Deceased July 28, 2008
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In Memory
I am sad to report the death of a close friend of many members of the Class of 1970. Brad Diggs passed away on July 25 in Seattle after a 21-year battle with lung cancer.
Brad was born and raised in Missoula, Mo. I got to know him 50 years ago this summer when we played on the same little league baseball team. One day I missed a grounder and was replaced immediately by Brad, a better shortstop. I lost that job permanently.
Despite the traumatic introduction, we became friends, and by high school, we were best friends. Besides baseball, we played the Montana junior tennis circuit for many summers and during our senior year of high school were the number one ranked doubles team in the state. Brad was arguably the smartest student in our high school class, and it was no surprise when he was accepted to Amherst, early decision. I was fortunate to follow along, and for three years we were roommates and members of Phi Delta. This was an emotional time for both of us, and our already strong friendship was cemented forever.
After Amherst, Brad graduated from Harvard Law School. In 1973 he joined a large western law firm based in Seattle, Davis Wright Tremaine, where he rapidly became partner and head of the commercial transactions department. In 1994, he became the firm’s managing partner. During the next eight years, under Brad’s leadership, the firm doubled in size to 400 attorneys, revenues tripled and 10 offices were established throughout the U.S. and in China. After retiring from his law practice in 2002, Brad donated time to nonprofit groups in Seattle, serving on the board of the YMCA, as president of the Legal Foundation of Washington and as board chair of Washington Appleseed, a public interest legal center.
Despite a demanding career, Brad’s first priority and love was his family. Brad had married Peggy Hut (Smith ’70) after his first year of law school. She, you will recall, was one of the first female exchange students at Amherst. Their eldest son, Matthew, graduated from Amherst in 1999, graduated from Penn Law School and now works as an assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle. Benjamin, their youngest, graduated from Princeton, Stanford Law School and is now practicing law at Heller Ehrman on the west coast. Of all of Brad’s accomplishments, he was most proud of his sons and his 37-year loving relationship with Peggy. Time spent together skiing, traveling in Europe, camping, hiking and biking in the west was his greatest joy. Brad was his sons’ biggest fan as they each played collegiate soccer.
Brad was truly what William Carlos Williams called “the pure product” of America. He was tall, athletic, intelligent, hardworking and self-reliant. He had an uncompromising sense of right and wrong, a wry sense of humor and a self-confident joy in all vicissitudes of contemporary life. Over the last two years during multiple bouts of chemotherapy and surgical treatment, he remained positive, upbeat and even enthusiastic. He looked forward to his next round of golf, to spending time with his family. Despite multiple medical set backs and complications, trials that would be fatal to most, he never gave up or adopted a sick role or a sick persona.
We would often review the alumni magazine class notes over the telephone. He observed that our class report was being pushed forward chronologically with each graduation. He would tell Bill Eisen ’70 jokes, and we kidded each other about the responsibility of writing each other’s In Memory. I am unhappy to have that responsibility, but I am happy to report that, in my view, Brad’s life was well spent. He wasted little time with the trivial and inconsequential. He painted his life with efficient strokes, and although his death was premature, the mural of his life was complete.
Those members of the Class of 1970 who remember Brad will agree with me that it was a privilege to know, associate with and befriend Brad. With his passing, a light has gone out of our lives, but the glow that Brad left behind will last forever.
Karl Krieger ’70