Michael Redman: loyal, loving

Michael Redman was funny, smart, outspoken, warm, gregarious and larger than life, say those who knew him well. But most of all, he was loyal.

Mr. Redman, former executive secretary of the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys and a former prosecuting attorney of San Juan County, died Sunday at 59 of pancreatic cancer while visiting family in Sandy, Ore.

"Loyalty was his greatest trait," said King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng, a friend and colleague for years. Noting that Mr. Redman's military experience in Vietnam "shaped who he was," Maleng said: "He was definitely the guy you wanted in your foxhole when the action started."

The action during Mr. Redman's years with the prosecuting attorneys association — 1977 to 1994 — involved often-controversial issues surrounding proposed state laws. As an Olympia lobbyist for the prosecutors' organization, he influenced legislation related to state sentencing guidelines, domestic violence, drunken driving and many other criminal-justice issues.

"He was a prosecutor's prosecutor — smart, funny and completely dedicated to the prosecutor's mission" of improving the criminal-justice system, Maleng said.

Though not everyone agreed with each of his stands, Mr. Redman's passion and principle drew respect, several said. Throughout, he remained intensely loyal to the prosecutors he represented — and, by extension, to the state's people — said another longtime friend, Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney Dave McEachran.

Mr. Redman's loyalty was evident even during his youth in Seattle's Mount Baker neighborhood. His younger brother Eric, now a Seattle lawyer, recalls that when he was about 8, he was bitten by a neighborhood dog. Mr. Redman, who was then about 15, was so incensed that he chased down the dog and bit it back.

"How many people would bite a dog for you?" the still-admiring Eric said.

Mr. Redman was born Dec. 17, 1941, in Washington, D.C, and spent most of his childhood in Mount Baker, where his family moved after World War II. His attorney father, M. Chander Redman, was active in local Democratic politics. His mother, Marjorie Redman, was a civic activist who took on such causes as the cleanup of Puget Sound.

Their influence rubbed off. "Mike stuck to the family values," taking an active role in public issues, Eric Redman said.

Mr. Redman graduated from Franklin High School in 1959 and in 1963 from Yale University. In 1988, he was featured in the nationally televised special "Halftime," which traced the lives of five members of the Yale class of 1963.

He volunteered for the Army and served in Vietnam, an experience that affected him deeply, friends and family say. When he returned home and encountered widespread disrespect for veterans of the war, he was troubled by what he considered disloyalty to men who had given much.

Mr. Redman attended the University of Washington School of Law and began his law practice at the firm then known as Foster Pepper Riviera. He also lectured at the UW law school.

After moving to San Juan Island as a partner in the Greer & Redman law firm, he also served as an assistant county prosecutor and in 1974 was elected prosecutor for San Juan County.

He moved to Olympia in 1977 as executive secretary of the prosecuting attorneys association, a post he held through 1994, when he took early retirement.

For several years Mr. Redman sold deferred compensation plans for county employees, then was named executive director of the Washington Council on Crime and Delinquency, from which he retired last year.

After retirement, he taught criminal justice at Bellevue Community College and worked with elementary-school children as a substitute teacher in the Kitsap County public schools.

Mr. Redman loved sailing and was a skilled bridge player. He met his wife, Linda, while they were playing bridge at the home of mutual friends. Though Mr. Redman was best known for his public life, his wife would like people to remember him for something else: "He was a wonderful dad to Loren (Thompson)," her son from a previous marriage.

He also is survived by numerous nieces and nephews.

A private family service was held earlier this week. A public service will be scheduled in the fall. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Compassion in Dying of Washington, P.O. Box 61369, Seattle, WA 98121.