RUSTY WILLIAMS

BORN
March 7, 1951
Seattle, WA

HIGH SCHOOL
Roosevelt
Class of 1969

COLLEGE
University of Washington
School of Bus. Admin.
Class of 1987

NEIGHBORHOOD
View Ridge

ORGANIZATIONS
* Sand Point Citizen's
Liaison Comm.
(chair)

* Friends of Magnuson Park
(co-chair)

* Rainier Valley
Rotary Club
(Secretary-Treasurer)

* 46th District Democrats

* Washington Ceasefire

* Washington Blues Society

RUSTY WILLIAMS

I was born of a hard working dad and a feminist mom who went on to be Seattle City Councilwoman Jeanette Williams. From a young age, Mom served as an amazing source of inspiration, as well as validation for me to run for local office; she always thought I would be an intelligent, thoughtful and creative council person.

I grew up overlooking Seattle's beautiful Magnuson Park. In the '60s as a boy in my early teens, I worked paper routes for both the Seattle Times and Post Intelligencer, covering the Seattle neighborhoods of View Ridge and Hawthorne Hills. I began the day by walking two miles at 5am to the paper shack; as shack manager I distributed the papers to the other carriers, and then delivered the P.I. in the morning and the Times in the afternoon.

After graduating high school, I went to work for the Seattle Engineering Department as a laborer, working on a large dump truck clearing drainage ditches with a shovel and fixing potholes in North Seattle.

I left the Engineering Department after a couple of years and joined a band. This band was called Bighorn and eventually became Seattle's most popular group. At one point Bighorn put up bigger numbers at Seward Park and the Seattle Center than Nirvana. Our main competitor was a band called Heart. Bighorn was the band that got me into The Northwest Encyclopedia of Music. I also played on bills with Three Dog Night; the Beach Boys; Muddy Waters; Dave Edmonds; Joe Cocker and more. Click here to hear a song I wrote and recorded on my home computer.

In the early '80s, I began my career as a college student. After two years at Edmonds Community College, I was accepted at the University of Washington School of Business Administration for my final two years. While at the University of Washington, I paid all my own living and school expenses by working three jobs while carrying a full load at school. The jobs were as a taxicab owner-driver, a computer consultant and a musician.

After graduating from the University of Washington in 1987 and earning a business degree, I went to work as the Information Technology Director for Pacific Trail Sportswear's Production Department. As the Information Technology Director, I was responsible for tracking offshore production of Pacific Trail's goods by computer.

For the past fifteen years I have worked in various executive positions in the Internet business as a sales, marketing and business development expert and more recently as a commercial real estate broker, all of which have provided me with an astute appreciation of the Seattle business climate.

I am a community organizer; I thrive when I have the opportunity to work for a cause I feel passionately about. The cause I have been most involved in over the last several years is Magnuson Park. In addition to my work for Magnuson Park, I am also an active member of the Rotary club and Cease Fire: A Comprehensive Strategy to Reduce Firearms Violence.

I am also an overwhelmingly proud newlywed to my beautiful wife Peggy, a practicing registered nurse and our two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.

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