Charles Tenney Donworth (February 15, 1892 – June 10, 1976)[1] [2] was a justice of the Washington Supreme Court from September 12, 1949 to December 31, 1967.
Born in Seattle, Washington, to prominent attorney George Donworth, who later became a United States federal judge,[3] Donworth attended Andover Academy (later called Phillips Academy) in Massachusetts and received an undergraduate degree from Yale University in 1914, followed by a law degree from the University of Washington School of Law in 1916.[1] [4]
Donworth served in the United States Army during World War I,[1] and "practiced law in Seattle for 33 years".[5]
On August 29, 1949, Governor Arthur B. Langlie announced the appointment of Donworth to a seat on the state supreme court to succeed retiring justice William J. Steinert.[4] Following his appointment to the court in 1949, Donworth was re-elected to the seat in 1950, 1956 and 1962, and was also designated chief justice in 1956.[5] Donworth served on the court until 1968,[1] having retired effective December 31, 1967, pursuant to a Washington law "requiring the judges to retire at the end of the year in which they become 70".[5]
In 1918, Donworth married Evelyn Carey,[3] [6] daughter of a prominent Washington judge, with whom he had a son and a daughter. Evelyn died after an illness in 1934, at the age of 41.[6] Donworth then married Dorothy Lee Griffin of Fresno, California, in 1945.[7] Donworth died in a hospital in Olympia at the age of 84.[1]