booth gardner - Washington Secretary of State

student body vice-president, the
retired naval officer recalls. “I offered
to be his campaign manager. Then a
week later, Booth decided he wanted
to run. I had a real dilemma since we
were such good friends. I kept my
word and was campaign manager for
Bobby, but at election time I voted
for Booth and he won by one vote,
so he probably has me to blame for
launching his political career.”
In September of 1954, Booth enrolled at the University of Washington and pledged
Phi Delta Theta. When his new brothers decided it would be a hoot to hide his featherless
non-allergenic pillow, he quickly concluded that frat boy horseplay was not his style. He
moved in with his Uncle Edwin and Aunt Lou Booth on Capitol Hill. Aunt Lou booted him
in the backside every now and then, just for drill. Better than anyone she understood how
dysfunctional his upbringing had been, but she wasn’t cutting him much slack. For one
thing, she couldn’t understand why an 18-year-old college freshman would rather live with
his aunt and uncle than on Greek Row. She sent him to a psychologist. After a couple of
sessions, Booth burst into the house one day, declaring, “Hey, guess what, Aunt Lou? The
doctor says I’m better off staying with you and Uncle Edwin.”
“I was driving her nuts,” Booth says, smiling at the memory of her hands-on-hips
exasperation. “I’d thrown my arm out doing summer ball, so I couldn’t pitch anymore
and I wasn’t involved in many outside activities at the U. I was just hanging around the
house … or when I’d go out I’d never tell her where I was going. She never pulled punches.
That’s why I liked her so much. She was pivotal in my life.” She suggested that he apply
for an after-school job with the Seattle Parks Department. “So I went down to the Parks
Department and had an interview and got a job. I found out later that she was personal
friends with the head of the Parks Department and she had it greased for me.” It was
vintage Aunt Lou.
Booth loved working with the black kids, and they loved him.
Emory Bundy, the student body president at the UW in 1957-58, was initially
oblivious to the fact that Booth was “spending a prodigious amount of time” in the Central
Area. After Booth was elected first vice-president, “I was meeting with him and the other
two ASUW officers every week,” Bundy says, “and I had no idea what he was up to. He was
just doing all that work – organizing programs, bankrolling activities – without tooting his
horn. Years later, when I learned about it, I was all the more impressed. I was very keen
on civil rights work while I was at the university, and Booth was well aware of that. But
without saying anything to me or anyone else, he was out there working with minority
Booth as vice-president of the Lakeside School during a meeting of the
student senate in 1954. Photo courtesy the Lakeside School.
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