John Spellman, the former King County executive who became Washington s most recent Republican governor, is the subject of a biography produced by a prolific history-based program of the Office of Secretary of State. Spellman was born in 1926 in Seattle and attended Seattle Preparatory School until leaving midway through his senior year to enroll in the Merchant Marine program during World War II. After a stint in the Navy, Spellman graduated from Seattle University as valedictorian in 1949 and then graduated from Georgetown Law School in 1952. Elected a King County commissioner in 1966, Spellman defeated former Governor Al Rosellini for King County executive in 1969, becoming the first county executive in the state. As King County s first executive, Spellman led its difficult transformation to a modern government. His accomplishments include helping secure the construction of the Kingdome, leading to the arrival of the Seahawks and Mariners, which helped make Seattle a big-league city. In 1980, Spellman became governor after defeating Democrat challenger Jim McDermott. Spellman lost his re-election bid to Gardner in 1984. Jerry Grinstein, a former top aide to the late U.S. Senator Warren Magnuson, a longtime Spellman ally, views the progressive Seattle Republican as our states most underrated public official. Former Governor Chris Gregoire, who headed the state Department of Ecology earlier in her career, says Spellman s 1982 decision to reject the Northern Tier Pipeline Company s application to install an oil pipeline with the capacity of a million barrels a day beneath Puget Sound was a profile in courage in the face of a full-court press by the Reagan administration. When the economy went south during Gregoires second term, Spellman was among the first to offer bipartisan support for balancing taxes and cuts and protecting school funding and social services.
