Huntington, Arthur, 1874-1954.

Engineer, economist and pioneer in the rural electrification movement. Huntington was born in Springfield, Ohio and earned his mechanical engineering degree from Ohio State University in 1899. Before college he worked as a linesman for the Springfield Electric Light Co. After college he worked as a salesman and engineer at Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing in the Midwest (1899-1904); operated the Sioux Falls, S.D. Light & Power Co. (1905-1910); and managed the Iowa-Nebraska Electric Light & Power Co. in Norfolk, Neb. (1913-1915). Huntington was also interested in agricultural issues which led him to work as an engineer for the Bitter Root Valley Irrigation Co. in Hamilton, Montana and to a study of cross-pollination of apples for the Northwestern and Montana Fruit Growers Association. In 1916 he moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to accept a position at the Iowa Railway & Light Company (later, Iowa Electric Light & Power Co.). Huntington's professional affiliations included the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE) which he served as vice-president (1927-1928, 1930-1931) and president (1932-1933); the National Electric Light Association; the National Farm Chemurgic Council; the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation; and the Iowa Engineering Society. As a member of ASAE's Rural Electric Division he served on the Committee on the Relation of Electricity to Agriculture (1923-1938), a group responsible for studying and reporting on the impact of power on farm production and driving the rural electrification movement. President Hoover selected Huntington to participate in a re-writing of the Economic Survey of 1921. He prepared reports for Iowa Governor John Hammill on the relation of agriculture to industry (1927-1928) and the Iowa Federation of Labor on the effect of mechanization on production and wages (1923-1924) and Iowa's coal industry (1927). In 1928 and 1932 he served as president of the Iowa chapter of the Hoover for President Engineers Club, a group which counseled then candidate Hoover on rural electrification and other agricultural issues.