Pat Davis

Few details of Pat Davis's early life have been published. Before she held office she was an active member of the League of Women Voters and led a good-government group that focused on the Port of Seattle. She became a regular presence at Port commission meetings as a citizen watchdog, an experience that led her to run for a seat herself.

Davis was elected to the Port of Seattle Commission in 1985, the first woman to serve as a commissioner since the Port was established in 1911. Paige Miller, who joined the commission two years later, described the Port at the time as an old boys' place and recalled that parts of the business community feared outsiders were taking charge. Davis, Miller and Jack Block, the only longshore worker ever elected to the commission, worked together to keep the Port stable as it took on large projects. Jim Dwyer, a Port executive in her early years, remembered that she stuck her neck out for a warehouse project that kept the toy company Hasbro as a major Port customer.

Over six terms she helped guide the redevelopment of the Central Waterfront, including the Bell Harbor International Conference Center, the cruise terminal at Pier 66 and the Port's headquarters at Pier 69, along with expanded container terminals on the Duwamish Waterway and major terminal and airfield improvements at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, among them its third runway. Sea-Tac grew from fewer than 12 million passengers a year to about 30 million, and Seattle became a cruise destination.

Alongside her Port role she served as president of the Washington Council on International Trade. In that capacity she invited the World Trade Organization to Seattle for its 1999 ministerial conference, with the support of Mayor Paul Schell. The conference was engulfed by mass protests, and Davis faced criticism afterwards.

In her later years on the commission, critics described her as too close to business interests and to the Port's chief executive, Mic Dinsmore. A 2007 performance audit faulted the Port for weak management of construction projects, wasteful spending and public bidding violations, and it emerged that Davis had signed a memo promising Dinsmore an extra year of pay after his departure. A recall campaign was launched but did not qualify for the ballot. Davis denied wrongdoing and chose to retire in 2009 rather than seek a seventh term. Former commissioner Gael Tarleton wrote that Davis consistently fought for the people who depended on the Port, through the 1987 stock market crash, the attacks of 11 September 2001 and the Great Recession.

Davis was married to John Davis, a dentist and University of Washington educator, who died before her. Paige Miller said the couple wholeheartedly supported each other's careers. Davis was survived by her daughters and extended family. Miller said the part-time Port role never paid much, and that Davis did it because she found the work interesting and wanted to make a difference.

Pat Davis died on 3 October 2026, aged 91, according to the Washington Council on International Trade. The Port of Seattle announced her death on 7 October 2026, saying it was deeply saddened and extending condolences to her daughters and extended family. The place and cause of death were not made public. Tributes came from former Seattle mayor Greg Nickels, former commissioners Paige Miller and Gael Tarleton, and WCIT president Lori Otto Punke.

Davis broke a glass ceiling at one of the Pacific Northwest's most powerful public agencies and is remembered as a mentor to the women who followed her into port and trade leadership. The Port's annual Pat Davis Legacy of Leadership Award recognises women leaders who change the conversation through courage, service and example. Her record also drew criticism, including over the 1999 WTO conference, cruise ship pollution, the struggling Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center and Port oversight in the 2000s, but journalists and colleagues credited her with helping to protect union jobs and with shaping the airport, waterfront and trade links that underpin the modern Seattle region.