Virginia K. Gunby papers, 1957-2014

Virginia K. Gunby has been a prominent civic leader in Seattle. Her focus has been on transportation services. In the 1960’s Gunby was appointed by Governor Dan Evans to the then State Highway Commission. In 1968 Elected Freeholders Lois North and Virginia Gunby helped write the King County Charter that granted home rule to King County. Gunby quickly became known as a civic leader as she was part of many committees such as in the King Country Freeholder and Charter Review Committees in 1971 and 1977.

Virginia Gunby served on the citizen oversight panel from 1997-2004, the panel independently monitors Sound Transit to make sure it meets its commitment to voters. In 2006 Gunby accepted the position of Transportation Committee chair in order to assist her community in opposing a design proposed by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) in July 2006 for rebuilding State Route 520.

Virginia and freeway fighter Margaret Tunks were life-long collaborators. A March 1971 press conference promoted their joint position paper, “Transportation Policy, Financing and Administrative Changes: A Transit Agency for the Central Puget Sound Region.” In 1977, they coached incoming mayor-elect Charles Royer through “Transitional Transport Issues” with M. Darland, Prof. Jerry Schneider and David Sprague. In 1978, they partnered with John Boles for a series of statements and presentations on I-90 issues to Mayor Royer and the city council. Once off the highway commission, Virginia became active in 1979-80’s Transit 21 campaign in which Margaret was already working. Virginia was one of Margaret’s editors including Margaret’s last book, Seattle Citizens Against Freeways, Revised Edition.

Anne Rudd, of the Seattle Freeway Revolt Activists sorted and organized Gunby’s papers. As of 2017, Gunby had saved and organized over 200 file boxes as well as many shelf feet of personal and publicly available materials and publications. The collection was reduced to two boxes before being donated. Additionally, one box of records were integrated into the Seattle Freeway Revolt Activists Collection.

[some information provided by Anna Rudd]