Roger Lippman

Energy-conservation engineer, writer, and political activist

Roger Lippman is an energy-conservation engineer, writer, and political activist in Seattle. A little too young to go South during the civil rights movement, he was nurtured and radicalized by people who had done so a couple years before. As a leader of the anti-Vietnam War movement at the University of Washington in the late 1960s, he caught the notice of the authorities. Before long he was framed by Nixon’s Justice Department in the Seattle Conspiracy indictment (the Seattle 7). After that episode and the resulting prison time, his 15 minutes of fame blew by, and he settled in as an auto mechanic for 10 years. During the late 1970s oil crisis, he designed and built a modified engine that ran on renewable alcohol fuel. That led him to finish his bachelor’s degree at The Evergreen State College and get a job in energy conservation, which he has held since 1985. He has, however, stayed active in various progressive movements. He has edited several biographies of prominent Washingtonians. He writes a monthly column on neighborhood history for Seattle’s Leschi News. His periodic articles on other subjects are listed on his website.

Articles by Roger Lippman