Politicians

Winter 2007

What I've Learned Since College: An interview with community leader Mary Alyce Burleigh

Two years ago Mary Alyce Burleigh bought herself a bright yellow scooter. The former Kirkland mayor and current city council member uses it to zip around town to meetings and local fundraisers. She finds she is as busy in her retirement as she was during her 29 years as a teacher for Redmond High School. Recently she parked her scooter and perched on a city park bench in downtown Kirkland to talk with Hannelore Sudermann about life, civic involvement, and getting 80 miles to the gallon.

My goal was always to be a high school history teacher. I really took a broad range of courses … » More …

Summer 2009

A Seat at the Table: Senator Patty Murray ’72

When Patty Murray '72, after a year as a state legislator, set her sights on the U.S. Senate, she got little encouragement. “You haven't paid your dues,” they said. “You don't have enough money. You don't know the right people.” None of that made any difference to Murray. » More ...

Fall 2008

Dave Edler – “A real tough kid”

During his years as a Cougar baseball player, Dave Edler got chewed out many times by Bobo Brayton for his wild and headstrong ways. Once, Brayton caught his young star using marijuana. Edler told the coach that his father didn’t mind.

“We’ll see,” Brayton said, and phoned Edler’s father in Yakima. That resulted in “the fastest trip a guy ever took to Pullman from Yakima,” Brayton recently recalled with a laugh.

Edler left WSU in 1978, a few credits short of graduation, when he was drafted by the Seattle Mariners. He says he learned lots of lessons from the legendary coach, among them that “the … » More …

Spring 2003

Whirlwind tour

On an August morning, Senator Murray '72 visits Dayton to hear its concerns. » More ...

Spring 2002

New graduates entering a different world

Washington State University’s newest graduates are entering “a world vastly different and more dangerous than it was before September 11,” a world that cries out for their leadership in government, in science, in business, in education, in the military.

This was the message U.S. Congressman and WSU alumnus George R. Nethercutt, Jr. delivered as commencement speaker December 15 at the University’s first fall graduation exercise.

“Your generation is now called on to face a fearsome worldwide threat of terrorism similar to that serious threat which faced your grandparents, as they were stunned by Pearl Harbor and World War II.”

Nethercutt (’67 English), a Spokane native, … » More …