This year Montgomery Purdue Blankinship & Austin is celebrating 100 years of providing legal services to our community, and I am proud to be a part of its tradition. MPBA traces its roots back to W.W. Montgomery’s (view picture) admission to the bar in 1912. His son, Bill, joined his father’s law practice after graduating from the University of Washington School of Law. Despite his new law career, Bill also maintained a part-time role as athletic director at the University of Washington. It was through UW athletics that Bill would meet his future business partner, a UW football quarterback named Bob Purdue. You might find this news clip from 1938 to be an interesting quick read.

Despite the rigors of UW athletics, Bob maintained a straight A grade average in his pre-law studies and was selected by the Rhodes Scholarship Committee of the University of Washington to represent the school before the state committee. Bob later became a professor at UW.

After W.W. Montgomery suffered a stroke in 1944, Bill asked Bob to join the firm. Bill and Bob maintained the highest practice standards and taught the attorneys who would follow them to do the same, a tradition our firm continues to honor to this day.