Local boy makes good

COLUMBIA BASIN- Area residents have their chance to pay their respects and bid farewell to a driving force in the Columbia Basin for many years.

A memorial service for Nathaniel "Nat" Washington is set in Ephrata on Sept. 8 at 1 p.m. at Ephrata High School, located at 333 Fourth Ave. N.W.

A former state senator and a major player in the building of Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams, Washington died Aug. 18 in Bellingham, where he had been living for the last two years, at the age of 93 after a brief illness.

He is survived by two sons, Nat Jr. (Donna) of Bellingham and Tom (Lois) of Kirkland, sister Glenora of Las Cruces, N.M., 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife Wanda and sister Roberta.

Washington's father, also named Nathaniel, and grandfather left Virginia in 1908 to homestead along the Columbia River.

Washington's father practiced law in Ephrata and became prosecuting attorney for Grant County.

According to his family, Washington's defining moment came at the age of 12 in 1926 when his father, aunt and uncle were all drowned while the family was enjoying a hot summer day on the river.

Washington and Vern Matthews became the first Eagle Scouts in Grant County in 1932.

While enrolled at the University of Washington, Washington was active on campus and won election as student body president.

Next, Washington attended the university's law school. As he was about to graduate, the Democratic Party asked him to run for Grant County prosecuting attorney, the position held earlier by his father. He accepted the offer, but was disqualified from serving because he had failed to pass the bar exam. He buckled down to study for the next bar exam and achieved one of the two top scores in the state. He went on to become the county's prosecuting attorney.

In 1948 Washington was elected to the Washington state legislature. After a single term in the House of Representatives, he was elevated to the Senate and re-elected six times.

Washington collaborated with Odessa Republican Bill Raugust, despite being from different parties and possessing different philosophies. They co-authored 58 measures which became law, including a bill funding construction of hundreds of miles of farm-to-market roads as irrigation caused the Columbia Basin to blossom.

"You can't imagine that was a big issue, making roads in Grant County," said area research agronomist and historian Mick Qualls. "But we were such a rural county that to make paved roads when just one farmer lived out there 20 miles in the country, that was really something, and he had to fight for the money to build those kinds of roads."

Washington was also responsible for the diagonal road going from Ephrata to George.

"A lot of people think that just happened, but it didn't," Qualls said. "It used to be, to get from Ephrata to George, you had to go from George down to Quincy and then over to Ephrata. He was instrumental in getting that diagonal put in, and of course there was opposition to that because it cut a lot of farms in half. To this day, we take it for granted. That's one of his major landmarks he was able to bring about."

Washington retired from the Senate in 1979.

In 1947 Washington and law partner Jim Wickwire became attorneys for the Grant County Public Utilities District. By 1955 Washington played a principal role in the development of a strategy by which the district could use the financial strength and credit worthiness of the utilities who would contract to purchase power from the district, enabling the PUD to sell bonds at a favorable rate, making construction of two dams possible.

"He is credited with putting together the inventive financial arrangement that made it possible to build a project," said former PUD Commissioner Vera Claussen.

The PUD commissioners passed a resolution to construct Priest Rapids Dam in 1952 and applied to the Federal Power Commission for the appropriate permit. In 1954 the State Power Commission filed a competing application for the same project, scoffing at the county's ability to construct major dams. Washington successfully argued the case before the Washington State Supreme Court.

"You take out the PUD from Grant County and we wouldn't have anything here," Ephrata City Administrator Wes Crago said. "Just about all of us owe a lot to our forefathers at the PUD, and Nat was one of those primary leaders of the PUD at that time."

One of Washington's favorite pastimes included hiking around the Grand Coulee region, looking for ancient Indian camp sites.

In his father's role with Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams, gaining agreements with the Wanapum tribe turned into lifelong friendships, son Tom Washington said.

"Several times I was with my father, we'd go out to Wanapum Dam and go to the museum, and the people in the museum would know him and they would chat and bring him up to date on this or that relative," Tom Washington said. "That relationship was critical in the development in their process of getting the license to continue running the dam."

Tom Washington also remembered accompanying his father on an interview with several Indians who were the last to remember as children not living on a reservation. Nat Washington spent days with them, as they were in their 80s and 90s, and visited different places and camp sites recording the Indian names on an old Dictaphone.

"So he's got the Indian names for springs, camp sites, all kinds of things," Tom Washington said. "That was a real contribution and it was just a neat experience to be with these guys. That's indicative of how he got to know people."

Nat Washington received many honors during his lifetime, including the dedication of the Bledsoe-Washington Archives Building on the Central Washington University campus and Nat Washington Way in Ephrata.

Crago had the opportunity to speak with Washington while teaching history, and again during the dedication of Nat Washington Way, the idea of one of the Ephrata City Councilmembers.

"He was a pretty humble guy," Crago recalled. "He just was overwhelmed by it and almost unsure why he would deserve such an honor, but that was the kind of man he was. His family thought it was very appropriate and they were very thankful and of course everybody from the PUD down to a lot of our former mayors and civic leaders were very excited Ephrata had taken this step."

Claussen met Washington when he was in the Legislature and she was working for the Washington PUD Association. They would often meet and talk with him about strategy.

"I admired him tremendously for his continued and forthright stand on behalf of public power," Claussen said. "In those days, it was not easy. Well, it's never really easy, but in those days it was difficult, and he was always a leader and someone we could always depend upon. He never deviated from that, whether he was in the House, the Senate or here at home, working for the behalf of the local PUD and the local county."

Claussen became a PUD commissioner after Washington worked as PUD attorney, although they had contact on and off, particularly after he retired, she said, and she would see him because he did not live far from the district.

"I think here is a man who personified the idea a local boy could make good," she said. "'Local boy makes good,' he lived that. He never deviated from being true to his beliefs. He worked hard on behalf of Grant County, whether he was here in the county, or Olympia or somewhere else. He just was extremely strong and ferocious almost in doing the right thing."

Qualls got to know Washington when he interviewed him several times about the early days of the Grand Coulee Dam and the early days of the county.

"The interesting thing about Nat Washington I found is that he was at the Nuremberg trials in Germany after World War II," Qualls said.

Washington worked as an attorney for the U.S. government, Qualls added, but served as more of an aide or technician to the other attorneys and wasn't present for the full trial.

Qualls described Washington as a "light-spoken" individual who carefully worded everything he said and enjoyed visitors.

Ask him about his name, and he would proudly declare his connection to the first President of the United States, Qualls added. Washington was a descendant of the family of President George Washington.

"For people living in this area, to have a guy living in your neighborhood who is a direct descendant of George Washington is pretty important, and that's where that name came from," Qualls said.

Crago sees the impact Nat Washington had on the generations above him.

"I just think we're reaping the benefits now in Grant County of the foresight of Nat's generation," Crago said. "We're standing on the shoulders of giants, and Nat was one of those giants who helped create the county we enjoy now."

Tom Washington remembered driving across the country from Chicago to Issaquah with his father when Nat was 64.

"We just had a great time," he said. "That he was willing to come out at his age and help me load this truck and drive across was just a neat experience."

Nat Washington was known for his integrity, his son said, noting in a poll of different legislators, Washington was one of two names listed as an answer to the question, "Who do you know who has the most personal integrity?"

"When he thought something was important, he stood up for that and when he saw something which wasn't right, he addressed it," he said.

Tom Washington said his father was the most loved person he ever observed.

"People just fell in love with him," Tom Washington said. "They could be around him for just a very short period of time and realize, 'Here's a really special person.' There's something about his demeanor which attracted people."