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Seattle’s Hall of Fame
The innovators and trailblazers who put Seattle on the map
This article originally appeared in the November 2016 issue of Seattle magazine.
Photographed on September 7, 2016, in the Olympic Suite at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel. Over the years, the 1924 hotel has hosted multiple presidents (including two visits by FDR) and celebrities (from Bing Crosby to Elvis), many of whom have called the suite home.
Every city possesses its own, unique spirit—its zeitgeist. It’s what makes a metropolis move, defines its identity and propels it forward. We owe much of ours to our city’s shapers—those leaders, trendsetters and trailblazers who, over the past 50 years, have transformed the town in extraordinary ways. In honor of Seattle magazine’s 50th anniversary, we’re spotlighting some of these innovators—all nominated by our panel of experts (below). Our list started out much longer and was culled after many hours of debate.
The people on these pages—living legends who have made a major contribution during the past five decades—are influential in their own right, but are also just a representative cross section of the many talented visionaries, big thinkers and risk-takers who have shaped our city into the remarkable place it is.
Food and Beverage // Beauty // Music // Arts and Culture // Books
Philanthropy // Sports // Transportation // Architecture //Technology and Business
Urban Spaces // Commercial Development // Outdoors and Environment
Activism/Social Justice // Civic Discourse and Community Leaders // Civil Rights // Cannabis
Politics // History/Preservation // Media/Journalism
Education // Health Care // Research/Medicine/Science
>> Ed. Note: In 2003, we ran a similar story. Click here to read “City Shapers.” <<
Most Influential Advisory Panel 2016
As part of Seattle magazine’s 50th anniversary celebration, we created an advisory panel and invited members to nominate some of the most influential Seattleites from the past 50 years. During a series of meetings, these individuals helped to vet the candidates via some intense and lively debate.
Joni Balter, multimedia journalist and host of Civic Cocktail
Kenan Block, owner, Kenan Block/Media & Communications
Rita Brogan, founder, PRR Inc.
John Cook, cofounder, GeekWire
C.R. Douglas, political analyst, Q13 Fox News
Rebecca Hughes, senior media consultant, Group Health Research Institute
Naomi Ishisaka, journalist and photographer
James Keblas, founder, City Inspired
Alison Krupnick, Seattle-based writer
Diane Mapes, writer/editor, Fred Hutch News Service, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Marie McCaffrey, executive director and cofounder, HistoryLink.org
Mary McWilliams, former executive director, Washington Health Alliance
Steve Scher, part-time instructor at the University of Washington and former host of the KUOW-FM Weekday program
From Seattle and Seattle Business magazines:
Rachel Hart, Virginia Smyth, Linda Morgan, Jennifer McCullum, Jim Demetre, Jessica Yadegaran, Knute Berger, Leslie Helm and John Levesque
Project coordinator: Mandolin Brassaw
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Rearview Mirror: Spinasse at Home, a New Spa Experience, and Seattle Mag’s Reader’s Choice Awards
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
YOUR VOTE MATTERS Everyone has a favorite restaurant, coffee shop, or local boutique. Call me old-school, but I will die on the hill that Caffe Vita has the best coffee in town. Disagree with me? Now’s your moment to speak up. Each year, we survey Seattle magazine readers, asking them to weigh in on everything…
Studio Sessions: Ling Chun
The Seattle-based artist brings playful color to ceramics and neon while exploring memory, transformation, and life between cultures.
For Ling Chun, creating begins with something sensed before it can be named. Working with clay, glass, light, and sometimes synthetic hair, the Hong Kong-born artist gives physical form to things that words cannot always hold. “For me, the magnitude of making goes far beyond the object that is eventually produced,” Chun says. “The object…
The Magic of PAX Is Stronger Than Ever
PAX West draws more than 100,000 people to Seattle each year. Co-founder Jerry Holkins reflects on what the gaming convention set out to change, how its community has grown and why gathering face to face still matters.
Access to game news as it was happening was difficult back in the day. Even with the advent of the internet, communication between game publishers and journalists was still a very elite affair. I used to fake credentials—via fax machine!—to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo, mostly just known as E3. It was simultaneously as loud…
Your Guide to Bumbershoot 2026
Navigate Seattle’s wildest end-of-summer weekend with 20 picks spanning Death Cab for Cutie, Blood Orange, wrestling, skateboarding and—obviously—movies made in 48 hours.
Four years after Bumbershoot returned with its quirkiness revivified, Seattleites broadly acknowledge the two-day multimedia extravaganza as a welcome finale to the summer festival season. Fests like Bumbershoot are designed around a choose-your-own-adventure model, but if you’re the kind of person who looked at this year’s sprawling lineup—featuring multiple bands, artists, and exhibits happening at…