Carolyn Dimmick Final PDF.indd - Washington Secretary of State

Dimmick: I liked the little stories, and I liked that they had an ending, and I liked that the
facts determined the outcome. The only low grade my brother ever got was in Business
Law because he’s an engineer and he wanted everything black and white and he couldn’t
see how it could be different here and different there, depending on facts.
Hughes: You’d found your niche.
Dimmick: So I really, really liked Business Law, and that’s when I went and talked to my
adviser about going to law school and getting a whole year of this fun class.
Hughes: What were the prerequisites to get into law school?
Dimmick: You had to have maybe a three-point (grade-point average), and you had to have
at least the History of England and some psych classes.
Hughes: Did you need recommendations, and letters of reference, and that sort of stuff?
Dimmick: No, we didn’t need anything. We just walked in the door.
Hughes: So there were seven women in the beginning?
Dimmick: Yes.
Hughes: Did you know all these girls?
Dimmick: I did. After we were herded together in the little bathroom there we knew each
other. Sure. (laughs)
Hughes: Was there any kind of “us-against-them”?
Dimmick: No.
Hughes: How many female graduates were there in the Class of ’53 at the UW Law School?
Dimmick: Three
Hughes: What were Seattle and the UW like in 1953? A lot smaller town than now?
Dimmick: Yes, and of course my sphere was small. I got on the bus and went to school
from Alexander Hamilton, to Lincoln High School, to the University for six years. And I just
got on the Five (Phinney) bus, changed at 45 th Street and went. And then I would get a bus
and go downtown and work at the P-I. Then I would come home.
Hughes: The buses must have been pretty good.
Dimmick: They were. And then my last year in law school my folks moved out to
Broadview, and then I got a car and drove to school and work.
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