Washington Courts: News and Information

Memorial Service for Washington Supreme Court Justices Set for May 11

The public is warmly invited to a virtual memorial service hosted by the Washington Supreme Court in honor of three retired justices who passed away between December 2019 and December 2021. The service honoring Justices Walter T. McGovern, Roselle Pekelis and Mary E. Fairhurst will begin at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, May 11.

The program will be livestreamed and recorded by TVW.  Only family and close friends will be able to attend in person at the Temple of Justice. The program will include remarks by Chief Justice Steven González, family members and close friends of the departed justices, and a benediction by a former law clerk.

The Court was also sad to learn of the passing of retired Washington Supreme Court Justice James A. “Jimmy” Andersen, who served on the Court from 1984 to 1995. Justice Andersen passed away on May 1, 2022, and will be honored during the Court’s annual memorial service in 2023.

“Justice McGovern, Justice Pekelis, and Chief Justice Fairhurst worked hard to fulfill the promises made by our constitutions. They did work that will echo through the ages,” said Chief Justice González. “We are lucky to have had them on our court. Those of us who followed them into this work are grateful for their efforts.”

Justice Walter McGovern was born in Seattle on May 24, 1922 and died on July 8, 2021 in Seattle. He served in the U.S. Navy until 1946 and graduated from the University of Washington School of Law in 1950. His judicial career began in 1956 as a Judge Pro Tem in Seattle Municipal Court followed by his election to that court, serving from 1959 to 1965. He was elected to the King County Superior Court where he served from 1965 to 1968. Governor Dan Evans appointed him to the state Supreme Court in January of 1968, and he was elected to a six-year term that same year. However, he served four years before being appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in May of 1971.

Throughout his judicial career, Justice McGovern was committed to creating an effective forum for judges and lawyers to communicate on issues of judicial administration. In 1977, he and two Seattle lawyers formed the Federal Bar Association of the Western District of Washington, which has served as a role model for other federal bar associations. In May of 2021, Justice McGovern was recognized for his 50 years of service to the federal bench, on which he served as Chief Judge from 1975 until he took Senior Status in September of 1987.

Justice Roselle Pekelis was born on July 10, 1938, in Florence, Italy, and came to the U.S. when her Jewish family fled persecution. In 1972 she became one of only two women in her class at the University of Missouri School of Law, where professors openly mocked the women, urging them to drop out and return to homemaking. Justice Pekelis made law review and her team won the law school’s mock trial tournament. After graduating, she and her family moved to Seattle where she began her legal career. In 1981, Governor Dixie Lee Ray appointed Justice Pekelis to the King County Superior Court. She took the judicial oath of office 40 years to the day after her family landed in New York as refugees. In 1986, Justice Pekelis was appointed to the Court of Appeals Division I where she served for nine years. In 1995, Governor Mike Lowry appointed Justice Pekelis to the Washington Supreme Court. She served as a justice for nine months before a defeat in the 1995 election. As an appellate judge, Justice Pekelis authored more than 250 majority opinions including a Division I decision that held gender-based peremptory challenges violated the Washington and federal constitutions and a 1994 decision affirming adoption rights of same-sex parents.

Justice Pekelis sought to ensure that the law served the practical needs of real people and earned a reputation as empathetic, pragmatic, and direct. After leaving the bench she co-founded Judicial Dispute Resolution, which became one of the state’s premier alternative dispute resolution firms. She wrote that she was profoundly grateful for her full life — an improbable journey from a World War II refugee to a justice of the Washington Supreme Court. “For my family,” she once wrote, “this has been indeed a land of renewal and second chances. I realize that this is not yet true for everyone. I fervently hope that someday all Americans will be afforded the same opportunity to succeed.” She died surrounded by family on December 19, 2019.

Justice Mary Fairhurst was born August 13, 1957 in eastern Oregon, the oldest of seven children. She graduated from Gonzaga University School of Law in 1984 and began her legal career as a judicial clerk to state Supreme Court justices William H. Williams and then William Goodloe, then served with the state Attorney General’s Office for 16 years. She worked on the constitutional amendment to increase the rights of crime victims while still honoring the constitutional rights of the accused. She organized the first statewide conferences on domestic violence. She planned a youth violence summit and organized conferences dealing with sex offenders in the community. In 1998 she received the Steward of Justice Award from Attorney General Chris Gregoire. She was the second woman and first public sector attorney to serve as president of the Washington State Bar Association.

Elected in 2002, Justice Fairhurst began serving on the Washington Supreme Court in 2003. She was reelected in 2008 and 2014, and in 2016 her colleagues elected her Chief Justice, a position she held until her retirement in January 2020. In 2011, WSBA gave her its highest honor, the Award of Merit, in recognition of her work to ensure access to justice for low-income individuals and families and equal opportunities for women and minorities in the legal profession. Seattle University established the Justice Mary E. Fairhurst Public Interest Law Foundation grant for her steadfast commitment to justice. In 2019, Justice Fairhurst received the American Inns of Court’s Ninth Circuit Professionalism Award, given to a lawyer or judge whose life and practice display sterling character and unquestioned integrity coupled with dedication to the rule of law.

One of the last awards Justice Fairhurst received was the Evan Ferber Peacemaker Leadership Award, where the Dispute Resolution Center recognized that she was a shining light and beacon of peace and hope, and lived a life that exemplified that peace and justice begin with the individual. She died peacefully surrounded by her family and friends on December 28, 2021.