Herb Legg, savior of Olympia parks, dies at 86

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian • Published January 21, 2008

• Comments (0)

Herb Legg, a longtime political and community activist who helped save two Olympia parks from development in the 1950s, died Monday after a long illness.

Legg, 86, was a lawyer by training and an activist for the poor and the environment. The longtime Democrat was most proud of his work to save Watershed Park from a housing development and Sylvester Park from becoming a parking garage in downtown Olympia.

He told The Olympian in a 2003 news story that those two efforts in the 1950s were "my gift to Olympia."

"That was the first place he took me when he brought me to Olympia — Sylvester Park, " his wife of nearly 30 years, Shirley Legg, recalled Monday.

Legg died at Mother Joseph Care Center in Olympia, where the Tumwater resident moved after having a stroke in November 2005. He also had congestive heart problems and diabetes but kept outliving his doctors' predictions, and his mind remained sharp to the end, family members said.

Legg's life spanned many interests —academic, military and political — and he kept a long focus on the plight of those who were poor. He served as state Democratic Party chairman in 1961-62, was elected to the Olympia City Commission in the 1950s, worked as a college professor and wrapped up his career working for the state Employment Security Department.

During World War II, he served as a Navy lieutenant on the combat destroyer USS Ammen, staring down kamikaze pilots during combat in the North and South Pacific. Later, after he bought books for school from a Communist-leaning bookstore, the FBI investigated him during the McCarthy-era witch-hunts, but he was never a Communist, Legg said in a 2006 Olympian profile.

In recent years, Legg wrote a newsletter distributed to close to 500 people. His letters carried pressed flowers, stickers and quotes from Mark Twain.

"He was one of a kind. In some ways he was idealistic," said Dean Shacklett, former managing editor and editorial page editor for The Olympian, who got to know Legg in the early 1950s when Legg was city commissioner of public works.