Gary Locke was the born on Jan. 21, 1950 in Seattle, Washington as the second of James and Julie Locke's five children. His father was a son of Chinese immigrants and his mother was a native of Hong Kong, Locke didn't start to learn English until he was five years old. Amongst going to school and helping out at his father's store, he was interested in scouting and inevitably became an Eagle Scout.

In 1968 he graduated with honors from Franklin High School and he received a scholarship to attend Yale University. Locke graduated from Yale in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in political science before attending Boston University for three years, where he earned his law degree. After law school, Locke returned to Seattle to work for the King County Prosecutor's Office. In 1982, he was elected to the Washington State House of Representatives where he served until he was elected as the chief executive of King County in 1993.

On Oct. 15, 1994 Locke married television news reporter Mona Lee. She is also of Chinese descent, though a native of California. She graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a degree in English Literature before earning her masters in journalism from Northwestern University. Before moving to Seattle, she worked for television news agencies in Washington, DC and Green Bay, Wisconsin.

On November 5, 1996 Locke was elected as the 21st governor of the State of Washington, making him the first Chinese-American governor in United States history. He was reelected to his second term on November 7, 2000. He serves as chair of the Democratic Governors' Association and recently gave the Democratic rebuttal to President Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address. He is one of the hopefuls for the 2004 Democratic Presidential nomination.

Gary and Mona are the parents of two children, Emily Nicole, born on March 9, 1997, and Dylan James, born on March 13, 1999.


Contact Information:

Governor Gary Locke
Office of the Governor
PO Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504-0002

Phone: 360.902.4111
Fax: 360.753.4110

Email: Governor.GaryLocke@governor.wa.gov
Web Site: http://www.governor.wa.gov


Sources:
http://www.governor.wa.gov
http://www.yale.edu/opa/v30.n6/story6.html
http://www.governor.wa.gov/early/commem/locke.htm
http://www.ocadc.org/archive/2001-1st/sharwong.html
www.democraticgovernors.org

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