Susan Hutchison

Early life and education

Born Susan Sylvester at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, Hutchison's father was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. A 1949 West Point graduate, he flew transports, then became a fighter pilot in the mid-1960s and commanded an F-4 squadron in South Vietnam at Da Nang. As a military brat and the second of three children, she was raised in various locations and attended Niceville High School in the panhandle of Florida and transferred in 1970 to Annandale High School in Annandale, Virginia, a suburb southwest of Washington, D.C. After graduation in 1972, she enrolled at the University of Florida in Gainesville and earned a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1975.

Broadcasting career

Hutchison began her journalism career writing a daily sports article for the Florida Alligator student newspaper. Upon graduation from college in 1975, she was hired by a subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Company. In 1978, she was hired as the weekend sports anchor and producer for KITV news in Honolulu, Hawaii. She later became the weekend news anchor, and then the weekday evening news anchor and producer. After being spotted by a Seattle television executive, Hutchison was hired in January 1981 as a TV news anchor for the CBS affiliate in Seattle, KIRO-TV. She worked as the evening anchor for more than 20 years, earning five regional Emmy Awards.

Charity work

Hutchison is the former executive director of the Charles and Lisa Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences. She led the $100 million foundation from its inception, becoming its boss in 2003. The foundation provided grants for projects in arts, science, and education totaling over $100 million, under the theme of Access to Excellence.

Hutchison serves as an officer of the following boards: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (Washington, DC), Finance Chair (present) of Young Life International, Vice Chair (present) All-Star Orchestra, Vice President (present) and Chair (2006-2009) Seattle Symphony, and on the following boards: Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Children's Hospital Foundation, Discovery Institute, and Salvation Army. She also has been a spokesperson for the American Leprosy Mission, Northwest Medical Teams, Job Corps, and March of Dimes, and has emceed charitable auctions, fundraising events and dinners.

Her civic involvement includes the Governor’s A+ Commission on Education, National Collegiate Athletic Association Committee on Compliance, the King County Independent Task Force on Elections, and the Chancellor’s Advisory Council for Seattle Community Colleges.

Political career

In 2005, Hutchison was one of 10 people appointed by King County Executive Ron Sims to the King County Independent Task Force on Elections, created to make recommendations to reform the election process after the contested gubernatorial election of 2004.

When Sims stepped down in April 2009, Hutchison announced her candidacy for the non-partisan race for King County Executive. Hutchison won the primary election with 37% of the votes and advanced to the general election against Dow Constantine, who won in the November election.

Personal

In 1976, she married high school classmate Andy Hutchison, an executive for the Boeing Company. He is a retired Marine Corps colonel and a 1976 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. They have two sons who graduated from Seattle public schools. Her father, George H. Sylvester (1927–2015), retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1981 as a lieutenant general.