William Booth Gardner
Born: August 21, 1936, Tacoma General Hospital
Education: The Lakeside School, Seattle, 1954; University of Washington,
B.A., business administration, 1958; University of Washington Law School, 1959;
Harvard University Business School, M.B.A., 1963
Professional career: Assistant to the dean, Harvard Business School,
1966-67; director, School of Business & Economics, University of Puget Sound, 1967-72;
president, Laird Norton Company, 1972-80
Political affiliation: Democrat
Politics: First vice president, Associated Students of the University
of Washington, 1957-58; Washington State senator, 1970-73; Pierce County executive,
1981-84; governor, State of Washington, January 16, 1985, to January 13, 1993; U.S.
ambassador to the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade, Geneva, 1993-97
Married: Jean Forstrom, 1960-2001; two children, Doug, born 1962;
Gail, 1963; Cynthia Robin Perkins, 2001-2008
Notably: Chaired the Western Governors’ Association, the National
Governors’ Association and the Education Commission of the States; named one of
three most effective governors in America in a Newsweek-Gallup poll of
his peers, 1991; honorary J.D., University of Puget Sound School of Law; honorary
degree, doctor of laws, Whitman College, 1991; McGraw Hill Excellence in Education
Award, 1993; co-founder of the Booth Gardner Parkinson’s Care Center, Kirkland,
WA
Other activities: Co-founder of the Central Area Youth Association,
Seattle, and the Seattle Mental Health Institute; former member of the boards of:
Troubleshooters, an advocacy group for the developmentally disabled; the Weyerhaeuser
Company, Puget Sound National Bank, the Washington Commission for the Humanities,
Metropolitan Building Corporation, Private Industry Council, Central City Learning
Center of Tacoma, University of Puget Sound Board of Trustees; soccer coach, the
Cozars