"Noted businessman and former state delegate dies at 72." The Maryland Gazette, 22 August 2007.

Noted businessman and former state delegate dies at 72
By GRANT HUANG Staff Writer

It would probably be an understatement to call Walter Ray Huff Jr. a hard worker.
The 72-year-old insurance salesman and former state delegate was just 7 years old when he started his first job: using his little red wagon to carry shoppers' groceries to their cars for a nickel per trip. He would later give red wagons as birthday or Christmas gifts to each of his four children. He never retired from his full-service insurance business, W. Ray Huff and Associates in Pasadena.

Better known as just "Ray," Mr. Huff died Monday after a four-month battle with a pancreatic cancer that most of his friends never knew he had.

"He didn't really tell anyone because he didn't want anyone making a fuss over him," said Nancy Ann Nicklow, Mr. Huff's youngest daughter. "He kept it low-key."

The longtime Pasadena resident also believed he could beat the severe, inoperable cancer his doctors diagnosed in May.

"He was a very optimistic individual who never game up. He thought he could win and beat the odds," Mrs. Nicklow said. "We all firmly believed that if anyone could beat the odds, it was him. He fought up to his last breath."

Friends and business associates remember an outgoing, energetic man who couldn't get enough of life.

"He looked like a big, gruff teddy bear type of guy," recalled Fran Schmidt, executive director of the Northern Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce. "My favorite memory of him was at our presidential gala this (January). He was laughing and talking to everyone and got so excited about the prize drawing. To see someone of his age just enjoying himself and being so involved is something I won't forget."

Mr. Huff held no fewer than 24 memberships in his life, including local American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, three north county Democratic clubs, a Freemason lodge, two elementary school PTAs and the American Cancer Society.

He served two terms in the state House of Delegates, representing District 31 from 1986 to 1994. As a legislator, Mr. Huff supported environmental causes and founded the Maryland Lighthouse Commission, an agency that protects and preserves historic state lighthouses.

Former state Sen. Phil Jimeno, who served in the legislature with Mr. Huff, recalled a man who entered politics with a desire to serve rather than advance.

"It was never for personal gain. He was always in it for the benefit of the community," said Mr. Jimeno, who also competed with Mr. Huff in the local insurance business. "He was a great competitor and I never hesitated to refer clients we couldn't help to Ray Huff. I knew I could trust him to take care of policyholders. It's why he was a successful (businessman). People just trusted Ray Huff."

"He knew everyone," said Nancy M. Huff, Mr. Huff's wife. "We could never eat dinner without someone coming up and saying 'Hey Ray, I got a question about insurance.' And he would always pull up a chair and say 'sit down.' He considered customers friends and he always had time for his friends."

Gene Floyd, a real estate agent who's known Mr. Huff for nearly 50 years, said he often urged his friend to slow down and retire, always to no avail.

"I'd tell him he didn't need to work anymore, but he'd say 'I've got to take care of my customers,' " Mr. Floyd said. "I told him 'you're not going to be here yourself if you don't take care of yourself.' But he just wouldn't do it. He had to go 95 miles an hour with his business and his politics and his friendships with people."

Mr. Huff's sense of responsibility and compassion was ingrained in him at a young age, Mrs. Nicklow said.

Mr. Huff's father died before his seventh birthday, leaving his mother to raise the family. Mr. Huff decided to help out, first with his impromptu job carrying shoppers' groceries, then with a paper route at age 11 and a stint doing construction work at 14.

"He was the youngest, but he was the only boy," Mrs. Nicklow said. "He knew that the family was struggling and he felt like he had to take on some of the duties of the man of the house."

Mr. Huff went on to spend four years in the Navy, seeing action in the Korean War. He served as a damage control officer aboard a troop transport that carried U.S. Marines to beachhead landings under hostile fire.

"He believed in service and that's what he did," Mrs. Nicklow said. "He served his family, his country, his (constituents) and his customers."

She plans to take over W. Ray Huff and Associates, where's she been working for her father since age 14.

"He's got pretty big shoes for me to fill, but it's what he's been grooming me for all these years," she said. "Before he died ... he told me I'm ready."

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