[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 38 (Thursday, March 8, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E353]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   HONORING THE LIFE OF ``STEREO'' SAM HUPPIN, AN EASTERN WASHINGTON 
                                 LEGEND

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 8, 2012

  Mrs. McMORRIS RODGERS. Mr. Speaker, it is with a very heavy heart 
that I rise today to honor the life of a great friend and Eastern 
Washington legend, Mr. Sam M. Huppin. His eighty-five years on this 
Earth were marked by infectious vivacity, a uniquely entrepreneurial 
spirit, and a genuine desire to help those around him. Sam exuded such 
an extraordinary love of life that his legacy will live forever in the 
hearts of those who knew him.
  As a Spokane native, Sam received his degree in aeronautic 
engineering from Washington State University and, in the 1950s, he 
transformed his family's downtown Spokane clothing store into a major 
electronics retailer. It was with remarkable success that he 
revolutionized his family-owned business--one radio and camera at a 
time. In the early 1970s, Sam donated the business's remaining men's 
clothing to charity and proudly opened ``Huppin's Hi-Fi and Photo.'' 
With two storefronts in Spokane today, Sam forever transformed the 
business that his grandfather started in 1908.
  While Sam will be remembered for his success as business leader--and 
his aptly given nickname of ``Stereo Sam''--he will be remembered even 
more for the impact he made on the lives of others. His customers. His 
family. His friends. He loved to tell stories, ask questions, and make 
jokes. His son Murray said about his father: ``He was really someone 
from a different era. Every part of the business was relationship 
oriented.''
  While Sam's passing is met with tremendous sadness, it is also with 
great joy that we pay homage to his remarkably full life. To the impact 
he had. The relationships he created. The community he changed. The 
people he touched. He has taught us--not only in the great sorrow of 
his death, but in the beauty of his life--that our years on this Earth 
should be lived with exuberance and gratitude for all the days we are 
given. It is for that lesson--and so many others--that he shall never 
be forgotten.

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