James L. McIntire, who served two terms as Washington State Treasurer, died peacefully at home on Aug. 16, 2024.

Jim was born on April 9, 1953 to Leonard Waters and Esther Hoernamann McIntire in Bluffton, Ohio. He was the third of six children. His father was a progressive Presbyterian minister and his mother was a librarian. His early years in Logan, Ohio were filled with bicycles, paper routes, coin collecting, and sports. During high school in Portage, Wisconsin, Jim wrestled, lettered in football and tennis, and was president of the student council. In this latter role, he abolished the dress code, brought a candy machine into study hall, and hired the best bands in the state for school dances.

Jim attended Macalester College, where he designed his own major in Urban and Regional Affairs. He then earned a Master of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, where he would later receive the Staebler Distinguished Alumni Award, and began his career working for Senator Hubert Humphrey as an economist. After a stint on the staff of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, Jim was tapped to help organize the House floor debate on the first Reagan budget.

In 1980, Jim married Regina Cullen in Washington, D.C. They soon departed the city as part of the “Reagan Refugee Resettlement Project” and moved to Seattle, where Jim began pursuing a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Washington. Their first child, Sarah, was born in 1985, followed by Seth in 1986, and Matthew in 1990.

During these early years in Seattle, Jim worked as a research scientist at Battelle and as a senior lecturer at what would become the Evans School. Unable to stay away from politics for long, he wrote his first Seattle Times op-ed (calling for a state income tax), served as Fiscal Policy Advisor for Governor Booth Gardner, and then returned to UW, where he taught economics and established a research center. He also chaired the board of Common Ground, helping take Seattle’s first nonprofit housing developer statewide, and served as Chair of the state’s Community Economic Revitalization Board.

In 1998, Jim was elected to represent the 46th Legislative District, where he would serve five terms. His first marriage ended not long afterwards, but he remained a devoted father who was deeply involved in the lives of his three children.

As State Representative, and eventually Chair of the Finance Committee, Jim focused on fiscal reforms. He sponsored the reinstatement of the estate tax, increased tobacco and alcohol taxes, and a tax on internet sales. Together, these measures generated hundreds of millions of dollars in sustainable revenue for healthcare, public education, and low-income housing. He also championed a citizen’s commission to evaluate tax exemptions, the constitutional “rainy day” fund, and the criminalization of identity theft.

In 2000, Jim met the love of his life, Christina Koons, in the stands at a little league baseball game where both of their younger sons were playing. They were married in 2010 and enjoyed a total of 24 wonderful years together.

In 2008, Jim was elected State Treasurer. On his third day in office a bank failure in Clark County touched off a statewide public banking crisis. Jim was forced to invoke a never-before-used statute that required other banks with public deposits to cover the loss. Jim then led a lightning effort to re-write the state’s public banking statutes, which led to new legislation being passed less than two weeks after the crisis began. Over the next eighteen months, twenty-five more banks would fail, but no further public funds were lost.

His first few years in office were challenging, as the global financial crisis led to plummeting revenue and deep spending cuts. He preferred to work quietly, using his legislative experience to influence spending policy and reduce financing costs for major projects like the Evergreen Point Bridge and the Alaskan Way Viaduct, but he also publicly called out what he described as “felony gimmicks” like skipping pension payments and deferring school district payments to the next fiscal year.

As Chair of the State Investment Board, he helped make climate change a key investment consideration. He also served as President of the National Association of State Treasurers and made major reforms to that organization. During his eight years as Treasurer, he issued the state’s first green bonds, drove changes to the constitutional debt limit, and kept the state’s credit rating steady throughout the worst recession since the Great Depression.

After retiring from public office in 2017, Jim was recruited by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board to help create standards for corporate disclosure of environmental, social, and governance issues. These standards rapidly gained acceptance around the world and the organization grew to become the International Sustainability Standards Board. Jim considered this his crowning professional achievement.

Jim and Christina made the most of retirement together, traveling widely and enjoying their home on Orcas Island, where their days were filled with friends, family, hiking, crabbing, and sailing. Their six grandchildren, Max and Miles Marvin-McIntire, Ravi, Rukmini and Rishi Muthyala, and Joji Baker-Hayashi, were a source of enormous joy for Jim. He loved being called “Pop Pop,” and he got his best sleep in a tent, wedged between two wiggly grandsons.

Jim was preceded in death by his parents, brother Fred, sister Carol Thunem, first wife, and niece Hannah Kohls. He is survived by his wife Christina Koons, brothers John (Nancy Rosalie) and Bob (Darcy), sister Beth Kohls (Steve), children Sarah (Brian Muthyala), Seth (Angie Marvin), and Matt, stepsons Nick and Carson Baker (Maya Hayashi), six grandchildren, nephews Fred Kohls (Angie), Karl (Rachelle), and Erik Thunem (Jenavieve), grandnieces Synnove and Solveig Thunem, and grandnephews Hudson and Camden Kohls.

A memorial service will be held in Seattle at University Congregational UCC, 4515 16th Ave NE, at 4 p.m. on Sept. 19, 2024. In his memory, Jim urges you to support candidates for public office who will uphold democracy and seek the common good.