Archives West Finding Aid

Francis “Fran” Ancil LeSourd was born in Seattle on June 22, 1908. After graduating with honors from the University of Washington Law School in 1932, he worked in Washington, D.C. as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. Much of his work involved constitutional tax issues, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and a Supreme Court Case that led to the enactment of the Social Security Act in 1935.

In 1938, LeSourd and his wife, Elizabeth Burgess Roberts, returned to Seattle, where LeSourd became a partner in the law firm of Little, LeSourd, Palmer, Scott and Slemmons. He started his own firm in 1960 until his retirement in 1986.

LeSourd was also involved with many civic activities in Seattle. He was one of the founders of the Crystal Mountain Ski Resort and served on its board of directors for more than twenty years. He also was president and board member of the Seattle Opera Association, worked to establish the Seattle Housing Authority, and served as a member of the Seattle Civil Service Commission, where he pushed for the hiring of Seattle’s first African-American bus drivers. Francis A. LeSourd was associated with the Seattle Housing Authority, 1943-1953; the Columbia Valley Public Power Corporation, 1939-1946; and the Northwest Public Power Association, 1940-1942.

LeSourd also enjoyed spending time in the outdoors with his family, including his first wife, Elizabeth Burgess Roberts (who died in 1979), his second wife, Lucile Wilcox (to whom LeSourd was married from 1980 until her death in 1998), and his sons Peter and Chris.

LeSourd died of natural causes at age 102 on July 17, 2010.