Dixy Lee Ray

Dixy Lee Ray (September 3, 1914 – January 2, 1994) was an American academic, scientist, and politician who served as the 17th 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 the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. She was a supporter of atomic energy.

A graduate of Mills College and Stanford University, where she earned a doctorate in biology, Ray became an associate professor at the University of Washington in 1957. She was chief scientist aboard the schooner SS Te Vega during the International Indian Ocean Expedition. Under her guidance, the nearly bankrupt Pacific 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 the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) by President Richard Nixon. Under her leadership, research and development were separated from safety programs, and Milton Shaw, the head of the powerful reactor development division, was removed. She was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs by President Gerald Ford in 1975, but resigned six months later, complaining about lack of input into department decision making.

Ray ran for election as Governor of Washington as a Democrat in 1976. She won the election despite her blunt, sometimes confrontational, style. As governor, she approved allowing supertankers to dock in Puget Sound, championed support for unrestrained growth and development, and continued to express enthusiasm for atomic energy. On April 3, 1980, she declared a state of emergency as a result of the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens. She retired after losing her re-election bid for the Democratic nomination later that year.

Early life and education

Ray was born Marguerite Ray in Tacoma, Washington, to Frances Adams Ray and Alvis Marion Ray, the second in a family of five girls. She joined the Girl Scouts and, at the age of 12, became the youngest girl, up to that time, to summit Mount Rainier. She chose "Lee" because of a family connection to Robert E. Lee. Ray's dissertation was The peripheral nervous system of Lampanyctus leucopsarus, a lanternfish. She completed the research for her dissertation in 1945 at the Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, California. She is known to have lived a rather unconventional lifestyle, living in a house trailer with her two dogs, and therefore contributing a diverse perspective to the Washington bureaucracy.

Scientific career

University of Washington

In 1945, Ray returned to Washington to accept a position as an instructor in the zoology department at the University of Washington. She was promoted to assistant professor in 1947 and, five years later, received a prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship grant, which she used to undertake six months of postdoctoral research at Caltech. 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 schooner SS Te Vega during the International Indian Ocean Expedition.

KCTS-TV and Pacific Science Center

thumb|left|225px|Dixy Lee Ray presents the Pacific Science Center's "Arches of Science" award to Nobel Laureate [[Glenn T. Seaborg|Glenn Seaborg in 1968. At the time Seaborg was Chair of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, a position Ray would hold several years later.]]

Intrigued by her reputation as a person who could "make science interesting," producers at KCTS-TV, Seattle's PBS 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 the Pacific 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.

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 Senator Warren Magnuson.

thumb|right|Ray and her dogs Ghillie and Jacques inspect the [[Hanford Site|Hanford nuclear reservation. With them is Thomas Nemzek, at the time Director of Reactor R&D.]]

Following her appointment to the commission, news of her personal eccentricities began to emerge after reporters discovered she was living out of a 28-foot motor home, which was parked on a lot in rural Virginia. Media reports commented on her unusual hosiery (white knee socks). 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."

During her time as commission chair, which lasted until the AEC was abolished in 1975,

U.S. State Department

In 1975, Ray was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs by Gerald Ford, but resigned five months later, complaining about lack of input into department decision making. She subsequently told a United States Senate committee that she "saw Secretary of State Henry Kissinger only once – the day she was sworn in as an assistant secretary of state." In a parting shot as she left D.C., Ray declared that "anything the private sector can do, the government can do it worse." In another instance, she declared Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Shelby Scates, who had deluged her with tough questions on the campaign trail, would "learn what the words persona non grata really mean" after her election. She filled their places with old colleagues, described by some as "yes men." Her treatment of the media was similarly dismissive. Local television reporter Paul Boyd once interviewed the governor while she was dressed in "a ratty Ban-lon sports shirt, sweat pants covered with dog hair, red socks, and tennis shoes."

Back in Washington, Ray sometimes engaged in elaborate ceremony; on her inauguration she hosted not just one but nine inaugural balls.

Press and political opposition solidified in the face of her unyielding style of governance. In a critical 1977 article in Mother Jones, Ray Mungo labeled Ray as a "slightly wacky Miss Marple" and described the increasingly madcap atmosphere in Washington:

thumb|left|While Washington's chief executive, Ray split her time between the Governor's Mansion (pictured) and a trailer on rural [[Fox Island, Washington|Fox Island.]]

Ralph Nader, during a visit to the state, called Ray's administration "gubernatorial lunacy." 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." 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 for President of the United States in the 1980 election.

State of emergency

On April 3, 1980, Ray declared a state of emergency as a result of the worsening threat of volcanic eruption posed by Mount 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.

thumb|A bridge carrying [[Washington State Route 504|State Route 504 lies in ruins after being carried by a lahar generated by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.]]

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 the Washington National Guard mobilized and the deployment of the Washington State Patrol to reinforce the sheriffs of Cowlitz County and Skamania County in carrying out her declaration, with violation punishable by six months imprisonment. The U.S. Forest Service later credited the red zone restrictions with saving 5,000 to 30,000 people from certain death. At the same time, however, Ray was criticized for establishing a parallel "blue zone" where the public was generally banned, but Weyerhaeuser loggers were permitted. (When the mountain finally erupted, 11 of those killed were loggers operating in the blue zone. A subsequent lawsuit by families of the deceased, alleging negligence against the state, would be summarily dismissed in court for lack of evidence.) 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.

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." The cataclysmic eruption 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.

Ray ran for reelection in 1980, enlisting Republican consultant Montgomery Johnson to head her campaign after her former manager, Butterworth, had defected to her rival, then-State Senator Jim McDermott. She lost to McDermott in a contentious Democratic primary election, 56%–41%, during which bumper stickers emblazoned with "Nixy on Dixy" and "Ditch the Bitch" became popular campaign tchotchkes. McDermott himself went on to lose in the general election to Republican John D. Spellman. Later, controversy erupted after it emerged that employees of the Pierce County medical examiner's office had kept autopsy photos of Ray as souvenirs.

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."

After her death, the American 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.

Ray's papers, totaling 190 boxes of records and memorabilia spanning her career, are in deposit at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford University.

Honors

1958: Clapp Award in Marine Biology

Sexual orientation

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's tomboy characteristics and unmarried status, rather than informed assessment.

Electoral history

References

External links

Ray, Dixy Lee at HistoryLink
Register of the Dixy Lee Ray Papers, 1937–1982