[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 143 (Thursday, September 14, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S13625]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



[[Page S 13625]]


                  THE 80TH BIRTHDAY OF ANDREW HEISKELL

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, I rise today in recognition of 
the celebration yesterday of the 80th birthday of Andrew Heiskell, a 
philanthropist of the first order, a friend to the arts and humanities, 
and an untiring champion of our democracy and its institutions.
  He was born in Naples, and so, alas, could never become President. 
Instead, he attended the Harvard Graduate School of Business, worked at 
the New York Herald Tribune, and in 1937 became science and medical 
editor for LIFE magazine. What follows is a career so brilliant and 
accomplishments so significant that among his contemporaries it has 
become legend.
  Within three short years of his first assignment with LIFE, he became 
general manager. In 1946, he was appointed publisher of that magazine, 
and in 1949 was elected a vice president of Time, Inc. In 1959, he 
became a member of the board of directors, and on August 21, 1969, he 
became chief executive officer of Time, Inc. In 1982 he was named 
Publisher of the Year by the Magazine Publishers Association, and in 
1986 he was inducted into the Publishing Hall of Fame.
  Andrew Heiskell retired from publishing 15 years ago, and began, in 
effect, a second career of public service, accomplishing in a decade-
and-a-half far more than most could hope to accomplish in a lifetime.
  As chairman of the board of trustees of the New York Public Library 
he oversaw a campaign to raise over $300 million. The campaign 
rededicated the library's resources not only to New Yorkers, but to the 
Nation, and--via electronic means--to the world. As chairman of the 
board of the Bryant Park Restoration Corp., he led the effort to 
redesign and restore that oasis in midtown Manhattan, and in so doing 
extended the humanist tradition of the public library adjacent to it. 
There is no more civil space in New York City today. Heiskell made it 
so.
  The list of his accomplishments continues. As founding chairman of 
the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, he established a 
new tradition of public-private partnerships in support of the arts. As 
president of the Harvard Corporation he presided over the 
sesquicentennial observances and a major fund raising drive. Earlier he 
had been an indefatigable member of the advisory board of the Joint 
Center for Urban Studies of M.I.T. and Harvard. And numerous other 
nonprofit organizations have benefited from his efforts, among them the 
Graduate Center for the City University of New York, the Vivian 
Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center, the Enterprise Foundation, People 
for the American Way, the Brookings Institution, the Trust for Cultural 
Resources of the City of New York, and the Institute of International 
Education. For the last 5 years Andrew Heiskell's efforts have been 
focused on an extraordinary institution, the American Academy in Rome, 
which was recognized by Congress and the President in a joint 
resolution last year for its contributions to America's cultural and 
intellectual life on the occasion of its centennial. As chairman of the 
executive committee of the American Academy in Rome, Andrew Heiskell 
has guided that institution and led a $20 million capital campaign to 
re-endow the academy and ensure that American artists and scholars of 
the next century enjoy the same opportunity provided their 
predecessors: to be enriched by a cultural tradition measured in 
millennia, and on their return to enrich the culture of our young 
Republic.
  Andrew Heiskell has proven himself a brilliant leader and a patient 
teacher of those who would follow in his footsteps. He is also a great 
friend. On the occasion of his 80th birthday, we can be thankful that 
he and Marian dedicated so much to the patient improvement of American 
life.


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