Seattle's Poorer For The Loss Of John Haydon And Ralph Potts

Many recall John Haydon, who died last week, as a "public servant" and while this was true, John was far more than that. He was a humanist in the best tradition.

John's departure was followed by another passing, that of Ralph Potts, an attorney and Seattle historian, a friend who taught me much about life in this city.

John Haydon, too, was a friend, one I like to think of as a close friend. He was my neighbor for several years, until he left Seattl to become governor of American Samoa.

If you will permit a cliche, God broke the mold when He made John Haydon. There was nobody like him.

In his long and busy life, John was a miner, a laborer, seaman, an ad writer, a press agent, a publisher (the Marine Digest), a political operative, a port commissioner, a governor, and a business manager for the Makah Indian Reservation at Neah Bay.

He was what he liked to think of as a "Rockefeller or Dan Evans" Republican: conservative in many ways, but at heart a populist.

In 1960, Haydon led a reform movement that revived the Port of Seattle, a rundown facility that has now become the third-largest port in America.

As a port commissioner, Haydon urged fellow commissioners to hire blacks and other minorities. He encouraged labor representation in port affairs, notably the late commissioner, Merle Adlum, and the incumbent, Jack Block.

He pushed for trade with Japan and the Far East. He set up the first Japanese trade fair here, and, later, he was active in the International Trade Fair. He was one of the original founders of the Seattle boat show.

In the beginning he wanted to be a novelist, then a magazine journalist. He finally sold a story to True magazine for $250; having accomplished that, he decided he didn't want to be a writer.

His enthusiasms were legendary. He played a key role in the first campaign by Dan Evans to become governor; he managed the campaign of Art Fletcher, a black, for lieutenant governor.

Although he was a Republican, it was two Democrats, Sens. Warren Magnuson and Scoop Jackson, who got him the appointment as governor of American Samoa. His tenure as governor was marked by controversy, mainly because John, ever the activist, shook up the system of tribal privileges that prevailed in those islands.

The measure of John Haydon, the man, is not contained in this recitation of accomplishments. Rather, a hint can be found in the words of a friend, Jerry Hoeck, who said of him:

"If I were in real trouble, and I needed help, right now, no questions asked, the man I would want there is John Haydon."

Ralph Potts, age 93, died last week and he, too, I like to think, was a quintessential Seattle citizen. Potts was a practicing attorney but managed to write several books and plays.

He was active both in writing and in the arts. He helped found the Northwest Writers Conference and was a founder and former president of Allied Arts.

Like Haydon, Potts was conservative in outlook, but he admired mavericks and cherished differences among people.

In turn, I cherished the times I spent with Ralph. He taught me much about the famed Cincinnatus reform movement in Seattle of the 1930s. The movement was aimed at eliminating corruption in city government, and Ralph was a driving force in that movement.

He covered much of Cincinnatus in his book, "Seattle Heritage." He rather admired Mayor John Dore, who was a principal target of Cincinnatus.

He also had much good to say about Dave Beck, the iron-handed Teamster leader, even though he later wrote a tough caricature of Beck in his novel, "Sir Boss."

As I say, Potts was conservative to the core, but he loved renegades. Although the IWW (International Workers of the World), or Wobblies, were planets removed ideologically from Potts' thinking, he loved to tell stories about their imaginative rebellions.

So it was with George Vanderveer, the famed Seattle criminal attorney of the 1920s and '30s. Vanderveer, adept at defending prostitutes, the downtrodden and labor unions, was once called, by no less than Dave Beck, "the best labor lawyer we ever had, and that includes Clarence Darrow."

Potts knew and admired Vanderveer, a brawler who liked to drink, and the book on Vanderveer, "Counsel for The Damned," which Potts co-authored with Lowell S. Hawley, must be counted among the two or three best books ever written about Seattle.

John Haydon and Ralph Potts. We are not so rich a city that we can afford losses like these.

Emmett Watson's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday in the Northwest section of The Times.