|image=Dixy Lee Ray of WA.jpg
|office=17th [[Governor]] of [[Washington]] State
|lieutenantlieutenant_governor=John Cherberg
|term_start=January 12, 1977
|term_end=January 14, 1981
}}
'''Marguerite Lee Ray,''' known as '''Dixy Lee Ray''' (September 3, 1914 – January 2, 1994), was an [[United States|American]] [[scientist]] who served as the [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[governor]] of her native [[Washington]] State from 1977 to 1981. Variously described as idiosyncratic, and "ridiculously smart," she was the state's first female governor. She was in office during the 1980 eruption of [[Mount St. Helens]]. She was the last chairman of the [[Atomic Emgery Emergy Commission]] and a lifelong supporter of nuclear energy.
The T==Background==he second of five daughters of Alvis Marion Ray (1893-1947) and the former Frances Adams (1895-1945), she was born in Tacoma in Pierce County. Her sisters were Marion Francis Ray Reid (1913-2001) (her gubernatorial hostess), Jean Louise Ray (1920-1998), Juliana Ray Strong (1925-2013), and Alvista Ray Steele (1926-2000). All are interred at Fox Island Cemetery in Pierce County. At the age of twelve, Ray became the youngest female to climb the summit of scenic [[Mount Rainier]] south of Seattle.<ref name=findagrave>Dixy Lee Ray (1914-1994) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed August 6, 2021.</ref>
Miss Ray graduated with Bachelor of Science and Master of Science from Mills College , a private female liberal arts institution, in Oakland, [[California]]. Thereafter she earned a [[Ph.D.]] in [[biology]] from the private [[Stanford University]] in Palo Alto, California. From 1945 to 1972, she was an instructor, assistant professor, and associate professor at the [[University of Washington]] in [[Seattle]]. She was the lead scientist aboard the schooner, ''SS Te Vega,'' in a trip to the [[Indian Ocean]]. Under her guidance from 1963 to 1972, the nearly bankrupt Pacific Science Center was made into an interactive learning facility and rescued from the brink of bankruptcy.<ref name=findagrave/>
==Political career==
In 1973, [[U.S. President]] [[Richard M. Nixon]] appointed Ray as the chairman of the [[Atomic Energy Commission]]. Under her leadership, research and development was separated from safety programs. She then served for six months under President [[Gerald Ford]] as the Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. She resigned because of a lack of staff personnel and the failure of [[United States Secretary of State]] [[Henry Kissinger]] to invite her to participate in policy decisions.<ref name=findagrave/>
Originally an [[Independent voter|Independent]] and a quite [[conservative]] person who had served under two [[republican Republican Party|Republican]] presidents, Ray ran for governor as a Democrat. She defeated the [[Moderate Republican]] [[John Spellman]], 53.4 to 40.5 percent, who four years later became her successor after she lost her bid for re-nominationto the more [[liberal]] James Adelbert "Jim" McDermott (born 1936), later a [[U.S. Representative]] from 1989 to 2017 for Washington's 7th congressional district. Known for her confrontational no-holds=barred style, Goveror Governor Ray approved the docking of supertankers in [[Puget Sound]] and supported unrestrained growth and development. She also coontinued to express her enthusiasm for atomic energy. In 1980, she proclaimed a state of emergency as a result of the volcanic eruption of [[Mount St. Helens]]. She retired after her governorship ended. She lost Democratic re-nomination in 1980 to James Adelbert "Jim" McDermott (born 1936), a far more [[liberal]] candidate, who in turn lost to John Spellman but later served as a U.S. Representative for Washington's 7th congressional district from 1989 to 2017.
In the early 1970s, Miss Ray hosted a weekly [[television]] program, ''Animals of the Sea," produced and broadcast by the [[PBS]] affiliate in Seattle. IShe received much publicity beyond her campus for hosting the show. In 1990, she published ''Trashing the Planet''; three years later, "Environmental Overkill." She died at her island home in Fox Island, also in Pierce County, from a bronchial infection.<ref name=findagrave/>