OLYMPIA, Wash. — Sam Hunt, a statewide civic leader, longtime legislator and sitting member of the Washington State University Board of Regents, died Saturday of complications from leukemia. He was 83.
Hunt devoted more than five decades to public service, education and civic leadership across Washington, including several years as a staffer in Washington, D.C. with the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee before returning back home.
After retiring from the Washington Legislature in 2024, he was appointed to the WSU Board of Regents, a position his family described as a dream come true for him. Hunt was a 1967 WSU graduate and his Senate office had included a 6-foot rug emblazoned with the WSU logo. On his last day in the Legislature, he was presented with a custom WSU jersey imprinted with his legislative district.
“We were profoundly saddened to learn over the weekend of the passing of Washington State University Regent Sam Hunt,” said WSU President Betsy Cantwell. “Regent Hunt spent a lifetime strengthening the very systems that make Washington State University’s land-grant mission possible, from championing public education in Olympia with our students to shaping the policies and investments that sustain our work. We have established the Sam Hunt Memorial Scholarship to honor the incredible legacy he leaves.”
Regent Hunt spent a lifetime strengthening the very systems that make Washington State University’s land-grant mission possible…
Betsy Cantwell, president
Washington State University
Sam grew up in Seattle and Yakima. After graduating from WSU he went on to teach at Pasco High School and was elected to the Pasco City Council before leaving to work for the Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1974 and later moved to Washington, D.C.
In 1981, he returned to Olympia, where he worked in numerous state government positions and also as a teacher in the Montesano School District and served on a school board. He was elected to the Washington state House of Representatives in 2000, then the state Senate in 2016. In 2015, then Rep. Hunt was honored with the inaugural Gabrielle Giffords Award for Civility in State Government.
Sam’s wife, Charlene, preceded him in death, in 2017. He is survived by his children Hillary and Nathan, daughter-in-law Amanda, grandson Rory, all of Olympia, and his loving companion Roberta Stanley of East Lansing, Michigan.
In lieu of flowers, the Hunt family is asking that donations be made to the newly established WSU scholarship fund in his honor.
Media Contacts
- Pam Scott, System Communications and Strategy, 509-570-4610, pam.scott@wsu.edu
