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- Title:
- Ryan Petty interview
- Interviewee:
- Petty, Ryan
- Interviewer:
- Wadland, Justin
- Date Created:
- 2020-01-24
- Role:
- Community member
- Department:
- Economic Development Board
- Subjects:
- Tacoma-Pierce County Economic Development Board (EDB) higher education urban development urban revitalization community outreach Bill Gerberding Donna Kerr Brian Ebersole Rod Hagenbuch Executive Council for A Greater Tacoma Higher Education Coordinating (HEC) Board Washington State Legislature Pierce County Sam Smith Washington State University warehouse district
- Biography:
- Ryan Petty (b. 1949) served as the CEO of the Tacoma-Pierce County Economic Development Board (EDB) between January 1986 and October 1989. During this time, he played a crucial role in the eventual establishment of the University of Washington Tacoma. Petty grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He received his bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1971 and juris doctor degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1974. Ryan enjoyed a 30-plus career in economic development and related nonprofit and public sector management, beginning in 1983 as Vice President for Economic Development of the Austin (Texas) Chamber of Commerce. He moved from the EDB to head up Forward Washington (then Washington’s statewide public-private partnership for economic development). In1992 he moved to Illinois to run the Chamber of Commerce and an allied economic development nonprofit for the City of Rockford (in Chicago’s NW growth corridor). Ryan returned to Tacoma in 2004 as Director of the City’s Community and Economic Development Department, where he served out much of the balance of his career. UW Tacoma's Petty and Mork Endowed Scholarship is named after him and the former City Manager of Tacoma, Erling Mork (who also succeeded Ryan as CEO of the EDB).
- Description:
- In this interview, Ryan Petty discusses his extensive and strategic work bringing a flagship university branch campus to Tacoma with the goal of creating local access to public education and four-year degrees for the city to develop economically. He explains the economic situation of Tacoma in the mid-1980s and the need to increase higher education opportunities in order to develop the workforce and attract business investment. He describes his behind-the-scenes work with higher education administrators and community stakeholders to discuss a possible Washington State University branch campus in Tacoma and to eventually persuade University of Washington to establish UW Tacoma. He reveals his deep personal investment in the place and endeavor, marveling at how "it was meant to be" and he was "just the right person at the right time."
- Location:
- United States--Washington (State)--Tacoma United States--Washington (State)--Seattle United States--Texas--Austin
- Type:
- Sound; Text; StillImage
- Format:
- cpd
- Preferred Citation:
- University of Washington Libraries, University of Washington Tacoma Library, UWTOH202004