Going Beyond ‘Bulletproof’ Is Key To Locke A Shy Family Man Lurks Behind The Professional Exterior

Getting a fix on Gary Locke is a snap, the Democratic candidate for governor says.

“That’s easy. I have no personality,” cracks Locke, repeating the suspicion of many who have known him only in a professional setting.

His wife, Mona Lee-Locke of Seattle, and his longtime friends know a different side of the buttoned down King County executive.

“People say he has no sense of humor but he does,” says Mary Charles, whose family has been close to Locke for nearly 15 years. “Or they say he’s not warm and fuzzy. But he is.”

He’s been a near-constant presence on television screens and newspaper headlines, but there’s more to Locke than issues and policies. There’s the human side, too.

Consider how Locke, 46, proposed to his wife.

First he convinced some friends to wait on the roof of Mona Lee’s Seattle apartment. Their job: Watch for a passing plane Locke had hired, towing a banner.

When the plane came in view, the friends signaled and Locke brought her to the rooftop with a towel over her head.

Locke whipped off the towel to reveal a bouquet of roses; an engagement gift; a bottle of champagne with two glasses, and the plane cruising by, trailing a banner reading “Mona, I love you. Will you marry me?”

She accepted on the spot. Quite a coup for Locke, considering on their first date she would barely talk to him.

“One of my friends set us up. When I heard he was a politician I was definitely not interested,” said Lee-Locke, 31. She had grown cynical about politicians while covering Capitol Hill as a TV reporter.

Locke persisted through a friendship that lasted a year before blossoming into love. Married two years ago, the couple expects their first child in March.

Locke talks about the pregnancy often on the stump, saying “we’re pregnant” in that sensitive, New Age-guy kind of way.

Asked how he most wants to be remembered, Locke says it’s as a good and loving father, and steadfast friend.

He says he’s most motivated by the chance to make a difference.

“It’s that old Boy Scout ethic,” says Locke, ever the Eagle Scout. “Wanting to leave the campsite better than you found it.”

His heroes are John Kennedy for his ability to inspire and energize the country, and former Washington Gov. Dan Evans for his skill at solving complex problems.

Locke also admires his mother, a 70-year old he describes as “a give ‘em hell kind of lady.”

“She worked in a garment factory and made all our clothes for us,” says Locke, the eldest of five children. The family was raised in public housing in Seattle.

“She was always learning. She went back to community college at age 60 to work on her English.”

Locke is Chinese American and says he and his mother learned English together. He often mentions her when discussing the importance of life-long access to public education.

Locke remains close with his family.

Only the campaign has broken his routine of returning to his boyhood home every Sunday after church to have dinner with his parents.

Locke raves about the steaks cooked by his father, a former house servant in Olympia and restaurant and grocery store owner.

On the campaign trail, Locke projects a smooth image of bulletproof self-assurance.

He’s actually shy. “I’m not easy in large groups or social settings.”

Told a reporter would be traveling next to him in a car for more than an hour, Locke yelps “Mama!” and crosses his fingers as if warding off a vampire in an old horror movie.

Locke has been King County executive for nearly three years. He’s growing used to people recognizing him wherever he goes. By now, he takes being grilled at the supermarket check-out line almost in stride.

He has a serious, detail-oriented turn of mind and it shows in his hobbies. A dedicated gardener, he is drawn to the difficult stuff, such as growing gardenias, orchids and grafting fruit trees.

He loves wiring. Plumbing. Fixing cars.

Locke completely remodeled his former Seattle house and overhauled his old Datsun station wagon. He rebuilt the engine with more than 200,000 miles on it and fixed the brakes and clutch.

“I like hard, physical labor,” the candidate says brightly.

Locke fell off his roof while cleaning gutters in 1991 and broke his back. Within days, he returned to Olympia in a body brace to help negotiate the state budget.

“Gary had people drive him to and from Olympia. He felt such a sense of duty,” says Charles, his longtime friend. “He takes his responsibilities seriously.”

That includes being a dedicated friend.

Locke is the neighborhood plant doctor, and helps out with remodeling projects.

“I have a Locke bathroom. And he rewired the laundry room,” says Charles. He taught her how to solder, and helped fertilize the iris bed.

Junk food is his strongest vice.

Locke says he’s never smoked a cigarette in his life, and doesn’t drink. “I just never have,”he says.

His idea of decadence is watching old movies on TV and eating potato chips.

In Olympia, Locke was infamous not for partying, but for all-night budget negotiations.

Even though he got his undergraduate degree from Yale and a law degree from Boston University, Locke doesn’t remember himself as a good student.

“School was a struggle for me at first. I was terrible at spelling. I was always being sent to the closet because I couldn’t spell. Or I got my hands smacked for not eating the traditional American breakfast.”

A back-of-the-classroom guy until adolescence, Locke still remembers the sixth-grade teacher at a Seattle public school who boosted his confidence.

“We were going on a class trip and he gave me a chance to be a group leader. It gave me the chance to take responsibility for something. It was a vote of confidence in me. He turned me around.”

The teacher, Daniel Grefthen, is retired now. But he remembers Locke.

“He took pride in his work, and in just being a good person. He had a very strong family orientation. Just by his nature he was a leader even then.”

Locke is determined to become governor. But it’s the idea of fatherhood that really fills him with awe.

“I’ve always wanted to have a family. It’s something I’ve wanted for so long, and now that it’s almost here it’s really exactly like a dream come true. And an awesome responsibility.”

With his new marriage and a baby on the way, Locke the workaholic is adapting to new priorities.

Asked his weaknesses, his wife says: “Balancing his life.”

It’s a flaw Locke admits.

“I’m so used to being by myself, living by myself, that I’m not as considerate of others as I know I should be or want to be.

“To know you have someone to come home to, to talk to. That is the most important thing. My family.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo