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.

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, visit www.washingtonautomotive.org.