"Well, if you'd like to talk with me, I'm happy to do so," she said with polite modesty.
Who would refuse such an opportunity?
Bullitt, now in her 80s, has lived in the same Harvard Avenue East home for more than 50 years. With its expansive lawn and sweeping vistas, it's one of the more impressive parcels of land in the entire city. The home has served as a base for Bullitt's five decades as a civic and community activist, years that have seen her focus on a dizzying number of issues.
Bullitt has devoted herself to causes ranging from public education to historic preservation, from international relations to social services. A small list of her associations includes the Coalition for Quality Integrated Education, Private Initiatives for Education, chairing the Washington State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the Historic Seattle Preservation Foundation, as well as founding a women's bank and serving as a board member of the Bullitt Foundation.
And her efforts have not gone unnoticed. Over the years, Bullitt has received the Jefferson Award for Public Service, a YMCA award for world peace and the United Nations Human Rights Award, to name just a few.
In short, she's a woman who has left her mark on the city.
Moving west
Kay Bullitt was born and raised near Boston. She attended Radcliffe College, just across from (and now part of) Harvard, beginning in 1942.
"For women, it was a very good time to be there. We got a lot more attention than we would have after the war," she said. She knew she wanted to study government before she went to college: "I was very concerned with what the peace would be like after the war. I was interested in the role of the federal government, especially in education."
She was hooked on education and taught fourth-graders after graduation. She taught for a few years near Boston - including at a school she'd attended as a child - before taking a year off and coming to Seattle. She'd never visited the city before but knew she wanted to come west. She returned to Massachusetts and taught for one more year before moving to Seattle for good in 1953.
"I felt I needed to see something new and that there would be more interesting opportunities for me in Seattle - and I was right," she said. "I was really drawn to the area. I felt you could get involved with some many different things here. If I'd stayed in Cambridge it would have been very limiting for me. But people were welcoming here, and there were many opportunities."
The Seattle she encountered in the early '50s was a far cry from the place it has become. The first night she saw a play at the Showboat Theater. The next night she saw another at the Penthouse Theater.
"That meant I'd pretty much seen all the plays in town," she said. "There wasn't much of a cultural scene when I arrived."
Bullitt worked as an educational therapist for the University of Washington's psychiatric clinic, and also at what she thinks was the first youth center at the university. She was also involved in a program that aimed to blend practical work experience for urban kids in city schools.
By the mid-'50s, she married Stimson Bullitt and joined one of Seattle's first families. Her mother-in-law, Harriet Bullitt, owned KING Broadcasting; her husband later served as its president. Joining a famous family opened many doors and possibilities, and allowed her to forge relationships that continued to evolve after her divorce in the 1970s.
Education has always been a prime focus for her. No longer a teacher herself, Bullitt's long educational volunteerism began while her children were still young. Noting a lack of early childhood educational opportunities, Bullitt became a founding board member of The Little School, which operated in the University Unitarian Church from 1959 until moving to Bellevue in 1968.
Saving the past
Her interest in historic preservation began while she still a teenager, when the house next door, a house built during the American Revolution, was torn down and a gas station put up. When she arrived in Seattle, she found that the people who were most concerned with historic preservation were transplanted Easterners.
Her entreaty into local preservation efforts came in 1962, when Wing Luke asked her to get involved in saving the Wawona, the three-masted sailing ship built in 1897 that still rests in South Lake Union. Her youngest daughter was not yet two-years old. When Bullitt protested, Luke said he couldn't wait for her daughter to grow up.
"Now my daughter is 48, and we still haven't saved it. There have been so many problems with the city on this, with several mayors, Paul Allen, people who haven't seen the wonder of it and what it would mean to restore the tall ship," she said. Then, with a wide smile, she said, "As someone once said, I was always known for my lost causes."
Bullitt also worked to preserve Pioneer Square in the early '70s after Seattle Mayor Wes Ulhman encouraged her to join the effort. She later worked on the city's nascent landmarks board and began a long relationship with Historic Seattle. Closer to her home, she was instrumental establishing the Harvard-Belmont historic district for her neighborhood and later helped create a survey of the city's neighborhoods to identify homes that needed saving.
"This was a great thing," Bullitt said. "The city didn't fully acknowledge it as scientific enough. But I was impressed that we used neighbors to look around their neighborhood and comment on the houses. They knew things that others wouldn't notice."
Another city fixture that bears her imprint is Bumbershoot. She worked on creating the arts festival in 1971 and remembers a battle over what to call it: "We had to fight to keep the name! The first year we had handwritten signs. I probably liked it more when it was free and people could go in and out as they wished. But it's really grown, and I'm certainly proud to have been involved with it at the beginning.
At home
Bullitt's home has been the location of countless civic gatherings over the years, including a rally for Sen. John Kerry in 2004, when more than 1,000 people attended.
The property, more than 1.6 acres in size, was originally owned by the Henry family ( think Henry Art Museum) and then acquired by the Bloedel family (think Bloedel Reserve). Kay and Stimson Bullitt were able to buy it on the provision that only one home would be built on the parcel. The house was built in 1955 and is a far more modest structure than the grandeur of the property suggests. When she passes away, the land will be turned over to the city.
"In the '70s, we decided that the city needed open space more than it needed new buildings," she said. "So we gave it to the city. I get to stay here until I die, but after that it will be turned into a park."
Being associated with a famous name, being part of one of the city's first families, has its pros and cons. As to the latter, people sometimes assume she has bottomless financial pockets and, thus, have unrealistic expectations. She points out that she's a Bullitt courtesy of her marriage to her former husband.
"Because I live in this house it's assumed I have millions, so that can be a distraction sometimes," she said. "Which can be hard, because my interests are quite varied."
But the positives are considerably larger. People tend to pay attention to her when she calls.
"People often wish to be connected to you because of your name," Bullitt said. "The people born to this name - which isn't me, of course - have done so many wonderful things and been so effective. So people expect me to be good."
She admits to a sense of noblesse oblige, and considers it her great fortune to have been in a position to make community involvement a full-time vocation. And she regards having been able to spend the vast majority of her adult life volunteering for a wide variety of organizations and taking on numerous projects aimed at contributing to the greater good as a privilege.
"The ability to work on so many important things came from not having to be employed," she said. "It's been an honor to be able to get involved in community activities. So many others simply don't have that opportunity; it would have been wrong if I didn't."
Recent activities
Among Bullitt's current passions is a week-long Arab-Israeli peace camp she's hosted at her home for the last six years. With a goal of encouraging dialogue and understanding, the camp includes roughly 60 kids from age 6 to 12. (As a result of nearby construction, the camp will take place at Magnuson Park this year.)
"A lot of good friendships have been formed. The camp brings kids' parents together, too," she said.
Bullitt is also on the board of One World Now, a group that works with low-income high-school juniors, mostly kids of color, who have the capacity to become global leaders. The program requires a serious commitment and continues Bullitt's lifelong emphasis on education. And she's working on resurrecting a program within the Seattle School District to help South Pacific Islander students improve their graduation rates.
As for the upcoming presidential election:
"Oh, I'll probably get involved when the nomination is settled. I wish the candidates could make use of each other's talents and not destroy each other. We need each other to get out of the mess this president has left us in."
Seattle is still a wonderful city, she said, despite considerable growth and haphazard development.
"There are so many wonderfully creative people here now," she said, adding, with a slight laugh, "though I think the city is still a little too process-oriented."
Bullitt has no problem maintaining her optimism and enthusiasm. Her passions and sense of social responsibility keep her going. She has, as she puts it, no intention of retiring.
"Oh, I'll certainly keep at it," she said. "There's always something new and exciting to do, and there are so many things that need to get done."
Doug Schwartz is the editor of the Capitol Hill Times. He can be reached at editor@capitolhilltimes.com or 461-1308.
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