Former Walla Walla Community Leader Phelps Gose

Phelps Gose had an amazing life, he was a war veteran, a Spokane deputy prosecutor, a  criminal lawyer, a crusader for social justice, and a Walla Walla County Superior Court judge.
 Gose was a friend of our family and occasionally did important legal work for my father and his Walla Walla business.
He was an active Democrat in Walla Walla.  I remember him as quiet and bookish.  He was a member of a law firm that was so distinguished, that he and his senior partners all ran against each other when a superior court judgeship became vacant.  Although Gose was the temporary choice to fill the vacancy, he would go on to lose in the primary to partners Bill Tugman and Yancey Reser.  Reser ultimately would win the position.
My lasting memory of Mr. Gose goes back 40 some years.  At the time, WSU's football team would play it's big games at Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane.  Gose invited my dad and I along with his son and one of his friends to watch the game in Spokane.  We stopped for lunch at the Ridpath, one of Spokane's two signature hotels. The other being The Davenport.  Gose's family, I believe,  owned the Ridpath. I remember  the 5 of us getting VIP treatment because Phelps was with us.
Gose had retired to his wife's native Hawaii. He died on November 12th.