OLYMPIA — Former state Supreme Court Justice Susan Owens, who retired from her 44-year judicial career at the end of December, died on Friday in California, where she was visiting family. She was 75.
“Justice Owens was a true original and a good friend,” state Supreme Court Chief Justice Debra Stephens said Friday in a press release. “Though she had been in declining health recently, she never lost her wit, her humor and her strong sense of justice. The world will not be the same without her in it.”
“Susan made a positive difference in people’s lives, on and off the bench,” said state Supreme Court Justice Barbara Madsen, who was on the court in 2000 when Owens became a justice. “She was so genuine and easy to love. Her family, friends and the people she touched through her work and in the community will feel her loss deeply.”
Owens was elected to the state Supreme Court in the November 2000 general election, becoming the seventh woman to serve on the court. Prior to the election, she had served for 19 years as a judge on the Clallam County District Court. She had been the first woman to serve on that court when she was appointed to a new part-time judicial position in 1981, then was elected to six terms.
Owens was a champion of rural and tribal courts, founding the Rural Courts Committee of Washington’s District and Municipal Court Judges’ Association (DMCJA). She taught on the subject of rural courts at the state’s Judicial College. She also had served as a part-time chief judge for both the Quileute Tribe for five years and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe for more than six years.
As a Supreme Court justice, she became active on Washington’s Tribal State Court Consortium.
Another focus of Owens’ career was improving judicial education on domestic violence cases. In her time on the district court bench, she found the cases were prevalent, and the same people and situations kept returning again and again. There was little education for judges in understanding or handling these cases, and “people were being injured,” Owens said in 2024 just before her retirement. “It needed changing. We all needed education.”
She joined numerous committees to gain knowledge, then became a national trainer on the topic. She lectured at the National College of Prosecuting Attorneys’ Domestic Violence Conference, and co-authored the Northwest Tribal Judges Domestic Violence Manual.
Now with a great deal more education available for judicial officers, benchbooks that are regularly updated, numerous tools for survivors and treatment options for offenders, “it’s 200 percent better than it used to be,” Owens said last year.
She became the first woman on the state Supreme Court to serve until the mandatory judicial retirement age of 75. For a small retirement gathering in December, Owens’ colleagues talked about her natural love of storytelling and hearing the stories of people who come to court, her easy way of speaking and listening to others, her love of mentoring new lawyers, and her personal motto to “help everyone who comes through the door.”
The Supreme Court will be planning a memorial for Owens, Stephens said.
