The Greater Seattle community is mourning the loss of Judge Donald D. Haley. Haley, a founder and a past President of the Loren Miller Bar Association and a lifetime member and board member of Seattle King County Branch of NAACP, passed away Monday evening surrounded by family and friends. He was 85.
Born in Roanoke, Louisiana, Judge Haley attended the University of Washington (UW) and got a degree in Political Science. He also worked at Boeing before attending UW’s Law School at a time when there were very few Black people on campus in any department. Haley finished law school and started his own law firm. He worked as administrative law judge at the Washington State Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals, and served as the Seattle NAACP President from 1969-1972.
Former Seattle King County NAACP President Lacy Steele, who served as president of the branch for 26 years, remembers Judge Haley serving as delegate to national, state, and regional meetings, and traveled there at his own expense.
“Anything happening in the civil rights arena since 1959 is because of Judge Haley and others like him,” says Steele. “He did this work for others, he donated a lot of his time, energy, and money for the civil rights movement. He will be sorely missed by those of us who are left.”
According to King County Superior Court Judge LeRoy McCullough, Judge Haley was a “dapper, brilliant man with a great sense of humor and a great mentor.”
Haley was a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and was an active member of People’s Institutional Baptist Church in Seattle until his health no longer allowed him to fully participate.
Haley is survived by his wife, Margaret, who is a retired educator and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and his son, Byron and his wife, and two granddaughters.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
