Judge Ray E. Munson

DIVISION III, POSITION 3

August 18, 1969–January 13, 1997

Appointed by Governor Evans; Retired

Judge Ray Munson grew up in Sunnyside, Washington during the Great Depression. After graduating high school in 1945, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he served until 1948. Judge Munson then attended the University of Washington where he received degrees in business administration and law. He was admitted to practice before the Washington Supreme Court in 1954.

Judge Munson spent one year as an FBI agent before joining the Yakima County prosecutor’s office. He worked as a deputy prosecutor and then as the county’s elected prosecutor. In 1961, Judge Munson joined the law firm of Halverson, Applegate, McDonald & Weeks.

Judge Munson was elected to the Yakima County Superior Court in November 1964. He remained on the superior court bench until being appointed in 1969 as one of the original 12 judges on the newly-formed Washington State Court of Appeals. Judge Munson represented District Three of Division Three, which encompassed the five counties of Chelan, Douglas, Kittitas, Klickitat, and Yakima. Judge Munson remained a member of Division Three until his retirement in January 1997. At that point, Judge Munson was Washington’s longest-sitting judge and the last remaining of the original 12 Court of Appeals judges.

After retirement, Judge Munson prepared a history of Yakima County lawyers, which was an extension of the 1889 to 1960 history prepared by the late V.O. Nickeson.

Judge Munson enjoyed the collegiality of working on Court of Appeals, as well as the intellectual experience brought to the court by the law clerks. Judge Munson described his clerks as intelligent, dedicated people, who would challenge proposed decisions with discretion and decorum.

In remembering his work on the Court of Appeals, Judge Munson recalled an interesting experience that occurred at the beginning of the court’s term. An appellant had filed a motion for reconsideration accusing Judge Munson’s panel of being nothing but a rubber stamp for trial judges. The next term, the same lawyer appeared as respondent’s counsel, seeking to have the trial judge affirmed. Before the court session was over, the court and counsel all had a good laugh about the attorney’s somewhat embarrassing motion for reconsideration, which, according to Judge Munson, “should have been written on asbestos.” Judge Munson enjoyed working with the various judges of the appellate courts and the Supreme Court in participating in judicial committees and other activities.

Judge Munson died in 2004 at the age of 76.