Booth Gardner

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox officeholder William Booth Gardner (August 21, 1936 – March 15, 2013) was an American politician who served as the 19th governor of Washington, from 1985 to 1993. He also served as the ambassador of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT. A member of the Democratic Party, Gardner served as a state senator from 1971 to 1973, and was the Pierce County Executive prior to his tenure as governor. His service was notable for advancing standards-based education and environmental protection.

Early life, education, and early career

Born in Tacoma, Gardner attended Clover Park Junior High in Lakewood before graduating from Lakeside School in Seattle.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His parents divorced when he was very young; through his mother's remarriage he became an heir to the Weyerhaeuser fortune. His mother and younger sister, his only sibling, died in a plane crash when he was 14.<ref name=22dipc>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=occorpc>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=redeag>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=yardley>Template:Cite news</ref>

Gardner was a graduate of the University of Washington and Harvard Business School.<ref name=lacorte>Template:Cite news</ref> His stepfather was Norton Clapp, one of the original owners of the Seattle Space Needle.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Booth co-owned the Tacoma Tides, who played for one year in the American Soccer League in 1976.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was also a part-time soccer coach for various teams, including the Tacoma Cozars.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1978, he co-owned the Colorado Caribous franchise in the NASL with Jim Guercio.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Governor of Washington (1985–1993)

In the Democratic primary for governor in 1984, Gardner defeated Jim McDermott. In the general election<ref name=adgrdn>Template:Cite news</ref> he unseated one-term Republican incumbent John Spellman. Gardner was easily elected to a second term in 1988 over state representative Bob Williams,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and chose not to seek a third term in 1992.<ref name=yardley/>

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, 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.<ref name=yardley/>

On March 21, 1992, Gardner signed a measure that outlawed selling "obscene" music to minors in the State of Washington. The law went into effect on June 11 of that year, and made record store retailers and their employees criminally liable for selling such music to anyone under the age of 18.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Later years

A year after leaving office, Gardner was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. In 2006, he announced his support for assisted suicide.<ref name=postman>Template:Citation</ref> 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;<ref name=tu1>Template:Citation</ref> he remained involved in implementing the Act.<ref name=tu2>Template:Citation</ref> Gardner said that he supported going even further than the current Washington and Oregon laws, to eventually permit lethal prescriptions for people whose suffering was deemed unbearable without the requirement that the patient have a terminal condition.<ref name=bergner>Template:Citation</ref>

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.<ref name=Oscar>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref name=shaw>Template:Citation</ref>

Gardner died of Parkinson's disease at age 76 at his home on March 15, 2013.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

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