Ellis named 1999 Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus

Jim Ellis, ‘48

Jim Ellis is working on a lifetime of civic activism that’s led him to undertake some to the most far-reaching public service projects the Puget Sound area has seen. For his public service, the UW and the UW Alumni Association have awarded him the highest alumni honor: the Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus award. His list of accomplishments is long. In the 1950s, Ellis spearheaded repeated efforts to clean up pollution-choked Lake Washington and to start a county-wide transit system by creating Metro, a regional governmental agency. He chaired Forward Thrust, a grassroots community effort that secured authorization for the Kingdome, many parks and other public improvements. He engineered public acquisition of thousands of acres of endangered farmland, and fought for the Washington State Trade and Convention Center and Freeway Park. Today, he heads the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, an effort to preserve the green belt along the I-90 corridor from Cle Elum to Puget Sound. A municipal bond lawyer who received his law degree from the UW in 1948, Ellis spent 12 years on the UW Board of Regents, serving as a strong, calming influence during the tumultuous years from 1965 to 1977—a time when anti-war demonstrations by students threatened the UW campus. Ellis retired from law practice in 1991, but works nearly full time on causes to improve the area. He does not see a day when he will stop using his ability to bring together disparate and conflicting interests.