Our LWDV History

Our LWDV History

LWVDV logo

Excerpted from “Historical Outline of the League of Women Voters of Diablo Valley”, an unpublished manuscript written in 1989 by Dorothy Ross, based on Board meeting minutes dating from 1953 and LWVDV newsletters.

The League of Women Voters of Diablo Valley began in November, 1953, as a group hoping to become a provisional League. At that time, it was an LWVUS requirement that local Leagues be based in incorporated cities, so we became the LWV of Concord. Membership spread quickly throughout central Contra Costa County. Leading the organization drive was Catherine Long, who was the first president. (Actually, it got started because Catherine wrote a lot of letters to the State Board of LWVC. An organizational meeting was held in Williams Elementary School in Concord and was attended by interested women who read about it in the local papers and by the Northern Organizational Vice President of LWVC. Two more meetings were held to get committees formed and to elect Catherine provisional president. We were then on our way.)

In the very early years there were times when members wondered if they could keep the group going, but somehow they did, and in 1959 the LWV-Concord became the LWV of Concord-Diablo Valley. Then at the 1964 annual meeting we changed our name once more and became the League of Women Voters of Diablo Valley.

In 1971 we opened our first office at 46 Mayhew Way, Walnut Creek. It was a tiny cubbyhole, and in 1974 we moved to 3557 Mt. Diablo Blvd. in Lafayette. Although this was only one rather small room, it served us until 1985 when former president Alice Johnson persuaded us to take on a substantial bank loan in order to refurbish a classroom at the old Lafayette Burton school. Her foresight and confidence in our financial future gave us our current roomy and comfortable office at 500 St. Mary’s Road. We paid off that loan in October, 1989!

Over these past 36 [now 69] years, the Diablo Valley League achieved a respected position in our community, in part through the efforts and leadership of the women who have served as president. Some had to leave part way through their terms, but there was always someone to pick up the reins and carry on.

These are the past LWVDV presidents to whom we owe so much:
(Dorothy’s list has been extended to the present)
  • 12/53 – 4/55      Catherine Long
  • 4/55 – 3/57        Billie Lou Craven
  • 4/57 – 3/59        Edna Selley
  • 4/59 – 3/60        Dorothy Ross
  • 4/60 – 4/62        Ruth Funk
  • 4/60 – 2/63        Mae Schamel
  • 3/63 – 4/64        Janie Keating
  • 4/64 – 6/65        Pat Kinney
  • 5/65 – 3/67        Mildred Starkie
  • 4/67 – 4/69        Martha Douglas
  • 5/69 – 4/71        Peg Kovar
  • 5/71 – 7/71        Virginia Louaillier
  • 8/71 – 4/72        Marti de Lisle
  • 4/72 – 12/73      Valerie Clark
  • 12/73 – 4/74      Edith Read
  • 4/74 – 4/75        Alice Johnson
  • 12/75 – 5/76      Katherine Gueldner
  • 5/76 – 5/77        Barbara McCormick
  • 5/77 – 5/79        Sharon Johnson
  • 5/79 – 5/81        Mary DuVal
  • 5/81 – 5/83        Carol Federighi
  • 5/83 – 5/85        Audrey Gabor
  • 5/85 – 5/87        Lois Requist
  • 5/87 – 5/89        Peggy Dix
  • 5/89 – 8/89        Pat Rosillo
  • 8/89 – 5/91        Carol Carsten
  • 1991 – 1993       Leslie Stewart
  • 1993 – 1995       Executive Committee
  • 1995 – 1996       Ernestine DeFalco
  • 1996 – 1998       Joan Lautenberger
  • 1998 – 1999       Martha Goralka
  • 1999 – 2001       Gwen Watson
  • 2001 – 2003       Marilyn Langlois
  • 2003 – 2005       Joyce Kingery
  • 2005 – 2007       Karrie Conners
  • 2007 – 2008       Barbara Owens
  • 2008 – 2010       Ashley Coates
  • 2010 – 2011       Ashley Coates, Jan Howe, Joyce Kingery, and Lee Lawrence
  • 2011 – 2013       Lee Lawrence
  • 2013 – 2015       Leslie Stewart
  • 2015 – 2017       Ann Flynn
  • 2017 – 2019       Suzan Requa and Martha Goralka
  • 2019 – 2021       Suzan Requa
  • 2021 – 2022       Executive Committee
  • 2022 – 2023       Anne Granlund