Page 143 - PGM Compendium

Communication held in Spokane in 1958. He was steadily advanced through the successive
stations and was elected Grand Master in 1961.

Our Most Worshipful Brother’s service was not limited to Freemasonry. He was a public servant
as well, being first elected to a county farm committee in 1954. He would then be elected to the
9th District's House seat in 1956, and wasted little time becoming active in the legislature, serving
on a number of committees: Banks and Banking, Constitution and Elections, Education, and the
Highway Committee, of which he was elected chairman in 1963. The first bill he introduced in the
House allowed third-class cities within fourth-class counties to establish cemetery districts, which
included Colfax, the county seat for Whitman County.

One bill Huntley co-sponsored that was progressive for its day was the state's first seat-belt law.
In 1962 he visited a fellow legislator in the hospital who had been in a high-speed car wreck. Seat
belts weren't mandatory in 1962 (and wouldn't be for decades); at the time some cars didn't even
have seat belts.

Huntley's colleague had been wearing his, and told Huntley it was the only reason he survived the
crash. This prompted the two men to introduce a bill in the 1963 legislative session requiring that
all new cars sold in the state after January 1, 1965, be equipped with a seat belt. It passed, but not
without some dissent.
He was not as successful with another bill that he felt strongly about, which was the "implied
consent" legislation. This legislation in essence would have required a suspected drunk or impaired
driver to take a field sobriety test when stopped by the police, with severe consequences if the
driver refused.
Although Huntley sponsored or co-sponsored such a bill several times while he was in the House,
it never made it to the floor for a vote. He did, however, see it become law some years later, after
he had left the legislature.
The legislature was reapportioned shortly after Huntley's fifth term began in 1965. As a result he
suddenly found that he would be forced to face off in the 1966 election against another
representative from his district, Robert Goldsworthy, for a single position. Huntley didn't want to
run against Goldsworthy, and a few weeks later an opportunity presented itself for him to bow out
when Governor Dan Evans appointed him to the Highway Commission (now the Washington State
Transportation Commission). Huntley resigned his house seat on March 26, 1965, to take his new
position.
He was on the Highway Commission for a little more than two years, becoming chairman in 1966.
Much of his work during the time dealt with issues surrounding the construction of Interstate 5
through Western Washington, as well as Interstate 405. This included approving the routes that
the highways eventually took, and attending numerous right-of-way hearings to discuss the
construction's impact with affected landowners.

In April 1967 State Senator Marshall Neill was appointed to the State Supreme Court by Governor
Evans, creating a vacant seat in the Senate. Neill was from Pullman and knew Huntley, and asked
him if he was interested in being appointed to the seat. Huntley initially hesitated, but soon agreed