Donald Pugnetti Park

Named for the late Donald Pugnetti, editor of The News Tribune, Donald Pugnetti Park is located at the corner of Pacific Avenue and 21st Street. The park was created by WSDOT during the construction of I-705, otherwise known as the Tacoma Spur. 

The memorial plaque in the park states:

THIS PARK IS DEDICATED

TO THE MEMORY OF

DONALD A. PUGNETTI

WHOSE VISION AND INSPIRATION

HELPED TO BUILD THE TACOMA SPUR

APRIL 17, 1987

"Donald Pugnetti was born on April 18, 1917 in Carbonado, Washington to Antonio and Mary Pugnetti. Spending much of his childhood in Tacoma, where he attended Lincoln High School, Pugnetti graduated from the University of Washington in 1941 with a journalism degree. After having worked as a reporter for the Tacoma News Tribune (TNT) and an editor for the Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s newsletter Seattle Business in 1945-47, Pugnetti landed a job as an editor for the Tri-City Herald in Pasco, Washington. While working for the Herald, Pugnetti tirelessly lobbied for a facility designed to convert steam waste from the Hanford Nuclear Plant into electricity, a stance for which he received the Thomas Stokes Award for Journalism in 1963. In 1973, Pugnetti returned to Tacoma to work for [the News Tribune] as Editor, a position he held until retiring in 1985. He died a year later in 1986. Pugnetti’s wife, Frances, chronicled her husband’s life as a journalist in the book, Tiger By The Tail." (Washington State Library)

Donald Pugnetti papers, Washington State Library Catalog. Accessed August 26th 2021. https://stlow.iii.com/record=b1430055~S2.