Hamley, Frederick G. (Frederick George), 1903-1975

Attorney, Seattle city councilman, member and chief justice of the Washington State Supreme Court, and justice of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

From the description of Frederick G. Hamley papers, 1933-1963 (bulk 1933-1956). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 28413259

Lawyer, public official, judge. Born in Seattle in 1903, Frederick G. Hamley graduated from the University of Washington Law School in 1932. While in private practice in Seattle, he became active in city politics as a member of the municipal good-government organization, the New Order of Cincinnatus. With support from the Cincinnatus movement he was elected to the Seattle City Council. He served from 1935 to 1938 along with his close friend, Arthur B. Langlie. In June, 1938, he went from the city council to an administrative post, superintendent of the Seattle Water Department and chairman of the Board of Public Works. He held these positions for only a couple of months.

Hamley functioned as a political adviser to Langlie, mayor of Seattle, 1938-1941, and governor of Washington State, 1941-44, 1949-1957. From August, 1938, through 1940 Hamley worked as an attorney for the Bureau of Reclamation in Grand Coulee, Washington. In 1941 he joined newly elected Governor Langlie in Olympia as his personal legal adviser, then served in various administrative positions, but mainly as director of the Washington Department of Public Service (later known as the State Department of Public Utilities).

In 1943 he moved to Washington, D.C. to become assistant general solicitor of the National Association of Railroad and Utilities Commissioners, and from 1944 to 1949 he served as general solicitor. Hamley returned to Olympia, Washington, in September, 1949, when Governor Langlie appointed him to the Washington State Supreme Court. He served on the court from then until 1956; in 1955 and 1956 he was chief justice.

In 1954, while living in Washington State, Hamley held civic leadership positions. Governor Langlie invited him to serve on his statewide committee on educational television; the committee elected Hamley its chair. Later that year, after a wage dispute led to a long strike in the timber industry, Governor Langlie, with concurrence of Oregon Governor Paul Patterson, appointed Hamley to chair the Governors' Lumber Fact Finding Board.

In 1956 Hamley was appointed by President Eisenhower to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and served actively until 1971, when he went on senior status. He died in San Francisco in 1975.

From the guide to the Frederick G. Hamley Papers, 1933-1963, 1933-1956, (University of Washington Libraries Special Collections)