoria, Illinois, on October 18, 1864, and soon learned to play the new game called baseball. He starred on some of the first professional teams as a catcher, but was lur...

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Dunbar, Bonnie J. (b. 1949)

Bonnie Dunbar, the first woman from Washington state to become an astronaut, rocketed into space five times. Only a handful of other American astronauts have heard the countdown to liftoff from the in...

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Duniway, Abigail Scott (1834-1915)

Oregon suffragist Abigail Jane Scott Duniway was a nationally known pioneer leader for women's suffrage who worked regionally in what became the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Born on an Ill...

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Dunlap, Ronald W. (b. 1937)

Ron Dunlap served three terms as a Washington State Representative and 10 months as King County Executive, appointed to fill the term of the county's first Executive, John D. Spellman (1926-2018), who...

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Dunn, Jennifer Blackburn (1941-2007)

Jennifer Dunn was the first woman to serve as Washington State Republican Party chair and went on to serve six terms as a U.S. Representative from the 8th Congressional District in east King County, i...

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Durkan, Martin J. Sr. (1923-2005)

Martin J. Durkan was a Seattle-area lawyer, Democratic legislator, and lobbyist. He wielded considerable power during 16 years in the state Senate, where he served as chairman of the Ways and Means Co...

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Durkin, James (1859-1934)

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...

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Dusanne, Zoe (1884-1972)

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 ...

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Duvernoy, Gene (b. 1952)

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,...

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Dvorak, August (1894-1975)

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...

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Dwyer, William L. (1929-2002)

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...

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Dyer, Pauline (Polly) (1920-2016)

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...

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Earl, Joni (b. 1953)

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...

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Eckstein, Nathan (1873-1945)

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...

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Edelstein, Alex (1919-2001)

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...

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