Dixy Lee Ray

Ray was born Marguerite Ray in Tacoma, Washington, to Frances Adams Ray and Alvis Marion Ray, the second in a family of five girls. She joined the Girl Scouts and, at the age of 12, became the youngest girl, up to that time, to summit Mount Rainier. In 1930, at age 16, she legally changed her name to "Dixy Lee"; as a child she had been referred to by family members as "little Dickens" (an idiom for "devil") and Dixy was a shortened form of the nickname.{{cite web |url=http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=601 |title=Ray, Dixy Lee (1914–1994) |last1=Becker |first1=Paula |date=2004 |website=historylink.org |publisher=HistoryInk |access-date=21 September 2014}} She chose "Lee" because of a family connection to Robert E. Lee.

File:Mount Rainier 5917s.JPG

Ray attended Tacoma's Stadium High School and graduated as valedictorian from Mills College in Oakland, California, in 1937, working her way through school as a waitress and janitor. She went on to earn a master's degree in 1938. Her thesis was titled A Comparative Study of the Life Habits of Some Species of Burrowing Eumalacostraca. Ray spent the next four years teaching science in the Oakland Unified School District. In 1942, a John Switzer Fellowship allowed her to enter a doctoral program in biology at Stanford University.{{cite book |last=Hightower-Langston |first=Donna |date=2002 |title=A to Z of American Women Leaders and Activists |publisher=Facts on File |page=182 |isbn=978-1-4381-0792-9 }} Ray's dissertation was The peripheral nervous system of Lampanyctus leucopsarus, a lanternfish.{{Cite Q|Q113392958|type=Doctoral thesis}} She completed the research for her dissertation in 1945 at the Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, California.[https://books.google.com/books?id=cdkUAAAAIAAJ reference] She is known to have lived a rather unconventional lifestyle, calling her house trailer and two dogs home, and therefore contributing a diverse perspective to the [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dixy-Lee-Ray Washington bureaucracy]. {{Cite web |date=2025-01-01 |title=Dixy Lee Ray {{!}} American Zoologist, Government Official & Environmental Activist {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dixy-Lee-Ray |access-date=2025-01-29 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}

In 1945, Ray returned to Washington to accept a position as an instructor in the zoology department at the University of Washington. She was promoted to assistant professor in 1947 and, five years later, received a prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship grant, which she used to undertake six months of postdoctoral research at Caltech.{{cite web |url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/12020-dixy-lee-ray |title=Dixy Lee Ray |publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |access-date=October 13, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017141316/http://www.gf.org/fellows/12020-dixy-lee-ray |archive-date=October 17, 2014 }} In 1957, she was made an associate professor at the University of Washington. During her time there, she also served as chief scientist aboard the schooner SS Te Vega during the International Indian Ocean Expedition. Her reputation in the classroom swung between wild extremes; students either "loved her or loathed her", as did faculty members. One fellow professor reportedly described her as "an intemperate, feeble-minded old bitch".{{cite book |last=Mole |first=Rich |title=Rebel Women of the West Coast: Their Triumphs, Tragedies and Lasting Legacies |publisher=Heritage House |isbn=978-1-926613-28-4 |year=2010 }}

File:Left to right Dixy Lee Ray (1914-1994) and Glenn Theodore Seaborg (1912-1999) (6891627661).jpg in 1968. At the time Seaborg was Chair of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, a position Ray would hold several years later.]]

Intrigued by her reputation as a person who could "make science interesting," producers at KCTS-TV, Seattle's PBS member station, approached Ray about hosting a weekly television program on marine biology. The show, Animals of the Seashore, was a hit and helped propel her into the public eye beyond campus. Her growing popularity led the Pacific Science Center to invite Ray to take over the nearly-bankrupt science museum for an annual salary of $20,000. Ray jumped at the opportunity and immediately began a top-to-bottom overhaul of the center, declaring "I'll be damned if I'm going to become a landlady to a hoary old museum." Under Ray's guidance, the Pacific Science Center was converted from a traditional, exhibit-oriented museum to an interactive learning center.

Ray's hands-on approach to running the Pacific Science Center reflected at every level. She kept a police whistle in her desk that she would use to run off loitering hippies. Jim Anderson, who would eventually teach fisheries science at the University of Washington, recalled a typical encounter with Ray, for whom he worked at the Pacific Science Center in 1968:{{cite web |url=http://www.washington.edu/news/2006/05/18/35-year-club-2/ |title=35 Year Club |date=18 May 2006 |website=washington.edu |publisher=University of Washington |access-date=September 21, 2014}}

{{blockquote|Her driving was infamous and my one ride with her, in a three-quarter-ton flatbed truck, was wholly memorable. Admittedly, it was an early Sunday morning, but sliding through stop signs, a few crosswise, was disconcerting at best. The ride went over the top when we reached the Science Center. The lot was full of cars without permits. Trying to fit in a very small space with a large flatbed truck, she dented two cars, broke the taillight off a third, and finally vaporized the rear window of a fourth.}}

Ray led the Pacific Science Center back into financial solvency. Her aggressive fundraising for the center also helped introduce her to many of the city's most influential citizens, including Senator Warren Magnuson.

An advocate of nuclear power, in 1973 Ray was appointed by Richard Nixon to chair the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) on the recommendation of Senator Warren Magnuson. The offer of appointment came via a telephone call after she was paged in an airport. After being told she would have to relocate to Washington, D.C., Ray declined the offer, saying "I'm living where I like to live." Nonetheless, she ultimately relented after being persuaded by her longtime friend Lou Guzzo.{{cite AV media |title=Booknotes: Dixy Lee Ray |medium=video |access-date=21 September 2014 |url=http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/18418-1/Dixy+Lee+Ray.aspx |date=1991 |publisher=C-SPAN |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140924040748/http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/18418-1/Dixy+Lee+Ray.aspx |archive-date=24 September 2014 |url-status=dead }}

File:Ray at Hanford.png. With them is Thomas Nemzek, at the time Director of Reactor R&D.]]

Following her appointment to the commission, news of her personal eccentricities began to emerge after reporters discovered she was living out of a 28-foot motor home, which was parked on a lot in rural Virginia. Each morning she was chauffeured from her RV to the AEC offices in Germantown, Maryland, accompanied by her {{convert|100|lb|adj=on}} Scottish deerhound Ghillie and a miniature poodle named Jacques.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/endofenergyunmak0000grae|url-access=registration|title=The End of Energy: The Unmaking of America's Environment, Security, and Independence|first=Michael J. |last=Graetz|publisher=MIT Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-262-01567-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/endofenergyunmak0000grae/page/68 68]}} Media reports commented on her unusual hosiery (white knee socks).

Her personal quirks were widely perceived as a weakness by tenured bureaucrats. A profile by Graham Chedd in New Scientist explained that,

{{blockquote|Almost everyone found the eccentricities delightful, and preserved their macho with speculations of the mincemeat that would be made of her by such AEC "heavies" as Milton Shaw, head of the powerful division of reactor development, and Chet Holifield, the iron man of the congressional joint committee on atomic energy.}}

File:Dixy Lee Ray and Robert Sachs.jpg, director of the Argonne National Laboratory, {{Circa|1974}}]]

However, less than a year after taking over, Ray had forced Shaw out, ordering that research and development be separated from safety programs as some environmental groups had demanded.{{cite news |last=Chedd |first=Graham |date=5 July 1973 |title=The lady gets her way |newspaper=New Scientist }} In addition to its research responsibilities, the AEC was charged with the manufacture of nuclear weapons for the U.S. military. Ray would later fondly recall the first time she saw a nuclear warhead, describing it "like a piece of beautiful sculpture, a work of the highest level of technological skill."{{cite web |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20064545,00.html |title=Dixy Lee Ray: Tough-minded Woman Who Calls Herself 'Chairman' of the AEC |work=People |access-date=24 September 2014}}

During her time as commission chair, which lasted until the AEC was abolished in 1975,{{Cite web|url=https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/AEC%20History.pdf|title=The Atomic Energy Commission|last=Buck|first=Alice|website=U.S. Department of Energy}} Ray presented a 17-year-old Eric Lander with first place in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search.{{cite web|url=http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/photocredit/achievers/lan0-010|title=American Academy of Achievement|website=achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|access-date=21 September 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141029202430/http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/photocredit/achievers/lan0-010|archive-date=29 October 2014}}

In 1975, Ray was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs by Gerald Ford, but resigned five months later, complaining about lack of input into department decision making. She subsequently told a United States Senate committee that she "saw Secretary of State Henry Kissinger only once – the day she was sworn in as an assistant secretary of state."{{Cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/ray-dixy-lee|title=Dixy Lee Ray - People - Department History - Office of the Historian|website=history.state.gov|language=en|access-date=2018-03-28}} In a parting shot as she left D.C., Ray declared that "anything the private sector can do, the government can do it worse."

To the surprise of many, Ray announced in 1975 she would seek election as Governor of Washington. Later asked why she decided to make her first run for public office the highest office in the state, she would reason, "I was much too old to start at the bottom, so I decided to start at the top." Though previously politically unaffiliated, she declared herself a Democrat.

File:Dixy Lee Ray at Washington State Employees' Credit Union open house.png open house in 1977]]

Ray displayed a blunt, sometimes confrontational, style on the campaign trail, for which she would later become known. During a visit with the Dorian Society, a Seattle gay rights group, she was asked by one member if she had met any gay federal employees and if they ever felt under pressure. Ray responded, "I don't know any – you can't tell by looking at them," drawing applause from attendees.{{cite book |last=Atkins |first=Gary |date=2003 |title=Gay Seattle: Stories of Exile and Belonging |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V_wymDz62v4C&pg=PA213 |publisher=University of Washington Press |page=213 |isbn=978-0-295-98298-4 }} In another instance, she declared Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Shelby Scates, who had deluged her with tough questions on the campaign trail, would "learn what the words persona non grata really mean" after her election.

Ray narrowly won the Democratic nomination over Seattle mayor Wes Uhlman, having spent almost no money on her campaign, having no experience in running for elected office, and having little support from the state's political class. Despite opposition from all major newspapers and predictions from pundits that the state was not ready "for an unmarried woman who gave herself a chainsaw for Christmas," Ray went on to win the general election with a victory over King County Executive John D. Spellman, 53%–44%. On election night, asked by a reporter to explain her surprise victory, she offered, "it can't be because I'm so pretty?"

After assuming office, Ray tightened Washington state spending and began an audit of state salaries and programs. She balanced the state budget and during her tenure as Governor oversaw the state's first full funding for basic public education. As the first resident of the Governor's Mansion without a First Lady, Ray hired her elder sister Marion R. Reid to serve as her official hostess.

File:Dixy Lee Ray signing bill.jpg in Olympia]]

Nonetheless, she quickly alienated fellow Democrats with her conservative views on energy and the environment. She approved allowing supertankers to dock in Puget Sound, championed support for unrestrained growth and development, and continued to express enthusiasm for atomic power. She likewise alienated the state's Republican establishment after she fired 124 appointees of her predecessor, three-term governor Daniel J. Evans, offering to send them "a box of kleenex with their pink slips."{{cite book |title=Governing Codes: Gender, Metaphor, and Political Identity |publisher=Lexington Books |page=31 |isbn=978-0-7391-1199-4 |year= 2005}} She filled their places with old colleagues, described by some as "yes men."{{cite news |last=Duncan |first=Don |date=3 January 1994 |title=Dixy Lee Ray: Unpolitical, Unique, Uncompromising

|url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19940103/1887837/dixy-lee-ray-unpolitical-unique-uncompromising |newspaper=Seattle Times |access-date=23 September 2014 }} Her treatment of the media was similarly dismissive. Local television reporter Paul Boyd once interviewed the governor while she was dressed in "a ratty Ban-lon sports shirt, sweat pants covered with dog hair, red socks, and tennis shoes."

Ray's uncompromising belief in the correctness of her views occasionally spilled over state lines. During what was supposed to be a routine joint press conference in Boise, Idaho, by the governors of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in which the three touted the benefits of energy conservation, Ray reacted with barely concealed disdain to Oregon governor Robert W. Straub's call for legislation to encourage the installation of home insulation. "I don't believe our citizens are lax, or lazy, or indifferent," Ray fired. "In Washington we have a strong voluntary energy conservation program. We don't need legislative incentives."{{cite news |date=28 August 1977 |title=Governors' tiff affects regional energy programs |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19770828&id=761VAAAAIBAJ&pg=7039,7222346 |newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard |access-date=23 September 2014 }}

Back in Washington, Ray sometimes engaged in elaborate ceremony; on her inauguration she hosted not just one but nine inaugural balls. To promulgate House Bill 491, a relatively minor $13 million appropriations measure, she had nearly 1,000 people assembled in the rotunda of the Legislative Building (the Associated Press noted, at the time, that it was ordinarily "unusual for more than a dozen people to show up" to bill signings, which would customarily be held in the governor's office).{{cite news |date=10 May 1979 |title=Senior citizens cheer as Ray signs "their" bill |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19790510&id=Pu0vAAAAIBAJ&pg=7263,5260341 |newspaper=Spokesman-Review }}

Press and political opposition solidified in the face of her unyielding style of governance. In a critical 1977 article in Mother Jones, Ray Mungo labeled Ray as a "slightly wacky Miss Marple" and described the increasingly madcap atmosphere in Washington:

{{blockquote|For the first time in the four years that I've lived in Seattle, the political climate is volatile, exciting, terrifying. Each day's newspapers bring fresh atrocities from Olympia, the state capital. The opposition is mounting with volcanic pressure, and the press is almost universally merciless with Dixy. But she plows forward with a stamina that could belong only to someone who, when not living in the governor's mansion, lives on an island, in a mobile home, with five dogs.}}

File:Washington State Governor's Mansion.jpg.]]

Ralph Nader, during a visit to the state, called Ray's administration "gubernatorial lunacy."{{cite news |last=Mungo |first=Raymond |date=May 1977 |title=Dixy Lee Ray – How Madame Nuke Took Over Washington |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n-YDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA29 |newspaper=Mother Jones }} Ray's own campaign manager, Blair Butterworth, vaguely quipped, "we thought she would be the best governor Washington ever had, or the worst, and we were right."{{cite web |url=http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2013/03/29/blair-butterworth-top-political-adviser-is-dead/ |title=Blair Butterworth, top political adviser, is dead |website=seattlepi.com |publisher=Seattle Post-Intelligencer |access-date=23 September 2014 |archive-date=29 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141029150723/http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2013/03/29/blair-butterworth-top-political-adviser-is-dead/ |url-status=dead }} Support from her fellow scientists, however, was often positive; Edward Teller called Ray "a very wonderful lady" and said he would support her if she ran for President of the United States in the 1980 election.{{cite thesis |type=Ph.D. |title=Containing Science: The U.S. National Security State and Scientists' Challenge to Nuclear Weapons during the Cold War |url=https://www.lib.utexas.edu/etd/d/2008/rubinsonp66913/rubinsonp66913.pdf |last=Rubinson |first=Paul |year=2008 |publisher=University of Texas |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140924041711/https://www.lib.utexas.edu/etd/d/2008/rubinsonp66913/rubinsonp66913.pdf |archive-date=2014-09-24 |url-status=dead }}

On April 3, 1980, Ray declared a state of emergency as a result of the worsening threat of volcanic eruption posed by Mount St. Helens. Warning that "the possibility of a major eruption or mudflow is real," she urged a sometimes skeptical public to stay away from the mountain.{{cite news |date=4 April 1980 |title=Mount St. Helens Tremors Prompt State of Emergency |newspaper=Boca Raton News |location=Boca Raton, Florida }}

File:WA-504 St. Helens Bridge after 1980 eruption.jpg lies in ruins after being carried by a lahar generated by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.]]

The emergency decree was followed, on April 30, by the declaration of a "red zone" in southwestern Washington where public access would be banned and relocation of the population would be compelled by state troops, if necessary. Ray ordered the Washington National Guard mobilized and the deployment of the Washington State Patrol to reinforce the sheriffs of Cowlitz County and Skamania County in carrying out her declaration, with violation punishable by six months imprisonment. The U.S. Forest Service later credited the red zone restrictions with saving 5,000 to 30,000 people from certain death.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VT6BAVlPUUAC&pg=PA72|title=Warning and response to the Mount St. Helens eruption|first1=Thomas Frederick|last1=Saarinen|first2=James L.|last2=Sell|page=72|isbn=9780873959155|year=1985|publisher=SUNY Press }} At the same time, however, Ray was criticized for establishing a parallel "blue zone" where the public was generally banned, but Weyerhaeuser loggers were permitted. (When the mountain finally erupted, 11 of those killed were loggers operating in the blue zone. A subsequent lawsuit by families of the deceased, alleging negligence against the state, would be summarily dismissed in court for lack of evidence.){{cite news |date=8 February 1987 |title=Court approves St. Helens settlement |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19870208&id=Aa1QAAAAIBAJ&pg=5535,1730405 |newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard }} After the eruption, Ray would falsely claim that all killed were near the mountain illegally while it was found all but one individual was allowed to be there. On the day of the eruption a request to expand the blue zone sat on Ray's desk unsigned.{{cite web |url=https://www.americanscientist.org/article/explosive-truths |title=Explosive Truths |date=21 February 2017 }}

As a scientist, Ray was fascinated by the possibility of an eruption. In the weeks leading up to the fateful event, Ray flew to the mountain in the governor's plane, circling the peak and remarking, "I've always said I wanted to live long enough to see one of our volcanoes erupt."{{cite book |last=Thompson |first=Dick |date=2002 |title=Volcano Cowboys: The Rocky Evolution of a Dangerous Science |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |page=48 |isbn=978-0-312-28668-2 }} The cataclysmic eruption of the mountain, which occurred on May 18, 1980, killed 57 people. The level of devastation caused by the ensuing ash cloud, earthquakes, electrical storms, and flooding was unprecedented and, the following day, Ray invoked her emergency powers to postpone local elections, which had been scheduled for May 20.{{cite web |url=http://www.governor.wa.gov/office/execorders/eoarchive/eo80-07.htm |title=EXECUTIVE ORDER 80-07 |date=1980 |website=governor.wa.gov |publisher=State of Washington, Office of the Governor |access-date=21 September 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130530063304/http://www.governor.wa.gov/office/execorders/eoarchive/eo80-07.htm |archive-date=30 May 2013 }}

Ray ran for reelection in 1980, enlisting Republican consultant Montgomery Johnson to head her campaign after her former manager, Butterworth, had defected to her rival, then-State Senator Jim McDermott. She lost to McDermott in a contentious Democratic primary election, 56%–41%, during which bumper stickers emblazoned with "Nixy on Dixy" and "Ditch the Bitch" became popular campaign tchotchkes. McDermott himself went on to lose in the general election to Republican John D. Spellman.

{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?18418-1/trashing-planet Booknotes interview with Ray on Trashing the Planet, June 16, 1991], C-SPAN}}

After leaving office, Ray retired to her farm on Fox Island. She was frequently in the news giving her opinion of current events. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer quoted her as saying she favored "abolishing political parties and taking away voting rights from anyone who fails to vote in two consecutive elections." During her retirement she co-authored two books with Lou Guzzo critical of the environmentalist movement. In one of those books, Trashing the Planet, she described environmentalists as "mostly white, middle to upper income and predominantly college educated ... they are distinguished by a vocal do-good mentality that sometimes cloaks a strong streak of elitism that is often coupled with a belief that the end justifies the means."

Dixy Lee Ray died on January 2, 1994, at her home. Shortly before her death, it was reported that she had had a bronchial infection, which led to pneumonia, as the cause of her death.{{cite web | url=https://apnews.com/article/872f61241ade47f389a88311adefffea | title=Former Gov. Dixy Lee Ray Dead at 79 | website=Associated Press }} Later, controversy erupted after it emerged that employees of the Pierce County medical examiner's office had kept autopsy photos of Ray as souvenirs.{{cite news |date=4 June 1996 |title=Ray's Family: Autopsy Photos 'Denigrating' Polaroids Of Corpses Discovered In Desk Of Ex-County Employee |url=http://m.spokesman.com/stories/1996/jun/04/rays-family-autopsy-photos-denigrating-polaroids/ |newspaper=Spokesman Review |access-date=21 September 2014 |archive-date=29 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141029181919/http://m.spokesman.com/stories/1996/jun/04/rays-family-autopsy-photos-denigrating-polaroids/ |url-status=dead }}

Ray's death was met with opinionated reflections on her life by her many friends and enemies. She was eulogized by her successor as governor, John Spellman, as "one of a kind." "She had a brilliant mind," Spellman said. "Her strength was as a teacher and a lecturer. She had this really bubbling personality. People weren't quite used to anybody that outspoken. But whatever she said, people still loved her."

Former state senator Gordon Walgren, who had been indicted on federal racketeering charges based on evidence collected by the State Patrol during Ray's term, recalled her in different tones. "I'm sure she made valuable contributions as an educator," Walgren noted. "I can't remember any as governor."

Ray's friend and a co-author in two of her books, Lou Guzzo, concluded that "she should have never gone into politics." "We thought it was time for someone in politics who tells the truth all the time," Guzzo recalled. "It didn't work."

In 2014, veteran Seattle journalist Knute Berger opined that Ray was ahead of her time. "It's interesting to note that many of her views are either mainstream or are creeping back into acceptability," Berger wrote.{{cite web|url=http://crosscut.com/2014/08/05/history/121332/water-taxi-names-ray-good-judgment/?page=2|title=A water taxi named 'Dixy'?|last1=Berger|first1=Knute|date=5 August 2014|website=Crosscut|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808180319/https://crosscut.com/2014/08/05/history/121332/water-taxi-names-ray-good-judgment/|archive-date=8 August 2014}}

After her death, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) established an award in Dixy Lee Ray's honor for engineering contributions to the field of environmental protection. The award, which consists of a bronze medal with the governor's likeness and a cash grant, was first given to Clyde W. Frank in 1999 and has been made annually since.{{cite web |url=https://www.asme.org/about-asme/get-involved/honors-awards/achievement-awards/dixy-lee-ray-award |title=Dixy Lee Ray Award |website=asme.org |publisher=ASME |access-date=21 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304044534/https://www.asme.org/about-asme/get-involved/honors-awards/achievement-awards/dixy-lee-ray-award |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}

Ray's papers, totaling 190 boxes of records and memorabilia spanning her career, are in deposit at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford University.

• 1958: Clapp Award in Marine Biology
• 1973: Frances K. Hutchinson Medal for Service in Conservation
• 1973: United Nations Peace Medal
• 1974: Francis Boyer Science Award
• 1979: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Edward Teller at the Achievement Summit in Salt Lake City, Utah{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|url= https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#public-service}}{{cite web|title= Awards Banquet Draws 'Giants of Endeavor'|publisher= The Salt Lake Tribune |url= https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Salt-Lake-Tribune-June-24-1979.pdf}}

Ray was the recipient of twenty honorary doctorates from U.S. and foreign universities.{{cite web |url=http://www.aauw.org/2013/10/31/dixy-lee-ray/ |title=From Mt. Rainier to the Governorship of Washington, Dixy Lee Ray Was a Climber |date=21 October 2013 |website=aauw.org |publisher=American Association of University Women |access-date=21 September 2014 |archive-date=23 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191023033940/https://www.aauw.org/2013/10/31/dixy-lee-ray/ |url-status=dead }}

The subject of Dixy Lee Ray's sexual orientation was carefully avoided in public discussion both during and after her life. While there were many rumors regarding her sexuality, the specific word "lesbian" was never used to describe her and many people have dismissed those rumors as speculation born of Ray's tomboy characteristics and unmarried status, rather than informed assessment.{{cite thesis |last=Ellis |first=Erik |title= Dixy Lee Ray. Marine Biology, and the Public Understanding of Science in the United States (1930–1970) |type=Ph.D. Thesis |year=2006 |publisher=Oregon State University }}

{{Election box begin no change

|title = Governor of Washington Democratic primary – 1976 {{cite web|url=https://wei.sos.wa.gov/agency/osos/en/press_and_research/PreviousElections/Pre2004/Documents/1950.to.1979/pdfs%20of%20election%20results/1976%20Primary%20Abstract.pdf|title=Election Abstract|publisher=Washington Secretary of State|access-date=November 27, 2012}}

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate = Dixy Lee Ray

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| votes = 205,232

| percentage = 35.1

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate = Wes Uhlman

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| votes = 198,336

| percentage = 33.9

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate = Marvin Durning

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| votes = 136,290

| percentage = 23.3

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate = Duke Stockton

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| votes = 5,588

| percentage = 1.0

|change =

}}

{{Election box end}}

{{Election box begin no change

|title = Governor of Washington general – 1976{{cite web|url=https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/results_report.aspx?e=38&c=&c2=&t=264&t2=&p=&p2=&y=|title=Elections Search Results: November 1976 General|publisher=Washington Secretary of State|access-date=27 March 2018}}

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate = Dixy Lee Ray

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| votes = 821,797

| percentage = 53.14

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate = John Spellman

| party = Republican Party (United States)

| votes = 689,039

| percentage = 44.43

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate = Art Manning

| party = American Party (1969)

| votes = 12,406

| percentage = 0.80

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate = Red Kelly

| party = OWL Party

| votes = 12,400

| percentage = 0.80

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate = Henry Killman

| party = Socialist Labor Party

| votes = 4,137

| percentage = 0.27

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate = Maurice W. Willey

| party = Libertarian Party (United States)

| votes = 4,133

| percentage = 0.27

|change =

}}

{{Election box end}}

{{Election box begin no change

|title = Governor of Washington Democratic primary – 1980 {{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?fips=53&year=1980&f=0&off=5&elect=1|title=1980 Gubernatorial Democratic Primary Election Results – Washington|publisher=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=11 February 2015}}

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate = Jim McDermott

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| votes = 321,256

| percentage = 56.37

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate = Dixy Lee Ray (incumbent)

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| votes = 234,252

| percentage = 41.10

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate = Caroline (Hope) Diamond

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| votes = 4,184

| percentage = 0.73

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate =Robert L. Baldwin

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| votes = 3,578

| percentage = 0.63

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate =Lloyd G. Isley

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| votes = 2,723

| percentage = 0.48

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate =Douglas P. Bestle

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| votes = 2,481

| percentage = 0.44

|change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change||

| candidate =Jef Jaisun

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| votes = 1,476

| percentage = 0.26

|change =

}}

{{Election box end}}

• List of female governors in the United States

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book |last1=Ware |first1=Susan |first2=Lorraine |last2=Braukman |first3=Stacy |last3=Braukman |title=Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary Completing the Twentieth Century |publisher=Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |year=2004 |pages=538–539 |isbn=978-0-674-01488-6}}
• {{cite book |last1=Grinstein |first1=Louise S |first2=Carol A. |last2=Biermann |first3=Rose K. |last3=Rose |title=Women in the Biological Sciences: A Biobibliographic Sourcebook |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=1997 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/womeninbiologica00grin/page/424 424–432] |isbn=978-0-313-29180-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/womeninbiologica00grin/page/424 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Ray |first1=Dixy Lee |first2=Louis R. |last2=Guzzo |title=Environmental Overkill |publisher=Harper Perennial |year=1994 |location=New York |isbn=978-0-06-097598-2}}
• {{cite book |last1=Ray |first1=Dixy Lee |first2=Louis R. |last2=Guzzo |title=Trashing the Planet: How Science Can Help Us Deal With Acid Rain, Depletion of the Ozone, and Nuclear Waste (Among Other Things) |publisher=Harper Perennial |year=1992 |location=New York |isbn=978-0-06-097490-9 }}
• {{cite book |last=Ray |first=Dixy Lee |title=The Nation's Energy Future: A Report to Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States

|publisher=U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off.) |year=1973 |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=}}

• {{cite book |last=Ray |first=Dixy Lee |title=Marine Boring and Fouling Organisms |publisher=University of Washington Press |location=Seattle WA |year=1959 |isbn=}}
• {{cite book |last=Ray |first=Dixy Lee |title=The peripheral nervous system of lampanyctus leucopsarus |journal=Journal of Morphology |volume=87 |issue=1 |pages=61–178 |publisher=Wiley Interscience |year=1950 |isbn=|doi=10.1002/jmor.1050870104|pmid=24538129 |s2cid=41779856 }}
• {{cite book |last=Ray |first=Dixy Lee |title=The peripheral nervous system of lampanyctus leucopsarus

|journal=Journal of Morphology |volume=87 |issue=1 |pages=61–178 |publisher=Hopkins Marine Station |year=1945|location=Pacific Grove, CA |isbn=|pmid=24538129 |doi=10.1002/jmor.1050870104 |s2cid=41779856 }}

• {{cite book |last=Ray |first=Dixy Lee |title=A Comparative Study of the Life Habits of Some Species of Burrowing Eumalacostraca

|publisher=Mills College |year=1938 |location=Oakland, CA |isbn=}}

{{Commons category}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• [https://www.historylink.org/file/601 Ray, Dixy Lee] at HistoryLink
• [http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf3199n5v9/?&query=Dixy%20Lee%20Ray&brand=oac&hit.rank=2 Register of the Dixy Lee Ray Papers, 1937–1982]
• {{C-SPAN|18716}}

{{s-start}}

{{s-gov}}

{{s-bef|before=James Schlesinger}}

{{s-ttl|title=Chair of the Atomic Energy Commission|years=1973–1975}}

{{s-non|reason=Position abolished}}

|-

{{s-new|office}}

{{s-ttl|title=Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs|years=1975}}

{{s-aft|after=Frederick Irving}}

|-

{{s-ppo}}

{{s-bef|before=Albert Rosellini}}

{{s-ttl|title=Democratic nominee for Governor of Washington|years=

1976}}

{{s-aft|after=Jim McDermott}}

|-

{{s-off}}

{{s-bef|before=Daniel Evans}}

{{s-ttl|title=Governor of Washington|years=1977–1981}}

{{s-aft|after=John Spellman}}

{{s-end}}

{{AEC Chairs}}

{{Governors of Washington}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ray, Dixy Lee}}

Category:1914 births

Category:1994 deaths

Category:20th-century American politicians

Category:20th-century American women politicians

Category:20th-century American women scientists

Category:20th-century American zoologists

Category:American marine biologists

Category:Chairpersons of the United States Atomic Energy Commission

Category:Democratic Party governors of Washington (state)

Category:Mills College alumni

Category:Politicians from Tacoma, Washington

Category:Stanford University alumni

Category:United States assistant secretaries of state

Category:University of Washington faculty

Category:Women in Washington (state) politics

Category:Women state governors of the United States

Category:People from Fox Island, Washington

Category:American women academics

Category:Stadium High School alumni

Category:First women governors