Elaine Houghton

Judge Elaine Marie Houghton, who rose from the emergency room to the appellate bench and opened doors for the women who followed her, died peacefully in Virginia on July 28, 2026, at the age of 76.

Born in Seattle on March 16, 1950, Elaine graduated from Roosevelt High School and the University of Washington, then trained as a registered nurse at Shoreline Community College and specialized in emergency medicine – work that shaped the compassion and steadiness she carried through everything that followed. Drawn to the law, she earned her degree from the University of Puget Sound School of Law in 1979, spending a summer during law school studying at the London School of Economics.

Elaine practiced law in both Washington and Alaska, handling complex civil litigation. In 1991, the Washington State Trial Lawyers' Association named her Trial Lawyer of the Year, the first woman ever to receive the honor. She was listed in The Best Lawyers in America, and the University of Puget Sound School of Law recognized her as one of its top ten graduates from the school's first twenty years.

Appointed to the Washington State Court of Appeals in 1993 and subsequently elected and re-elected, she served with distinction for seventeen years, as Chief Judge from 1997 to 1999 and 2006 to 2008, and as Presiding Chief Judge for all divisions from 2004 to 2005. She gave generously to the profession beyond the bench by serving on various boards and committees, and mentoring a generation of lawyers who are proud to have known her. She retired in April 2010.

For all her accomplishments, those closest to Elaine knew her best for her kindness, her good nature, quick wit, and her gift for making others feel special. She had a way of turning her full attention and her enormous heart toward whoever was in front of her. Friends and family will remember her at the head of a crowded dinner table, serving something wonderful from her kitchen, drawing out stories and laughter, and giving the kind of wise counsel people carried with them for years. She was good-natured, deeply intelligent, endlessly kind, and a true friend. And no one could miss how she glowed with pride and love whenever she talked about her daughters and grandchildren.

Elaine filled her days with the things she loved: her garden, her cookbooks, fly rods and rivers, listening to birds, books about history and geology, and travels that took her to Vietnam, Europe, Australia, and Africa. Above all, she loved time with her family.

She is survived by her sisters, her daughters, and her grandchildren. So many are proud to have known her.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (https://birds.cornell.edu/tribute) or the National Audubon Society.