San Diego Criminal Justice Memorial
Honorees
A memorial directory honoring deceased judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys who advanced criminal justice in San Diego County.
Mary Eleanor Harvey
1920-2007
Born in 1920 in Leon, Iowa, she attended the University of Chicago obtaining an undergraduate degree in history. She then joined the American Red Cross during World War II, serving as an administrator at hospitals in Germany, Austria, Berma and India. She worked for marketing companies in New York and Seattle before moving to San Diego as the general manager of the San Diego Municipal Employees Union.
Mary worked all day, and attended the University of San Diego School of Law at night, graduating in 1961 as the first woman graduate. Thirty seven years later the law school honored her by naming her a “Distinguished Graduate.”
Mary was admitted to the bar at a time when there were 63 women lawyers in San Diego. She found obtaining a job to be a challenge. The District Attorney’s office did not hire women as prosecutors, and many law firms were reluctant to hire women. Mary opened her own practice, devoted primarily to criminal defense as well as family and probate law. She practiced in San Diego as a solo practitioner for 30 years.
During the Vietnam War, Mary Harvey represented street protesters arrested for loitering, and successfully challenged the ordinance as unconstitutional. Mary was active in the San Diego County Bar Association, serving on 18 committees, and was a member of the State Bar Commission for Judicial Nominees. She devoted many hours to civil rights work, and served on the legal panel for the San Diego Chapter of the ACLU for 20 years.
Referred to by friends as a warm and friendly woman, she was known to invite a collection of musicians, artists, bullfighters and beach bums to her house for parties. She was heard to say she was proud her civil rights work in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in the FBI opening a file on her. Mary Eleanor Harvey died on May 9, 2007.