IN MEMORIAM

RICHARD WAYNE ELLIOTT

Rich's idea of heaven would be fishing in the Pacific Northwest with his loving wife and life partner, Diane, on his Boston Whaler, the Puffin. Rich died December 21, 2020, during the height of the pandemic, after losing a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Four years after Rich's death, this is an overdue tribute to a remarkable husband and friend who lived an exemplary life and was a consummate professional in the practice of law.

Rich was born November 5, 1942, and grew up in Portland, Oregon. His parents were John Harrison ("Harry") Elliott and Junna Lee Elliott (the daughter of Chinese immigrants); both of them lived to be over 100 years old. After a high school career characterized by success in athletics and academics, Rich entered Oregon State University, where he pledged the Delta Chi social fraternity. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in June 1964, graduating with honors and membership in Phi Kappa Phi National Scholastic Honorary.

At OSU, Rich enrolled in officer's training in the Naval ROTC and became a Battalion Commander for his undergraduate division. After graduation, Rich served for four years as an engineering officer with the U.S. Navy aboard the nuclear submarine USS Stonewall Jackson, responsible, among other duties, for nuclear reactor mechanical operation. Rich's military years ended in 1972 when he resigned with honors from the Naval Reserve with a final rank of Lt. Commander, USNR. He was belatedly awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation by the U.S. Navy in 2012.

From 1969 to 1970, Rich attended the University of Washington, where he received a master's degree in nuclear engineering, with a 4.0 (highest) average. His MS degree thesis was titled "Computer Mapping of Nuclear Core."

It was during nuclear engineering graduate school in 1970 that Rich and Diane Godsey first met, marrying in 1972. Diane earned a Ph.D. from the University of Washington and was later employed by (and eventually retired from) the U.S. Department of the Interior, becoming an acclaimed national and international fish pathology researcher and speaker on fish health issues.

After achieving his MS degree, Rich worked for about one year at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard as a nuclear engineer, before he was admitted to the University of Washington School of Law in 1971. There he excelled academically, graduating with honors in 1974. While in law school, Rich was a co-managing editor and a co-summer editor of the Washington Law Review and found time to tutor minority law students. Rich published in the Law Review twice, writing a case note on Constitutional law, and teaming up with Law Professor Charles Corker in what became a highly acclaimed and authoritative article on the Environmental Coordination Procedures Act of 1973.

After law school graduation, Rich accepted employment as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in the Civil Division of the King County Prosecutor's Office in 1973, becoming a Senior Deputy Prosecutor in 1980. In the Prosecutor's Office, Rich was the primary advisor to the King County domed stadium (Kingdome) and represented the county in personnel and labor relations, land use and environmental enforcement and housing and community development, including leading drafting committees preparing legislation regulating unfair housing practices, condominium conversions, and King County's Noise Control Ordinance.

In 1983, Rich accepted employment with a premier Northwest law firm, Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP as an associate specializing in environmental and natural resource law, rapidly advancing to the position of partner. His practice at DWT focused on counseling clients in the environmental and natural resource, manufacturing, petroleum, cruise ship, land development, food, agriculture and aquaculture industries. He advised clients on environmental cleanup of Superfund sites (including nuclear waste sites) and legacy pollution, as well as other complex water and air quality and hazardous waste regulation issues, where he played a major role in creative resolution through settlements or litigation in state and federal courts.

While at DWT, Rich was named one of America's Leading Lawyers for Business in Environmental Law by Chambers USA from 2005 to 2014, receiving the highest band ranking from 2012 to 2014. He was honored by "Best Lawyers in America in Environmental Law" from 2007 through retirement. He also was selected as a Washington Super Lawyer by his peers from 2004 to 2014. Rich served as Davis Wright Tremaine's managing partner for its Bellevue office from 1995 to 2000 and found time to publish an article called "Olympic Pipeline: Anatomy of a Complex Transportation Dispute" which appeared in "Natural Resources & Environment" magazine in October 2006.

Rich chaired the DWT diversity committee from 2003 to 2008, was a Board Member and Secretary of the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra from 1985 to 2000 and provided Pro Bono representation to Holocaust survivors seeking restitution from the German government. In 2010 Rich received a Pro Bono Public Service Commendation from the Washington State Bar Association. Rich retired from DWT in 2014 as a result of the progression of Parkinson's disease.

Rich was fluent in German, and he and Diane occasionally hosted German high school, college and graduate school exchange students in their home. Rich loved to travel, taking advantage of his wife Diane's frequent opportunities to speak at national and international conferences in fisheries. Rich and Diane traveled to various countries in Asia, Europe, North and South America and the Caribbean.

For recreation, Rich enjoyed golf, bicycling, hiking, and attending Seattle Mariners games. Rich and Diane's true love for recreation, however, was fishing on the Puffin in Puget Sound, the San Juans, and yearly trips to Vancouver Island's rugged west coast. Rich became a highly successful fisherman, keeping detailed logs of fishing techniques and locations, publishing articles, and serving as an officer in various Puget Sound recreational fishing organizations.

Rich was a loving husband, loyal friend to many, amazing professional in the legal world, and fisherman par excellence. But for Parkinson's disease, he and Diane would be fishing, traveling, and enjoying retirement.

He is truly missed.