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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder |name=John Dennis Spellman |image=John Spellman of WA.jpg |office=18th Governor of Washington State |lieutenant _governor=John Andrew Cherberg |..."
{{Infobox officeholder
|name=John Dennis Spellman
|image=John Spellman of WA.jpg
|office=18th [[Governor]] of [[Washington]] State
|lieutenant _governor=John Andrew Cherberg
|term_start=January 14, 1981
|term_end=January 16, 1985
|preceded=[[Dixy Lee Ray]]
|succeeded=Booth Gardner
|office2=1st Executive of King County, Washington
|term_start2=May 1, 1969
|term_end2=January 14, 1981
|preceded2=Position established
|succeeded2=Ronald W. Dunlap
|birth_date=December 2, 1926
|birth_place=[[Seattle]], Washington
|death_date=January 6, 2018 (aged 91)
|death_place=Seattle, Washington, U.S
|resting_place=Calvary Cemetery in Seattle
|party=[[Republican Party|Republican]]
|religion=[[Roman Catholic]]
|spouse=Lois Elizabeth Murphy Spellman (married 1954-2018, his death)
|children=Margo, Bart, David, Jeffrey, Teresa, and Kat
|alma_mater=Seattle University (Bachelor of Business)<br>
[[Georgetown University]] ([[Juris Doctor]])
|branch=[[United States Navy]]
|serviceyears=1944–1946
|battles=[[World War II]]
}}
'''John Dennis Spellman''' (December 29, 1926 – January 16, 2018) was an [[United States|American]] [[attorney]] and [[politician]] who was the 18th [[Governor]] of his native [[Washington]] State. Prior to his single gubernatorial term from 1981 to 1985, he had been from 1969 to 1981 the first executive of King County, the state's most populous, with the passage of a home-rule charter for county government. With his defeat for a second term in 1984, by the [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] Booth Gardner (1936-2013),<ref name=findagrave>John Dennis Spellman (1926-2018) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed August 10, 2021.</ref> Spellman remains the last [[Republican Party|Republican]] to have served as governor of the since heavily Democratic Washington State.
==Background==
A [[Seattle]] native, Spellman was the son of [[insurance]] executive Sterling Bartholomew "Bart" Spellman (1895-1955), and the former Lela A. Cushman (1895-1985), a teacher.<ref name=stimes>{{cite web |date=May 12, 1985 |title=Lela Spellman dies; mother of former governor |page=C6 |publisher=''The Seattle Times''|accessdate=August 11, 2021}}</ref> His paternal grandfather, Dennis Bartholomew "Denny" Spellman (1863-1925), was an [[Ireland|Irish]] immigrant who became a plumbing contractor. His maternal grandmother, America Vespusis Kirk Cushman Guion (1867-1934), was one of the first white children born in the former Oregon Territory and settled in the community of Brownsville in Linn County in western [[Oregon]].<ref name=stimes.> His father, Bart, played in the 1917 Rose Bowl for the [[University of Oregon]] in Eugene. Later he was an assistant coach at both the University of Oregon and the [[University of Washington]].<ref name=wasec>{{cite web|url=https://www.sos.wa.gov/legacy/stories/john-spellman/|title=John Spellman: Politics Never Broke His Heart|publisher=Office of the Secretary of State|accessdate=August 11, 2021}}</ref>
Spellman was reared in the [[suburb]]s of Hunts Point and Bellevue with his sister, Mary Catherine Spellman Tully (1924-2013);<ref name=stimes/> his older brother, David Bartholomew (1925–1951), a graduate of the [[United States Military Academy]] at West Point, [[New York]], was killed in the [[Korean Wa]] at the age of twenty-five.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/152575746/david-bartholomew-spellman|title=David Bartholomew Spellman|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=August 15, 2021}}</ref> Spellman graduated in 1944 from the Seattle Preparatory School. The same year, he left high school midway in his senior year to enroll in the cadet program of the Merchant Marine during [[World War II]], and then served in the [[United States Navy]].<ref name=wasec/> After the war, under the G.I. Bill of Rights, Spellman studied at Seattle University, from which he received in 1949 a Bachelor of Business degree. In 1953, he graduated from the [[Georgetown University]] Law Center in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref name=stimes/>
Spellman met his wife, the former Lois Elizabeth Murphy (1927–2018), a native of Havre, [[Montana]], in a [[Spanish language|Spanish]] class at Seattle University.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/jan/25/former-washington-first-lady-lois-spellman-dies/|title=Former Washington First Lady Lois Spellman dies|date=January 25, 2018|publisher=''The Spokesman-Review''|author=Jim Camden|accessdate=August 11, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article196623384.html|title=Former Washington first lady Lois Spellman dies days after losing her husband|publisher=''The Olympian''|author=Lisa Pemberton|date=January 25, 2018|accessdate=October 11, 2021}}</ref>The two were married in 1954 and had six children, Margo, Bart, David, Jeffrey, Teresa, and Kat (full names unavailable).<ref name=wasec/> Mrs. Spellman died only nine days after her husband's passing.
==Political career==
Spellman ran unsuccessfully for [[mayor]] of Seattle early in 1964.<ref>"Seattle Election Returns," ''The Seattle Times,'' February 12, 1964, p. 4.</ref>Then he campaigned for [[Daniel Evans|Daniel Jackson Evans]] in Evans' successful bid to become governor which came despite the heavy losses sustained by the [[Barry Goldwater]] presidential campaign later in 1964. Spellman was elected to the three-member King County Commission in 1967. With the home-rule charter adopted in 1968, the office of County Executive was established and Spellman was elected in 1969 as the county's first executive. He defeated Albert Dean Rosellini (1910-2011), who had preceded Dan Evans as governor.<ref name="Fox"/>
Spellman worked to consolidate departments and to replace the old patronage system with one based on merit.<ref name="Tribune"/> Spellman supervised the building the domed station, the Kingdome, that provided the first home for the former [[Seattle Seahawks]] and the current [[Seattle Mariners]], and initiated early efforts to deal with uncontrolled growth in the sprawling county.<ref name="OPB"/> He was re-elected as the county executive in 1973 and 1977.<ref name="Seattle"/>
Spellman first ran for governor in 1976 and was the top Republican in the state's blanket primary, but he lost the general election to Democrat [[Dixy Lee Ray]] even thoug [[Gerald Ford]] carried Washington State in his campaign against [[Jimmy Carter]]. In 1980, Spellman defeated state Representative Duane Lyman Berentson (1928-2013) in the gubernatorial primary. Berentson campaigned for Spellman in the general election against Dixy Lee Ray. [[Ronald Reagan]] won the presidential election and is the last Republican presidential nominee to have carried Washington State.<ref>Richard W. Larsen and Lee Moriwaki, "From rivals to friends: Berentson stumps for Spellman," ''The Seattle Times, September 18, 1980.</ref>
During Spellman's four-year term, Washington's economy endured a major [[recession]] marked by rising unemployment and disappointing tax revenues.<ref name="Tribune"/> The state legislature was deeply divided over how to address the revenue shortfall but voted to increase the state [[sales tax]] rate from 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent.<ref name="Tribune"/> Despite campaign promises that he was opposed to higher taxes, Spellman raised $2.5 billion in new taxes to address the shortfalls.<ref>Bill Dietrich, "Will the real John Spellman please stand up?," ''The Seattle Times,'' January 9, 1983.</ref>
Spellman was strongly committed to environmental protection. He vetoed a bill that would have permitted a development project in a sensitive shoreline area of Whatcom County, but the state Senate overrode him.<ref>"Senate votes to override oil-rig veto," ''The Seattle Times,'' April 9, 1982.</ref> He successfully blocked a proposed oil pipeline sought by the Norther Tier Pipeline Company which would have dredged under the [[Puget Sound]. Spellman maintained that the pipeline could cause potential damage to the ecology of the waterway and persisted in his stance despite much popular opposition.<ref>Eric Pryne, "Spellman refuses to read 7,500 letters on Northern Tier," ''The Seattle Times,'' March 28, 1982.</ref>
In September 1983, upon the death of [[U.S. Senator]] [[Henry M. Jackson]], Spellman appointed Republican former Governor [[Daniel J. Evans]] to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat. The appointment aroused fierce Democratic opposition. As state law required an immediate election for the remainder of the Senate term. A primary election was held just three weeks after Evans' interim appointment.<ref>
Richard Larsen and Dick Clever, " "Evans to replace Jackson in Senate," ''The Seattle Times,'' September 8, 1983.</ref>
==Later years==
After leaving office, Spellman returned to his law practice, Carney Badley Spellman.<ref name="Seattle"/> In 1990, he ran for election as a justice of the Washington Supreme Court but lost to future Washington Supreme Court chief justice Richard P. Guy (born 1932) of [[Spokane]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Joel Connelly|title=Washington voters: No retreads, Seattle mayors|url=http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2012/08/08/washington-voters-no-retreads-seattle-mayors/|publisher=''Seattle Post Intelligencer''|date=August 8, 2012|accessdate=August 15, 2021}}</ref>
Spellman fell and broke his hip on December 27, 2017, and died of [[pneumonia]] on the morning of January 16, 2018, at the age of ninety-one.<ref name="Seattle">{{cite web|author=Jack Brunner|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/former-washington-governor-king-county-executive-john-spellman-dies/|title=Former Washington governor, King County executive John Spellman dies|publisher=''The Seattle Times''|date=January 16, 2018|accessdate=August15, 2021}}</ref><ref name="COD">{{cite web|author=Rachel La Corte|url=https://www.columbian.com/news/2018/jan/16/former-washington-gov-john-spellman-dies-at-age-91/|title=Former Washington Governor John Spellman Dies at 91|publisher=''The Columbian''|date=January 16, 2018|accessdate=August 15, 2021}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spellman, John}}
[[Category:Washington]]
[[Category:Former Governors]]
[[Category:Republican Governors]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Moderate Republicans]]
[[Category:Catholics]]
[[Category:Catholic Politicians]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:United States Navy]]
[[Category:World War II]]
|name=John Dennis Spellman
|image=John Spellman of WA.jpg
|office=18th [[Governor]] of [[Washington]] State
|lieutenant _governor=John Andrew Cherberg
|term_start=January 14, 1981
|term_end=January 16, 1985
|preceded=[[Dixy Lee Ray]]
|succeeded=Booth Gardner
|office2=1st Executive of King County, Washington
|term_start2=May 1, 1969
|term_end2=January 14, 1981
|preceded2=Position established
|succeeded2=Ronald W. Dunlap
|birth_date=December 2, 1926
|birth_place=[[Seattle]], Washington
|death_date=January 6, 2018 (aged 91)
|death_place=Seattle, Washington, U.S
|resting_place=Calvary Cemetery in Seattle
|party=[[Republican Party|Republican]]
|religion=[[Roman Catholic]]
|spouse=Lois Elizabeth Murphy Spellman (married 1954-2018, his death)
|children=Margo, Bart, David, Jeffrey, Teresa, and Kat
|alma_mater=Seattle University (Bachelor of Business)<br>
[[Georgetown University]] ([[Juris Doctor]])
|branch=[[United States Navy]]
|serviceyears=1944–1946
|battles=[[World War II]]
}}
'''John Dennis Spellman''' (December 29, 1926 – January 16, 2018) was an [[United States|American]] [[attorney]] and [[politician]] who was the 18th [[Governor]] of his native [[Washington]] State. Prior to his single gubernatorial term from 1981 to 1985, he had been from 1969 to 1981 the first executive of King County, the state's most populous, with the passage of a home-rule charter for county government. With his defeat for a second term in 1984, by the [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] Booth Gardner (1936-2013),<ref name=findagrave>John Dennis Spellman (1926-2018) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed August 10, 2021.</ref> Spellman remains the last [[Republican Party|Republican]] to have served as governor of the since heavily Democratic Washington State.
==Background==
A [[Seattle]] native, Spellman was the son of [[insurance]] executive Sterling Bartholomew "Bart" Spellman (1895-1955), and the former Lela A. Cushman (1895-1985), a teacher.<ref name=stimes>{{cite web |date=May 12, 1985 |title=Lela Spellman dies; mother of former governor |page=C6 |publisher=''The Seattle Times''|accessdate=August 11, 2021}}</ref> His paternal grandfather, Dennis Bartholomew "Denny" Spellman (1863-1925), was an [[Ireland|Irish]] immigrant who became a plumbing contractor. His maternal grandmother, America Vespusis Kirk Cushman Guion (1867-1934), was one of the first white children born in the former Oregon Territory and settled in the community of Brownsville in Linn County in western [[Oregon]].<ref name=stimes.> His father, Bart, played in the 1917 Rose Bowl for the [[University of Oregon]] in Eugene. Later he was an assistant coach at both the University of Oregon and the [[University of Washington]].<ref name=wasec>{{cite web|url=https://www.sos.wa.gov/legacy/stories/john-spellman/|title=John Spellman: Politics Never Broke His Heart|publisher=Office of the Secretary of State|accessdate=August 11, 2021}}</ref>
Spellman was reared in the [[suburb]]s of Hunts Point and Bellevue with his sister, Mary Catherine Spellman Tully (1924-2013);<ref name=stimes/> his older brother, David Bartholomew (1925–1951), a graduate of the [[United States Military Academy]] at West Point, [[New York]], was killed in the [[Korean Wa]] at the age of twenty-five.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/152575746/david-bartholomew-spellman|title=David Bartholomew Spellman|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=August 15, 2021}}</ref> Spellman graduated in 1944 from the Seattle Preparatory School. The same year, he left high school midway in his senior year to enroll in the cadet program of the Merchant Marine during [[World War II]], and then served in the [[United States Navy]].<ref name=wasec/> After the war, under the G.I. Bill of Rights, Spellman studied at Seattle University, from which he received in 1949 a Bachelor of Business degree. In 1953, he graduated from the [[Georgetown University]] Law Center in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref name=stimes/>
Spellman met his wife, the former Lois Elizabeth Murphy (1927–2018), a native of Havre, [[Montana]], in a [[Spanish language|Spanish]] class at Seattle University.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/jan/25/former-washington-first-lady-lois-spellman-dies/|title=Former Washington First Lady Lois Spellman dies|date=January 25, 2018|publisher=''The Spokesman-Review''|author=Jim Camden|accessdate=August 11, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article196623384.html|title=Former Washington first lady Lois Spellman dies days after losing her husband|publisher=''The Olympian''|author=Lisa Pemberton|date=January 25, 2018|accessdate=October 11, 2021}}</ref>The two were married in 1954 and had six children, Margo, Bart, David, Jeffrey, Teresa, and Kat (full names unavailable).<ref name=wasec/> Mrs. Spellman died only nine days after her husband's passing.
==Political career==
Spellman ran unsuccessfully for [[mayor]] of Seattle early in 1964.<ref>"Seattle Election Returns," ''The Seattle Times,'' February 12, 1964, p. 4.</ref>Then he campaigned for [[Daniel Evans|Daniel Jackson Evans]] in Evans' successful bid to become governor which came despite the heavy losses sustained by the [[Barry Goldwater]] presidential campaign later in 1964. Spellman was elected to the three-member King County Commission in 1967. With the home-rule charter adopted in 1968, the office of County Executive was established and Spellman was elected in 1969 as the county's first executive. He defeated Albert Dean Rosellini (1910-2011), who had preceded Dan Evans as governor.<ref name="Fox"/>
Spellman worked to consolidate departments and to replace the old patronage system with one based on merit.<ref name="Tribune"/> Spellman supervised the building the domed station, the Kingdome, that provided the first home for the former [[Seattle Seahawks]] and the current [[Seattle Mariners]], and initiated early efforts to deal with uncontrolled growth in the sprawling county.<ref name="OPB"/> He was re-elected as the county executive in 1973 and 1977.<ref name="Seattle"/>
Spellman first ran for governor in 1976 and was the top Republican in the state's blanket primary, but he lost the general election to Democrat [[Dixy Lee Ray]] even thoug [[Gerald Ford]] carried Washington State in his campaign against [[Jimmy Carter]]. In 1980, Spellman defeated state Representative Duane Lyman Berentson (1928-2013) in the gubernatorial primary. Berentson campaigned for Spellman in the general election against Dixy Lee Ray. [[Ronald Reagan]] won the presidential election and is the last Republican presidential nominee to have carried Washington State.<ref>Richard W. Larsen and Lee Moriwaki, "From rivals to friends: Berentson stumps for Spellman," ''The Seattle Times, September 18, 1980.</ref>
During Spellman's four-year term, Washington's economy endured a major [[recession]] marked by rising unemployment and disappointing tax revenues.<ref name="Tribune"/> The state legislature was deeply divided over how to address the revenue shortfall but voted to increase the state [[sales tax]] rate from 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent.<ref name="Tribune"/> Despite campaign promises that he was opposed to higher taxes, Spellman raised $2.5 billion in new taxes to address the shortfalls.<ref>Bill Dietrich, "Will the real John Spellman please stand up?," ''The Seattle Times,'' January 9, 1983.</ref>
Spellman was strongly committed to environmental protection. He vetoed a bill that would have permitted a development project in a sensitive shoreline area of Whatcom County, but the state Senate overrode him.<ref>"Senate votes to override oil-rig veto," ''The Seattle Times,'' April 9, 1982.</ref> He successfully blocked a proposed oil pipeline sought by the Norther Tier Pipeline Company which would have dredged under the [[Puget Sound]. Spellman maintained that the pipeline could cause potential damage to the ecology of the waterway and persisted in his stance despite much popular opposition.<ref>Eric Pryne, "Spellman refuses to read 7,500 letters on Northern Tier," ''The Seattle Times,'' March 28, 1982.</ref>
In September 1983, upon the death of [[U.S. Senator]] [[Henry M. Jackson]], Spellman appointed Republican former Governor [[Daniel J. Evans]] to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat. The appointment aroused fierce Democratic opposition. As state law required an immediate election for the remainder of the Senate term. A primary election was held just three weeks after Evans' interim appointment.<ref>
Richard Larsen and Dick Clever, " "Evans to replace Jackson in Senate," ''The Seattle Times,'' September 8, 1983.</ref>
==Later years==
After leaving office, Spellman returned to his law practice, Carney Badley Spellman.<ref name="Seattle"/> In 1990, he ran for election as a justice of the Washington Supreme Court but lost to future Washington Supreme Court chief justice Richard P. Guy (born 1932) of [[Spokane]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Joel Connelly|title=Washington voters: No retreads, Seattle mayors|url=http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2012/08/08/washington-voters-no-retreads-seattle-mayors/|publisher=''Seattle Post Intelligencer''|date=August 8, 2012|accessdate=August 15, 2021}}</ref>
Spellman fell and broke his hip on December 27, 2017, and died of [[pneumonia]] on the morning of January 16, 2018, at the age of ninety-one.<ref name="Seattle">{{cite web|author=Jack Brunner|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/former-washington-governor-king-county-executive-john-spellman-dies/|title=Former Washington governor, King County executive John Spellman dies|publisher=''The Seattle Times''|date=January 16, 2018|accessdate=August15, 2021}}</ref><ref name="COD">{{cite web|author=Rachel La Corte|url=https://www.columbian.com/news/2018/jan/16/former-washington-gov-john-spellman-dies-at-age-91/|title=Former Washington Governor John Spellman Dies at 91|publisher=''The Columbian''|date=January 16, 2018|accessdate=August 15, 2021}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spellman, John}}
[[Category:Washington]]
[[Category:Former Governors]]
[[Category:Republican Governors]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Moderate Republicans]]
[[Category:Catholics]]
[[Category:Catholic Politicians]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:United States Navy]]
[[Category:World War II]]