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Governor Albert D. Rosellini, Sr.
Albert D. Rosellini, Sr. has met Elvis. He has ridden in a car with John F. Kennedy and waved at parade attendees. He’s known a host of national and international luminaries and political figures.
But the real story is that Rosellini, the governor of Washington State from 1957 to 1965, helped found the School of Medicine — and that he supports it to this day. In 2007, at the age of 98, Gov. Rosellini decided to give the school another gift: the Albert D. Rosellini Endowed Scholarship.
Becoming a politician
Gov. Rosellini entered the University of Washington a year before the stock market crashed in 1929. The crash hit his family hard, and the governor worked three jobs to put himself through school: two janitorial jobs, plus a 12-hour stint on Saturdays at Dan’s Meat Market in the Pike Place Market.
Work did not deter him. “I was determined to get an education,” says Gov. Rosellini, and he earned two degrees from the University, a B.A. in political science and a degree in law. He says he never thought too much about politics — or even voting — as a student.
“If anyone had told me that I would get into politics,” says Rosellini, “I would’ve told them they were plumb crazy.”
Rosellini first began to entertain the idea of politics while looking for work. Fresh out of law school, he met an attorney who suggested that he run for a legislative seat. Rosellini took the suggestion, and at the age of 24, ran against Washington State Senate incumbent “Tiger” Jim Murphy. Rosellini lost — but only by 80 votes. And he gained something important: the notice of Warren Magnuson, then running for the position of King County prosecuting attorney. Magnuson gave Rosellini a job, and four years later, Rosellini won a seat in the state Senate. He served there for 18 years.
Creating the School
As a legislator, says Rosellini, “I had a chance to see where there was a lot of need.”
He addressed some of these needs when he became governor in 1957, such as building bridges and roads, improving the care provided in mental institutions, and founding the Department of Commerce and Economic Development to attract businesses and tourists to the Northwest.
He also addressed another need: the need for a regional medical school.
As a trustee for Harborview Medical Center in the 1940s, Rosellini saw the need for a medical school to serve the Northwest, and he introduced a bill in the Senate to create one at the University of Washington. Gov. Arthur Langlie thought the idea was too expensive, says Rosellini, and the idea was shelved. Two years later, another administration took a different view. In 1946, Gov. Monrad Wallgren established the School of Medicine, and as a legislator — and later as governor — Rosellini approved money for its support and expansion.
Supporting Scholarship
Gov. Rosellini is pleased with the School’s progress. “I’m proud of the fact that it’s one of the best in the world,” he says. Like many people in the Seattle area, the governor has some personal ties to the school; his cousin, Leo Rosellini, was an intern at Harborview. After his late wife, Ethel, broke her hip, she was treated at UW Medical Center.
With a gift to support scholarship at the School, Gov. Rosellini is forming a new set of ties: with the many medical students who will, over the coming years, benefit from the Albert D. Rosellini Endowed Scholarship.
Dean Paul G. Ramsey, M.D., is grateful for Gov. Rosellini’s gift. “We appreciate all the scholarship gifts we receive,” says the Dean. “But a contribution from the father of the School of Medicine is particularly meaningful to me and my colleagues.”
For the governor, the motivation for giving to scholarship is quite straightforward.
“I learned that many young men and women want that line of work, but don’t have the funds to do it,” says Gov. Rosellini. “If we can help them, we should.”
2007
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