I had a chance to work closely with both men. They were rational, reality-based civil servants who cared deeply. They were also models of stewardship.
Ralph, Washington's Secretary of State from 1981 to 2001, can be credited with many things: helping Southeast Asian refugees resettle in
Washington, supporting environmental laws, being a moderate “Dan Evans” style Republican who was bipartisan and created a template for the running of fair elections in this state. But a lasting legacy of his will be his commitment to history: a founding member of the state’s Heritage Caucus, which still meets at 7 a.m. weekly during the legislative session to support local heritage and historic preservation. As Secretary of State, Munro served as caretaker of the state library and archives. During his time, his office was a veritable Washington heritage museum.
In the late 1980s, Munro and First Lady Jean Gardner co-chaired the Washington State Centennial Commission. If you travel around the state, you’ll still see signs of heritage projects that event funded and fostered at the grassroots levels in ’89. Washington’s “Mount Rainier” license plate design was a Munro project of that time.
Putnam Barber had a long track record of running volunteer organizations for the state and federal government. and was the Washington centennial executive director who herded the cats statewide and oversaw the big 100th anniversary event in Olympia on Nov. 11, 1989. The centennial also funded projects that included new state histories, plaques and markers for historic sites and hundreds of heritage activities around the state including a major air show, Wings Over Washington.
Barber hired me to organize an ambitious time capsule project. He gave me the mandate to conduct a multigenerational outreach conveying our times to the far future, and to involve the state’s children. The time capsule we created is a nest of steel capsules held in a massive safe on display in the rotunda of the Capitol building in Olympia. It is updated every 25 years when one of the containers inside is filled with new material, then sealed. All the capsules inside will be opened in 2389, the state’s 500th birthday. It is under the care of the Secretary of State’s office thanks to Munro and Barber, and overseen by the nonprofit Washington State Keepers of the Capsule, volunteers recruited as children to pledge to watch over the safe and its contents. They are charged with ensuring that it is kept safe and updated on schedule for four centuries. Each generation recruits a new generation of kids to keep the task of renewing the capsule going forward.
Historical researcher Putnam Barber at the Centennial Time Capsule Sealing Ceremony in Olympia on Feb. 22, 2015. (Photo courtesy of Washington State Archives)
Munro and Barber were big advocates of that long-reach heritage project, one of the most ambitious time capsule projects ever undertaken. It contains messages to the future from people of different ages, genders, races and heritages from across the state, along with artifacts, art, literature, history and diverse perspectives. It is a treasure in the making for future generations.
It is also a project that brought out the best in people, because that is what civil servants like Munro and Barber believed in and embodied. They respected history and what it could do for the future. We need that now more than ever.
