Justice Keith Callow, 82, worked for State Department

When Keith Callow was defeated running for his second term on the state Supreme Court, he was devastated.

Years later, he told his children it was the best thing that ever happened to him.

Justice Callow, 82, a Seattle native whose second career took him across the globe, died Friday at Horizon House of complications from diabetes and kidney disease.

His father, Rusty Callow, was coach of the University of Washington crew team and later coached American rowers to a gold medal at the 1952 Olympics.

Rowing took the family to the East Coast, but after serving in the Army, becoming just one of three members of his unit to survive the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, Justice Callow returned to Seattle to attend the UW and its law school.

He worked for the state Attorney General's Office, practiced law for 20 years and was appointed to the King County Superior Court.

After serving on the state Court of Appeals, Justice Callow was elected to the state Supreme Court in 1984 in the most expensive state Supreme Court race of the decade. He became chief justice.

But in 1990, he was defeated by an unknown lawyer, Tacoma attorney Charles Johnson.

After his defeat, he joined the U.S. State Department and worked with the developing nations in the former Soviet Union to create legal systems. "In later years, he said it was the best thing that ever happened to him," said his daughter, Andrea Knowles. "He had a fabulous time."

Knowles said the family loved to go to movies; the first word she learned to spell was "movie." She said the family would go to double-bills at the Varsity Theater, even sitting through movies with subtitles.

Justice Callow loved to play tennis and he and Chuck Eck met on the tennis court. "He was quite a guy," said Eck. "He was a good player, but he had two speeds: slow and slower. He was fun to be around, full of wit and humor."

He said he and Justice Callow would often take trips together. "Tennis was the glue that held us together."

Jack Huston, who was in law school with Justice Callow, said he was very smart. When he was associate dean of the UW law school, he said, he used Justice Callow's classroom as an example of courtroom procedure in videotapes of mock trials.

One of his oldest friends was Jack Toebe, who lives in Pennsylvania and met Justice Callow in junior high school. The two maintained a strong friendship for 70 years. While his father was head of the University of Pennsylvania crew team, Justice Callow never did crew. But he was an outdoorsman, and loved to hike and snowshoe.

"He was an all-around great guy," Toebe said. When his Pennsylvania school had a reunion, Justice Callow was working in Latvia and Estonia and Toebe read his letters to the class at the reunion dinner.

"I have him on my speed dial," Toebe said. "When I came to his name, I couldn't erase it."

In addition to his daughter, Justice Callow is survived by son Douglas in Bellingham and daughter Kerry Gross of Beaverton, Ore. His wife passed away last year.

Services will be scheduled sometime next month. The family asks that any remembrances in his name be sent to the UW Law School Scholarship Fund, UW School of Law, Box 353020, Law Development Office, Seattle, 98195.