[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 121 (Friday, September 6, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S10021]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  LOUIS ELIAS, GABRIEL W. KASSAB, AND WILLIAM H. MORGAN--THE MARCH OF 
                     DIMES 1996 FAMILY OF THE YEAR

 Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, on September 25, 1996, the March 
of Dimes will honor Elias Brothers Restaurants executives Louis Elias, 
Gabriel W. Kassab, and William H. Morgan as the recipients of the 1996 
Family of the Year Award. Established in 1993, this award is presented 
annually to a family whose outstanding commitment and support of the 
March of Dimes deserves recognition. And without question, these three 
members of the Elias Brothers family are duly deserving of this honor.
  Louis Elias, founder and chairman of the board of Elias Brothers 
Restaurants, has a distinguished past as a community servant. After 4 
years as a city councilman, Mr. Elias served as mayor of Hazel Park 
from 1953 to 1961. He has also received the highest honor of knight 
commander in the Order of St. Ignatius of Antioch and was also knighted 
into the most exclusive philanthropic organization in the world, the 
Knights of Malta, in December 1982.
  Gabriel Kassab, president of Elias Brothers Restaurants, has for 
years dedicated his time and energies to helping others. He has served 
as a member of the executive board of the Detroit Council of the Boy 
Scouts of America, president of St. George Orthodox Church, president 
of the Michigan and National Restaurant Associations, and as a member 
of the advisory board of Southfield's Providence Hospital.
  William Morgan, senior executive vice president of Elias Brothers 
Restaurants and Big Boy International, also has a distinguished list of 
public service efforts to his credit. He is past president of the 
Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce and the Clinton Valley Council of 
the Boy Scouts of America, and past chairman of the Rochester 
Crittenton Hospital Development Council. Mr. Morgan today sits on the 
executive board of the Michigan State University Development Council.
  All three of these men have remained dedicated over the years to the 
generous support of the efforts of the March of Dimes. The Elias 
Brothers family has committed itself to the cause of preventing birth 
defects, and with the extraordinary contributions of Louis Elias, 
Gabriel Kassab, and William Morgan, our country has moved that much 
closer to the realization of this noble and important goal. On this 
special occasion, I offer my congratulations to each of these civic 
leaders and to the March of Dimes. I also offer my thanks, on behalf of 
the entire State of Michigan, for the countless number of children's 
lives they have touched.

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