Retired Justice Faith Ireland on Powerlifting, Vision, and the Life You'd Love
We were lucky to have Faith Ireland join us at a recent lunch meeting. She spent 15 years on the King County Superior Court and six years as an Associate Justice of the Washington State Supreme Court, and she came with a lot more than a résumé.
One of the first things she said stuck with the room: we are all capable of more than we think we are. She wasn't speaking theoretically. She's one of two women who graduated from Willamette University law school in 1969, ran for the Supreme Court and lost, then came back and won. And while serving on that court, she became an international competitive powerlifter and set 15 world records in her age and weight class. She's 83 now and still working cases with JAMS from around the country.
The thread running through her talk was a simple one: results don't happen by default. They come from being deliberate about what you actually want. She encouraged us to write out a vision statement that covers the things that matter most — health, relationships, work, and time and money freedom — and to revisit it every day. Not because it's a productivity trick, but because it keeps your attention trained on what you're actually trying to build.
She shared something from her own life that stayed with us. When she was in college, she became pregnant and gave her daughter up for adoption. Decades later, they were reunited at an airport in 1998, the same year Faith ran for the Supreme Court. Her daughter flew from New York to be there when Faith was inducted onto the bench.
Her memoir, Getting to Justice: From Unwed Mother to the State Supreme Court, is available on Amazon. She's also available as a mediator, arbitrator, and appellate consultant through JAMS, and as a RESULTS coach helping people envision the life they want.
If her talk left you curious about getting involved with a group that believes in service and showing up for each other, we'd love to hear from you: https://sammamishrotary.org/pages/connect