Dixy Lee Ray Quotes

Dixy Lee Ray was an American scientist and politician who served as the 17th Governor of the U.S. state of Washington. Variously described as idiosyncratic, and "ridiculously smart," she was the state's first female governor and was in office during the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. She was a supporter of atomic energy.

A graduate of Mills College and Stanford University, where she earned a doctorate in biology, Ray became an associate professor at the University of Washington in 1957. She was chief scientist aboard the schooner SS Te Vega during the International Indian Ocean Expedition. Under her guidance, the nearly bankrupt Pacific Science Center was transformed from a traditional, exhibit-oriented museum to an interactive learning center, and returned to solvency.

In 1973, Ray was appointed chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission by President Richard Nixon. Under her leadership, research and development was separated from safety programs, and Milton Shaw, the head of the powerful reactor development division, was removed. She was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs by President Gerald Ford in 1975, but resigned six months later, complaining about lack of input into department decision making.

Ray ran for election as Governor of Washington as a Democrat in 1976. She won the election despite her blunt, sometimes confrontational, style. As governor, she approved allowing supertankers to dock in Puget Sound, championed support for unrestrained growth and development, and continued to express enthusiasm for atomic energy. On April 3, 1980 she declared a state of emergency as a result of the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens. She retired after losing her re-election bid for Democratic nomination later that year. Wikipedia  

✵ 3. September 1914 – 2. January 1994
Dixy Lee Ray photo
Dixy Lee Ray: 2   quotes 0   likes

Dixy Lee Ray Quotes

“A nuclear-power plant is infinitely safer than eating, because 300 people choke to death on food every year.”

October 1975, quoted in a Seattle Times obituary published January 3, 1994.
Don Duncan, Mark Matassa, Jim Simon, " Dixy Lee Ray: Unpolitical, Unique, Uncompromising http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19940103&slug=1887837", January 3, 1994, Seattle Times. Accessed 28 August 2012.
Although this comment is quoted approvingly by nuclear industry supporters, it is also frequently cited mockingly or ironically by nuclear-industry opponents as an example of what they consider "absurd" arguments: "While industry leaders no longer proclaimed that nuclear power would be so plentiful that it would be 'too cheap to meter,' it concocted new lies such as 'no one has ever died from nuclear power,' 'you're more likely to be hit by a meteor than be hurt by a nuclear power accident,' and the fatuous claim by former AEC chairman Dixy Lee Ray that 'a nuclear power plant is infinitely safer than eating, because 300 people choke to death on food every year.' — David Bollier, " Corporate Abuses, Consumer Power http://www.nader.org/history/bollier_chapter_5.html," Chapter 5 of Citizen Action and Other Big Ideas: A History of Ralph Nader and the Modern Consumer Movement. Accessed 28 August 2012.

“Beware of averages. The average person has one breast and one testicle.”

October 1991, quoted in the Tri-City Herald, published in Kennewick, Washington.
Former Gov. Dixy Lee Ray, speaking at a Forward Washington conference in Pasco, warned her audience against misuse of statistics. The Tri-City Herald quoted the always quotable Ray as saying: 'Beware of averages. The average person has one breast and one testicle.' — Jean Godden, " How Many Lawyers Do You Need To Fry Spam? http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19911009&slug=1309893", October 9, 1991, Seattle Times. Accessed 29 August 2012.

Similar authors

George S. Patton photo
George S. Patton 77
United States Army general
Daniel Kahneman photo
Daniel Kahneman 51
Israeli-American psychologist
Kazuo Ishiguro photo
Kazuo Ishiguro 76
Japanese-born British author
Czeslaw Milosz photo
Czeslaw Milosz 106
Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator
James Tobin photo
James Tobin 22
American economist
Richard Bach photo
Richard Bach 154
American spiritual writer
Arthur Compton photo
Arthur Compton 2
American physicist
Alice Munro photo
Alice Munro 38
Canadian novelist
Franklin D. Roosevelt photo
Franklin D. Roosevelt 190
32nd President of the United States
Ronald Reagan photo
Ronald Reagan 264
American politician, 40th president of the United States (i…