PORT ANGELES — An effort to honor a former Clallam County and state Supreme Court justice is continuing.
During their work session Monday, the county commissioners discussed the proposed honor for Susan Owens, a Clallam County judge and longtime resident who retired from the state Supreme Court in late 2024 and died last March.
The request to honor Owens first came to Clallam County from the Washington Women Lawyers Olympic Peninsula Chapter to place some sort of statue or monument to Owens somewhere on the county campus, county Administrator Todd Mielke said.
The county met with the Parks & Facilities Department about the request and was open to it, but then the group came back this fall and asked that the county either rename the courthouse building after Owens or rename a courtroom in the courthouse after her, Mielke said.
“My response was I wanted to get around and talk to the board of county commissioners, I want to talk to the judges and learn more about this,” Mielke said. “We are unique. We’ve not had a lot of people from Clallam County move up the position of Supreme Court justice, where other counties have had several, and I don’t know how those counties have had several to choose to acknowledge or show their respect for.”
Owens spent most of her time working on behalf of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and did some work for the Makah Tribe while working in District Court 2 in Forks, Mielke said. She also served as the pro tem for the court, presiding over it on occasion.
“So in talking with people, those on the bench and commissioners and others, they felt the most appropriate tribute would be something based in the Forks area,” he said. “I think there’s a little bit of awkwardness about naming a courtroom in this building when, other than pro temming, she was not assigned to this court.”
Mielke suggested a more appropriate honor for her would be to name a courtroom in Forks after Owens. At the county courthouse in Port Angeles, Mielke suggested naming a garden after Owens or honoring her with plaque on a tree.
Forks city attorney Rod Fleck, who worked closely with Owens, addressed the commissioners about the honor.
“I think on the West End, you start to know everybody if you’ve been here for some time, and Susan was one of those people,” Fleck said.
He said Owens was fair and equitable while sitting on the bench and that she was a remarkable lady.
Fleck told commissioners Forks Mayor Tim Fletcher, who also knew Owens, is looking into getting a metal cast pore done on a plaque that could use her signature. Naming a courtroom after her would be something the mayor and council would need to discuss.
Karen Unger, who worked as Owens’ law partner in 1981, also spoke to the commissioners about the honor.
“She made Clallam County her home for all of her adult life, except when she did go to Olympia to be on the Supreme Court for 25 years,” Unger said. “She always considered Clallam County her home, and when she passed away, the Washington Women Lawyers believed that it was appropriate for the county to recognize her as a judge, as a Supreme Court justice, as a hometown girl who did good.”
Unger said putting a plaque on a tree would not be an appropriate honor for Owens and supported the idea of a plaque on the courthouse.
“It’s hard to believe or hard to imagine that somebody with this level of success and pride she brought to our community should be ignored,” Unger said. “We would like to see, at a minimum, a plaque on the building recognizing her contributions to this community.”
Russ Hepfer, vice chair of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, also spoke to the commissioners.
“Susan is a very important person in our history and in our court system. She is fair, honest, treated everybody equal,” he said. “We believe that this courthouse should be named after her. This is Clallam County, not Forks County, not Port Angeles County. This is the important part here. It’s a way to advocate for you to name it after her.”
Commissioner Mike French said the county needs good community input to make a good decision.
“We’re balancing what’s the most appropriate honorific for Justice Owens, and what’s the best way to actually spread that impact,” French said.
It would be “wholly appropriate” to considering naming the courthouse after Owens, Commissioner Mike Ozias said.
“Having something that is a living testament, not a plaque that people are going to skip over, but a living testament to the integrity and the practice that she brought and the representative to Clallam County would be wholly appropriate,” Ozias said.
The Washington Women Lawyers would pay for whatever the honorific is, commissioners were told.
It was determined the county would consult with legal counsel about options and to discuss the matter further, likely this month or in early March.
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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.
