H. Warren Ghormley, 1918-2003: He co-founded Dick's Drive-Ins

By MIKE LEWIS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Had one partner not shunned the spotlight in the early 1950s, Seattle's fast-food icon might have been called H. Warren's -- but that wasn't the young Ghormley's style.

"He didn't like attention," David Ghormley said yesterday of his father. "He was a private kind of person."

Ghormley "was very proud of what they did."

Thus, Dick's Drive-In was born in 1954, named after business partner Dick Spady. H. Warren Ghormley, who with Spady and financial backer Dr. B.O.A. Thomas helped found the popular drive-in, died Saturday after a long battle with Alzheimer's. He was 85.

"He was a great partner," said Spady, 79. "I am so sorry."

And although Mr. Ghormley shunned extra attention, he made sure the restaurants got noticed.

Hailed as an institution over five decades in Seattle, Dick's five drive-ins have been celebrated by locals and lauded by travel guides. They've been written up in Saveur, rapped about by Sir Mix-A-Lot and hailed by state business leaders as good corporate citizens.

"Dad was very proud of what they did there," his son David said yesterday.

All this from a borrowed idea.

David Ghormley explained:In the early 1950s, Spady, Mr. Ghormley and Thomas, who eventually ran the University of Washington's dentistry school, saw the fast-food, drive-in revolution going on in Southern California. After a fact-finding mission to Los Angeles -- a trip that included taking turns at a deep fryer -- the trio was convinced the style of in-car dining would work in Seattle.

"They stole every idea they could from California," he said.

They opened the first restaurant in Wallingford on Northeast 45th Street, where it remains. The business was based on good cheap food, such as the 19-cent hamburger, a simple menu and clean kitchens. It was an immediate hit.

"I remember playing in the parking lot when I was a kid," David Ghormley added. "People loved the place."

Dick's grew through the 1960s and 1970s. The partners opened a second drive-in on Capitol Hill that remains open today. A store in Bellevue didn't work out, but its replacement on Queen Anne still is going strong.

Today, Seattle has five Dick's. All are open every day of the year but two -- Christmas and Thanksgiving -- and don't lock up until 2 a.m. Over decades, the menu has changed little. In the 1970s, Mr. Ghormley added the Deluxe and the Special to the austere list of sandwich selections.

"It was just a simple hamburger or cheeseburger before that," David Ghormley said.

In 1992, both Mr. Ghormley and Thomas sold their shares in Dick's to Spady. The Spady family still runs the chain. Thomas died in the mid-1990s.

But much of what Mr. Ghormley contributed remains, such as the training manual and the plan to do a few things, but do them well.

"My father was a brilliant man," David Ghormley said. "He had an amazing mind and a disciplined mind."

P-I reporter Mike Lewis can be reached at 206-448-8140 or mikelewis@seattlepi.com

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