Page 144 - PGM Compendium

and was sworn in to the Senate on April 24, 1967. He would be subsequently elected to the Senate
in the 1968 election, winning handily with more than 71 percent of the vote. As Senator, Huntley
served on the Agriculture Committee, the Ways and Means Committee, and several other
committees, but he is best remembered for his work on the Senate's Highway Committee.

Huntley's political career was once again sidetracked when the legislature was again reapportioned
in 1972, and he lost his bid for re-election to the Senate that November. However, a few weeks
after his term ended in January 1973, Governor Evans appointed him to the Utilities and
Transportation Commission. After decades of maintaining their farm in Eastern Washington,
Huntley and his wife moved west of the Cascades to Olympia -- a move he said he later regretted.
But he diligently focused on his new job, which involved setting rates and regulating the services
and practices of privately-owned utility and transportation companies in the state. Governor Dixy
Lee Ray kept him on as Commissioner for about four months after his term expired in January
1979, but declined to appoint him to another full term.

Huntley also served on the state Toll Bridge Authority in the mid-1960s, and on the National
Highway Transportation Safety Advisory Commission and the National Association of Regulatory
Utility Commissioners in the 1970s.

Most Worshipful Brother Elmer Carl “Bud” Huntley died in his home in Olympia on May 13,
1994. Glenn Terrell, President Emeritus of Washington State University shared these words in
tribute to our Most Worshipful Brother ~

“If all lawmakers in the United States were as good as Senator Elmer Huntley, our country would
be a much better place for everyone.

There would be no laws passed out of anger or revenge; no heated, angry, nonproductive argument,
no posturing or grandstanding. All legislators would have voted for those things they thought were
in the best interest of the state. No blind partisanship would have prevailed. There would have
been superb cooperation between the two parties throughout the legislative session, especially
when legislation was being decided in conference. Legislative sessions would have ended on time.
Confidence in legislative bodies would have soared instead of diminished. The initiative process
would have been used as our forefathers intended: only in times of strong dissatisfaction with the
performance of our elected officials.

Yes, if all lawmakers had Elmer Huntley’s temperament, dedication, integrity and patience, our
state and nation would be free of many of the problems we have today.”