MILL CREEK, Wash. -- The Washington State Automotive Wholesalers Association is celebrating a 50-year milestone. The state association was incorporated April 4, 1960, by a few dedicated automotive wholesalers who gave many hours of time and effort, not to mention paying their own expenses, to form this new organization. The name was changed to Washington Automotive Wholesalers Association June 13, 1972.
 
The aims of the new association, as reported by Martin Trepp in the March 1960 issue of Northwest Motor were:
·    To promote cooperation within all branches of the automotive industry for the mutual welfare of all;
·    To promote an educational program of good business principles as applicable to the automotive trade;
·    To promote and participate in presenting views and problems of the industry to proper legislative bodies;
·    To promote and foster better business relations between automotive wholesalers, manufacturers and retailers;
·    To promote and bolster proper distribution from manufacturer through wholesaler to retailer; and
·    To cooperate with all national, regional, state and local associations dedicated to the betterment of the automotive industry.
 
Names of the incorporators were: Tom Solberg, Donald Pybus, Dell Loney, Glen Shearer, William Regalia and John Selland.

Trustees listed on the Articles of Incorporation are:
·    Art Cook, Enterprise Electric Co., Chehalis
·    Jack Johnson, Motor Rebuild Supply Co., Everett
·    Harold Hooper, Central Parts, Ellensburg
·    Dell Loney, Walla Walla Motor Supply, Walla Walla
·    Lew Newlee, Siler Motor Parts, Bremerton
·    Donald Pybus, E.T. Pybus Co., Wenatchee
·    Glen Shearer, Valley Auto Parts, Sunnyside
·    John Selland, Selland Motor Supply, Enumclaw
·    Gale Pfueller, Automotive Parts Service, Bellingham
·    Charles Skaggs, Skagg’s Automotive, Spokane
·    Park Tottler, Motor Parts & Equipment, Tacoma
·    Frank VanValkenburg, Piston Service of Mount Vernon, Mount Vernon
·    Charles Hayter, Motor Parts Machine Co., Seattle
·    Don Cornell, Cornell Automotive Parts, Port Angeles
·    Aurie Thompson, Piston Service Inc., Seattle
·    Thomas Solberg, Specialized Service Inc.,  Olympia
·    William Regalia, Regalia Auto Parts Inc., Seattle
 
At the association’s first membership meeting in October 1960, then WSAWA President Tom Solberg said, “Only through our association can our voices of protests or approval be heard through the din of legislation. Only through our association can organized action — either for or against pending legislation — be made. The day of the rugged individualist is long past. We are living in an era of the ‘organization men’ and the ‘union men’ of pressure groups and minority groups, of big business and big labor.”
 
“There is no closed shop for the owners of parts houses...no union with a check-off list to require you to ante up to a political action committee. All your association can do is to ask you to volunteer your help in solving some of the problems of our industry. It’s your move,” he said.
 
For more information about WSAWA, visit http://www.washingtonautomotive.org.