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Nominator and colleague, associate warden, FDC SeaTac,
Kurt Hollingsworth; Robert J. Palmquist; wife, Robyn Palmquist;
son, Eric Palmquist and daughter-in-law, Martha Palmquist.
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After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from WSU, Palmquist began his career in 1982 as a correctional officer in Lompoc, Calif. He advanced through various positions in California, Oregon, Arizona and New York before becoming chief of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Office of Security and Technology headquartered in Washington D.C. in 2000. Since 2003, he has served as warden at the Federal Bureau of Prisons Federal Detention Center in Seattle.
Over the course of his career Palmquist developed significant expertise in security technology, publishing a number of professional articles on the topic. At the Federal Bureau of Prisons headquarters in Washington D.C., he implemented a new nationwide videoconferencing system, saving the Bureau of Prisons several million dollars in travel costs. He also implemented nationwide standards for metal detectors in the prison environment and coordinated the implementation of new prison video surveillance standards. In 2007, Palmquist was named the “Best Head of local federal agencies in King County,” and in 1989 he received the Federal Bureau of Prisons “Director’s Special Recognition Award.”
An active community volunteer, Palmquist currently serves as youth minister and music minister at St. Teresa Catholic Church in Federal Way, Wash. Other volunteer service includes numerous leadership roles with Boy Scouts of America (1989-2000); president of the Sheridan, Oregon Rotary Club (1991-1992); and a committee member of the Sheridan City Planning Committee (1991-1995). While at WSU, he served as music minister at the Pullman Catholic Newman Center.
WSU is a family tradition for Palmquist; his son Eric received a master’s degree in 2007 and his daughter Melissa is a current student. He currently lives with his family in Des Moines, Wash.
Palmquist is the 479th recipient, out of a quarter of a million WSU alumni, to have received the Alumni Achievement Award since its inception in 1970. For more information, please contact Christina Parrish, assistant director of alumni engagement, at 509-335-6907 or parrishc@wsu.edu.
