Melvin Love, Long A Part Of Bellevue Life, Dies At 73

Today is Melvin Valess Love Day in Bellevue, but the former lawyer, mayor, councilman and judge did not live to see the city honor him.

Love, 73, who was Bellevue's first full-term mayor, died last night after a two-year bout with cancer. His wife, Pamela, said today that the family thought he had beaten the disease but he had taken a sudden turn for the worse in the past few months.

Love's public-service career spanned more than 28 years, from Bellevue's incorporation in 1953 to his retirement from the Bellevue District Court bench in 1981.

Love was born in Dee, Ore., and grew up in Leavenworth. During the Great Depression, he quit school at age 11 and didn't graduate from high school until he was 22.

After serving four years in the Army in World War II, he moved to Bellevue in 1944 and graduated from the University of Washington Law School in 1952.

Love was long an advocate of good planning and was instrumental in Bellevue's drive for cityhood in the early 1950s. He was elected to the first provisional city council in March 1953. A year later he won again and as the top vote-getter was named mayor and served on the council until 1958.

In 1953 Love helped organize and establish the Puget Sound Regional Planning Council, the forerunner of the Puget Sound Council of Governments, and served as chairman for six years and on the executive committee for 11 years.

Love was elected Bellevue justice of the peace and Municipal Court judge in 1958 and was elected Bellevue District Court judge in 1962. His strong interest in young people led to his work with others in organizing the Youth Eastside Services.

Almost 300 people, including government officials and area attorneys, turned out for his retirement from the bench in June 1981.

Pamela Love described her husband of 48 years as ``someone who worked hard to make the American system of democracy work. He spent a great deal of his time on the bench helping defendants get on the right trail. He was no cynic. He believed in people.''

Love was the father of seven children: sons Clare, James, Terrill, Randall and Shannon, and daughters Trinda Burbridge and Allison Mardini. He had 19 grandchildren.

Services have not been scheduled.