Chester Ralph Hovey

Born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Hovey attended public high school in Durand, Wisconsin, graduating in 1888, and thereafter moving to Ellensburg, Washington.Charles H. Sheldon, The Washington High Bench: A Biographical History of the State Supreme Court, 1889–1991 (1992), p. 218-19.H. James Boswell, American Blue Book: Western Washington, Seattle (Lowman and Hanford Co., 1922), p. 41. He "worked odd jobs and in a grocery store, studying law at night with Judge Ralph Kauffman", in Kittitas County, Washington. In 1893, Hovey was admitted to the bar, and "at once entered the practice of his profession in Ellensburg". Hovey was elected prosecuting attorney of Kittitas County from 1899 to 1901 and from 1910 to 1912. When he was not holding this office, he served as Ellensburg City Attorney, developing expertise in water rights and irrigation law.

Hovey was elected President of the Washington State Bar Association in July 1921, but resigned on September 7, 1921, the date that he was appointed to the Washington Supreme Court by Governor Louis Hart.Report of Proceedings of the Annual Convention – Washington State Bar Association (1921), p. 5, 8. Hovey was unsuccessful in attempting to retain his seat in an election in 1923. Hovey then moved to Seattle, and established a new law practice, eventually being elected president of the Seattle Bar Association in 1929.

Hovey married Grace J. Painter in 1895, with whom he had two children, a son named Joseph and a daughter named Ann. He was a member of the Elks' club and Chamber of Commerce, of Ellensburg.

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|title=Justice of the Washington Supreme Court

|before=Wallace Mount

|after=William H. Pemberton

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Category:Justices of the Washington Supreme Court

Category:1872 births

Category:1953 deaths

Category:U.S. state supreme court judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law

Category:People from Holyoke, Massachusetts

Category:People from Ellensburg, Washington

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