Booth Gardner

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Booth Gardner
19th Governor of Washington
In office January 16, 1985 – January 13, 1993
Lieutenant	John Cherberg Joel Pritchard
Preceded by	John Spellman
Succeeded by	Mike Lowry
Chairperson of the National Governors Association
In office July 31, 1990 – August 20, 1991
Preceded by	Terry Branstad
Succeeded by	John Ashcroft
1st Executive of Pierce County
In office May 1, 1981 – December 31, 1984
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Joe Stortini
Personal details
Born	(1936-08-21)August 21, 1936 Tacoma, Washington, U.S.
Died	Tacoma, Washington, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Jean Gardner (Divorced) Cynthia Gardner (Divorced)
Alma mater	University of Washington, Seattle Harvard University

Booth Gardner (August 21, 1936 – March 15, 2013) was the 19th Governor of the U.S state of Washington between 1985 and 1993. He also served as the ambassador of the GATT. He was a Democrat. Before serving as governor, Gardner served in the Washington State Senate and was Pierce County Executive. His service was notable for advancing standards-based education and environmental protection.

Background

Gardner’s parents divorced when he was very young. Through his mother's remarriage, he became an heir to the Weyerhaeuser fortune. His mother and his sister, his only sibling, died in a plane crash when he was 14.

Gardner was a graduate of the University of Washington and Harvard Business School. His stepfather was Norton Clapp, one of the original owners of the Seattle Space Needle. In 1976, he owned the Tacoma Tides in its one year in the American Soccer League. In 1978 he co-owned the Colorado Caribous franchise in the NASL with Jim Guercio.

Governor

In the 1984 Democratic primary for Washington state governor, Gardner defeated Jim McDermott. In the general election he unseated Republican incumbent, John Spellman. Gardner was easily elected to a second term in 1988. He chose not to seek a third term.

While governor, Gardner signed into law a health care program that provided state medical insurance for the working poor. He helped develop land-use and growth-management policies that made Washington an early environmental leader, he steered hundreds of millions of dollars of increased spending toward state universities, increased standardized testing in public education, and improved legal protections for gay people.

Later years

In 1994, one year after his retirement, Gardner was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. In 2006 he announced his support for assisted suicide. In 2008 he filed and successfully spearheaded the campaign for Initiative 1000, Washington's Death With Dignity Act, which was closely modeled on Oregon's assisted dying law; he remained involved in implementing the Act. Gardner said that he supported going even further than the current Washington and Oregon laws, to eventually permit lethal prescriptions for people whose suffering is unbearable without the requirement that the sufferer have a terminal condition.

In 2009, The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner, a short documentary film, was produced by Just Media and HBO, chronicling the Initiative 1000 campaign. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

Gardner supported eliminating Washington's WASL test, a standardized test that was required to graduate high school. It was replaced in 2009 by the MSP for grades three through eight and the HSPE for grades eight through twelve.

Gardner died at his home in Tacoma, Washington on March 15, 2013, after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 76.

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• Booth Gardner entry at the National Governors Association
• IMDB Entry for "The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner"

Political offices
New office	Executive of Pierce County 1981–1984	Succeeded by Joe Stortini
Preceded by John Spellman	Governor of Washington 1985–1993	Succeeded by Mike Lowry
Preceded by Terry Branstad	Chairperson of the National Governors Association 1990–1991	Succeeded by John Ashcroft
Party political offices
Preceded by Jim McDermott	Democratic nominee for Governor of Washington 1984, 1988	Succeeded by Mike Lowry