Carolyn Dimmick Final PDF.indd - Washington Secretary of State

Carolyn Dimmick
Research by John Hughes, Lori Larson, Dick Allen and Bob Johnson
Transcription by Lori Larson
Interviews by John Hughes
December 11, 2008
(With corrections and additions from February 12, 2009)
Hughes: It’s December 11, 2008. I’m John Hughes
with the Office of the Secretary of State. We’re with
U.S. District Court Judge Carolyn Dimmick at the new
Federal Courthouse in Seattle. In 1981, she became the
first female member of the Washington Supreme Court.
Well, judge, I want you to know without any idle
flattery that you look great … and you’re much prettier
than you were in this picture from 1981 (holding up the
first page of her biography in Charles Sheldon’s history
of the State Supreme Court).
Dimmick: Oh, well, the hairstyle has changed you know.
Carolyn Dimmick’s first portrait as a member
of the Washington Supreme Court in 1981
Hughes: Before I forget this, it says here at the end of
Professor Sheldon’s biography of you —right before the biography of one of my favorite
people, Justice Jim Dolliver –
Dimmick: Mine too. He was in law school with me at the University of Washington … He
was vice-president and I was secretary of the Student Council.
Hughes: Retired Supreme Court Justice Charles Z. Smith, the subject of our most recent
oral history, was also in Law School with you.
Dimmick: Yes he was. But he graduated in 1955. I graduated in 1953.
Hughes: Is it true that Dolliver, who sat next to you on the Supreme Court bench on your
first day in 1981, passed you a note that said, “Which do you prefer: 1) Mrs. Justice; 2) Ms.
Justice; 3) O! Most Worshipful One or 4) El Maxima”?
2