Richard C. Siefert

1946 - 2017

Richard C. Siefert

Richard Carl "Dick" Siefert, 70, of Seattle, Washington passed away on Friday, February 17, 2017, following a long and courageous battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (aka ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease). Dick was born on August 28, 1946 in Newark, Ohio and grew up in nearby Granville, Ohio. His father, August, was a brilliant scientist and researcher at Owens Corning and his mother, Bernice, was an accomplished landscape artist. As a lawyer, Dick inherited Augie's analytical brilliance and, in his day-to-day living, his mother's aesthetic sensibility could be seen in Dick's passion for art, nature, gardening, music, architecture and artisanship of all kinds, particularly carpentry and masonry.

Granville provided Dick with an athletic, small town upbringing, instilling in him solid Midwestern values. He lettered in three sports and was the vice president of his high school class. In small towns, relationships are what matters most and that was true for Dick. His close friends from those early years remained his steadfast friends. This ability to make and maintain loyal friendships was a trait Dick exhibited throughout his life. If riches can be measured by the number and quality of friendships, Dick was a very wealthy man indeed.

In the Fall of 1964, he attended DePauw University, where he studied pre-law, with an emphasis on history and political science. As a college freshman, Dick briefly flirted with the idea of pre-med studies but soon discovered his strong interest in law, politics and social issues. Shockingly (in view of his later anti-establishment political leanings), he was the president of Phi Delta Theta social fraternity (until he later disaffiliated from it) and a Young Republican, serving as a congressional intern for an arch conservative Ohio congressman,

John M. Ashbrook, R-Ohio 17th District (who considered Nixon to be too liberal--Ashbrook later adopted the slogan "No left turns" when running for president in 1972 against Nixon)!

Washington, D.C. played a large role in Dick's life. It was a city he loved only slightly less than Seattle. Perhaps that initial D.C. experience with the political establishment helped to confirm his opposition to the Vietnam War and Nixon. In any case, by his senior year Dick was no longer a "Young Republican," but was joining student war protests. He used to tell stories about those passionate and dangerous days (Kent State, where national guardsman shot and killed four students, was only a few miles away from DePauw).

However, Dick did not let the turmoil of the times deflect him from his ambition to become a lawyer. In the Fall of 1968, he started law school at Northwestern University's Pitzker School of Law, earning his JD in 1972. Following graduation, he joined the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in D.C., where he served as a trial attorney and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney. His work there focused primarily on litigation to hold corporations and individuals accountable for violations of antitrust law.

While at the Justice Department, Dick met Anita Artim and they were later married. One day he noticed a job posting for an antitrust lawyer in Seattle. Acting on an impulse, they flew to Seattle for an interview and instantly fell in love with the city and the region. Dick was particularly blown away by the natural beauty of the mountains, woods, rivers and ocean-all so different from the semi-industrial flat lands of interior Ohio.

His enthusiasm for the Northwest was such that the family came to call him "Vista-man"-based on his habit of driving houseguests from other parts of the country to remote but spectacular NW sights, like Hurricane Ridge or Paradise Lodge. Eastern Washington also held a special allure, and Dick built a cabin on the bank of the Entiat River.

In October 1977, he and Anita moved to Seattle and Dick joined the Lane Powell law firm, serving clients as an antitrust, IP and commercial litigation partner for over 27 years. In the last few years of his professional career, he opened Merchant and Gould's Seattle office and later finished his legal career at Garvey Schubert. He was a tenacious and zealous advocate for his clients' interests. During his long and distinguished career as a trial lawyer, Dick received many accolades, including recognition as a Washington Super Lawyer and admission as a member of the American Inns of Court. He was active in the IP and Antitrust Law Sections of the American Bar Association and American Intellectual Property Association.

His friends and family will miss his sharp intelligence, his wit and humor, his generous empathy for others, and his strong love of life, all of which shone through every hour of the suffering he endured at the end with grace and resolve. Dick has two surviving children, Mark and Lynne. Their welfare was always Dick's first priority. Even when his debilitating illness exhausted him, a visit from them would revive his spirit and bring smiles and laughter.

A celebration of Dick's life will take place at 2:00 p.m., April 2 at the Edgewater Hotel. His family requests that donations be made to The Brain and Behavior Research Foundation in his name in lieu of flowers or other remembrances.