It took strong women to forge a path to the bench

In this summer of the Supreme Court, all eyes are on the swing-vote role played by retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and on the big, big question: who’ll replace her.

It seems quaint to turn back the clock to the summer of 1981, when Justice Potter Stewart’s retirement gave President Reagan the chance to appoint the first woman to the Supreme Court.

First woman? Today, it’s almost patronizing to mention it. A quarter-century ago, it was monumental.

At the risk of being quaint or patronizing, and before we get caught up in who’s next, I’m going to mention it.

Women my age and older remember when having all doors open wasn’t a given. Young women, those crackerjack daughters of ours, should thank the ones who pried doors open. It took endless work, smarts and grit.

Thanks, for one, to Kathryn Trumbull.

It was 1990 – yes, we should tell our girls, that recently – when former Gov. Booth Gardner appointed Trumbull as the first female Snohomish County Superior Court judge.

Trumbull, 67, retired in 1999 and lives in Everett.

Last week, she recalled that when Gardner interviewed her for the judge’s position, “he asked why there weren’t any women on the bench. By then, King County had several.”

She remembered some discussion of this being a ” ‘good old boys’ county.” No longer an exclusive men’s club, the Snohomish County Superior Court now includes three women, Linda Krese, Anita Farris and Ellen Fair, on its roster of 14 judges.

Trumbull served as the county’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor and as a Superior Court commissioner before becoming a judge. As a judge in 1993, she made headlines in sentencing serial arsonist Paul Keller to 75 years in prison.

Impressive as her career has been, I find inspiration in the struggles that came before her successes.

Trumbull, the daughter of a Seattle grocer who emigrated from Scotland, was in her 30s when she found herself “about to be divorced and facing supporting my family.”

“I knew I couldn’t do it with a bachelor of science in psychology. I needed some advanced degree,” she said.

She applied to the University of Washington School of Law in 1971. Women at the law school had sent a letter saying that for the first time, female applicants would be considered on equal footing with men, using as criteria Law School Admission Test scores, undergraduate grades and complexity of classes.

The year before she started, there were only 18 women in all three classes at the law school.

“The year I went, there were about 40 of us,” she said.

There’s proof of how times have changed in the July 5 edition of the Washington State Bar Association’s Bar News. In a piece on diversity in the legal profession, Lindsay Thompson, the publication’s editor, wrote: “Women are now commonly the majority of entering classes at Washington’s three law schools.”

If you’ve read much about O’Connor, you know the high court justice faced gender discrimination after finishing law school at Stanford.

“The big West Coast law firms turned her down or offered her secretarial work,” Newsweek magazine reported in its July 11 cover story.

Trumbull, too, said she overcame obstacles, “some little, some big.”

“When I started at Shoreline Community College, a counselor told me I should be either a nurse or a teacher. I didn’t quite do that,” she said.

Trumbull graduated from Ballard High School in 1955, when women were expected to get married and have children.

“If you had to go to college a few years to find a husband, that was OK,” she said. “There are a lot more choices out there now.”

Parenting, working, studying – Trumbull did it all in an era when having it all was uncommon.

“I had three teenagers when I was in law school, and I was a single parent. It was interesting,” Trumbull said. “I don’t think I’ve ever caught up on the sleep from that period. I went to bed with books.”

Hard as it was, she pushes the power of education. “Particularly women need to have a way to support themselves. That’s what we lacked in my generation,” Trumbull said.

Did that single mother, up with her books long past midnight, ever imagine she’d be a judge?

“I never dreamed of it,” she said.

Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie @heraldnet.com.

Julie

Muhlstein

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Everett mall renderings from Brixton Capital. (Photo provided by the City of Everett)
Topgolf at the Everett Mall? Mayor’s hint still unconfirmed

After Cassie Franklin’s annual address, rumors circled about what “top” entertainment tenant could be landing at Everett Mall.

Everett
Everett man sentenced to 3 years of probation for mutilating animals

In 2022, neighbors reported Blayne Perez, 35, was shooting and torturing wildlife in north Everett.

The Washington State University Snohomish County Extension building at McCollum Park is located in an area Snohomish County is considering for the location of the Farm and Food Center on Thursday, March 28, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Year-round indoor farmers market inches closer to reality near Mill Creek

The Snohomish County Farm and Food Center received $5 million in federal funding. The county hopes to begin building in 2026.

Dorothy Crossman rides up on her bike to turn in her ballot  on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett leaders plan to ask voters for property tax increase

City officials will spend weeks hammering out details of a ballot measure, as Everett faces a $12.6 million deficit.

Starbucks employee Zach Gabelein outside of the Mill Creek location where he works on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 in Mill Creek, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Mill Creek Starbucks votes 21-1 to form union

“We obviously are kind of on the high of that win,” store bargaining delegate Zach Gabelein said.

Lynnwood police respond to a collision on highway 99 at 176 street SW. (Photo provided by Lynnwood Police)
Police: Teen in stolen car flees cops, causes crash in Lynnwood

The crash blocked traffic for over an hour at 176th Street SW. The boy, 16, was arrested on felony warrants.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.