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- Title:
- Brian Ebersole interview
- Interviewee:
- Ebersole, Brian
- Interviewer:
- Wadland, Justin
- Date Created:
- 2018-07-27
- Role:
- Government official; Community member
- Department:
- University of Washington Tacoma Advisory Board
- Subjects:
- Urban Waters urban development Norman Dicks Herb Simon Dan Grimm Save Our Station Union Station Fred Haley South Puget Sound Higher Education Council higher education place-bound students nontraditional students Bill Gerberding Richard L. McCormick Kelso Gillenwater News Tribune Washington State Legislature House Ways and Means Committee Pierce County
- Biography:
- Brian Ebersole (b. 1947) came to Tacoma, Washington, in 1972 and worked with the Tacoma Public Schools as a dropout prevention specialist for 10 years. He served in the Washington State House of Representatives from 1983 to 1996, during which he was Speaker of the House from 1993 to 1995, after first serving as Majority Leader. He was the mayor of Tacoma from 1996 to 2000 and subsequently the president of Bates Technical College until 2003. During his time in public office, he contributed to the revitalization of Downtown Tacoma, where the new Washington State History Museum opened in 1996, and the historic Union Station was rehabilitated and converted to a federal courthouse by 1992. In the late 1980s, he worked with Representative Dan Grimm, who was then the Chair of the Ways and Means Committee, to advocate for access to public higher education in Tacoma. He was part of the community group South Puget Sound Higher Education Council, which Ebersole calls the “candy factory backroom board,” referring to its chair Fred Haley and Tacoma’s Brown & Haley candy factory. Following the establishment of the University of Washington Tacoma, he served on its advisory board from 1996 to 2002. He was UWT’s first commencement speaker. Ebersole, now retired, opened a gallery called Art Above in 2018 on Pacific Avenue in Tacoma.
- Description:
- In this interview, Brian Ebersole recounts his involvement in the establishment of the University of Washington Tacoma, which coincided largely with his time as Washington State House Majority Leader. He remembers first hearing about the idea in 1987 and credits fellow legislator Dan Grimm for having by that point explored access to public higher education in the South Sound for over a decade. He points out the need in Tacoma, citing that it is an underserved, blue-collar city in relation to Seattle. He then explains the mechanism of founding a state branch campus and how Grimm, being the Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, had significant leverage to make it happen. Placing UWT in the context of the revitalization of Downtown Tacoma, he connected the founding of the campus to the Save Our Nation movement, which resulted in the restoration of the historic Union Station. The second half of the session turned toward other community initiatives such as the contributions of the Tacoma-Pierce County Economic Development Board (EDB), which Ebersole said carried out their efforts largely independently. In addition, he mentions Kelso Gillenwater and David Zeeck, publishers of The News Tribune, as some of the key players. In the concluding part of the interview, Ebersole shares his opinion on broadening access to public education, emphasizing the need for inclusiveness. Finally, he reflects on the future direction of UW Tacoma, mentioning Urban Waters as an ideal example of collaboration between the state, city, and the University to fulfill local needs and advance research.
- Location:
- United States--Washington (State)--Tacoma United States--Washington (State)--Seattle United States--Washington (State)--Olympia
- Type:
- Sound; Text; StillImage
- Format:
- cpd
- Preferred Citation:
- University of Washington Libraries, University of Washington Tacoma Library, UWTOH201807