Walter Franklin Horan is Born

Today in Masonic History Walter Franklin Horan is born in 1966.

Walter Franklin Horan was an American politician.

Horan was born in Wenatchee, Washington on October 15, 1898 where he was a public-school student graduating from Wenatchee High School. During WW I from April 1917 to November 1919, he served as gunner’s mate 3rd class in the US Navy returning to Wenatchee after discharge. He attended Washington State College (now University) in Pulman, receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1925.

As might be expected of a Wenatchee resident he was involved in the fruit growing, packing, storage and shipping business along with his brother John who ran one of the largest fruit orchards businesses in the State.

He was first elected to the Seventy-Fifth Congress in 1942 and served in the next ten Congresses as a Republican [1943 to 1965]. His original intent to run for office was to improve the representation of agricultural interested in Congress. He lost his firsts 1940 try at earning the congressional seat to the incumbent but who resigned in August 1942 to take a seat as a judge on the Western Washington U. S. District Court.

Horan had an easy win in the November 1942 election defeating former U. S. Senator and 1940 gubernatorial candidate, brother Mason, Clarence Dill. He was defeated for reelection in 1964 by Tom Foley of Spokane who was to become Speaker of the House. While in the House, Horan served on several different committees chairing the House District of Columbia Committee. He voted for the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960 and 1964 alsos the 24th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. A little over two years after his defeat he died, December 19, 1966 having suffered a fatal heart attack while in Manila, Philippines visiting his daughter. He and his wife are interred in the Wenatchee City Cemetery. The plaza of the Spokane federal court house is named in his honor. The family fruit orchard remained in the family until the government took it for a park and cut down all the trees.

Horan was raised in Riverside Lodge #112 in Spokane, Washington on March 27th, 1925.

This article provided by Brother Coe Tug Morgan – Honorary Grand Secretary, Past Grand Historian Grand Lodge F. & A. M. of Washington.