Liberal Do-Gooder From Yakima

by Ed Seeberger, Joan Seebereger

This is the story of Ed Seeberger, raised in Yakima, WA, . He was twice a candidate for the priesthood. He left Yakima at age fourteen, attended St. Edward's Seminary, graduated from Marquette High School and Yakima Junior College, spent three years in the army in Germany as a linguist, graduated from Seattle University, worked for the CIA, opposed the war in Vietnam, was active in the civil rights movement including attendance at the March on Washington where Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke, taught at Stanwood High School, graduated from the University of Oregon School of Law, where he was a moot court winner and class president, was a deputy prosecuting attorney for Yakima County, and elected to the state House of Representatives from Yakima in 1974 as a Democrat. In two years in the legislature he successfully obtained the original funding for the Yakima River Greenway, revised the Rape statutes to protect victims, changed the law to require blood samples at the scene of negligent homicides, helped defeat an attempt to reimpose the death penalty, held one of the first legislative hearings on decriminalization of marijuana, successfully pushed through a law permitting former or current non-lawyer judges to run for reelection (Vannice Bill), helped depose the sitting Speaker, supported the imposition of an income tax on out-of-state corporations, and was elected to leadership. He managed to get funding for a bike-path between Yakima and Selah through the House only to see it die in the Senate for lack of local support. Seeberger did not run for reelection because he felt being a legislator was not in the best interests of his family. This book covers the period from 1937 to 1977. Ed Seeberger has been married to his wife Joan for fifty two years. They have three children and three grandchildren. He and Joan are retired and live in Palm Desert, CA.