[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 116 (Friday, September 5, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8874-S8875]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           CHARLES A. HORSKY

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, Mr. Charles Horsky, former 
adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson on the District of Columbia, 
passed away during the August recess. I rise today to pay honor to this 
man who devoted himself to improving our Nation's Capital.
  Charlie Horsky was the ``Mayor of Washington.'' And yet, he looked 
forward to giving that up and getting home rule for the city of 
Washington. He accomplished a great deal toward that end. Mr. Horsky 
was instrumental in redeveloping Pennsylvania Avenue, in promoting the 
construction of a metropolitan subway system, and he played a crucial 
role in establishing the initial home rule for the citizens of 
Washington.
  Further, he led the establishment of the National Building Museum, 
the John F. Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts, the University of 
the District of Columbia, and urged the preservation of Union Station.
  I first arrived in Washington over three decades ago. Since those 
initiatory days, I was most fortunate to have known and worked with 
Charlie Horsky. He was as fine a gentleman as we have seen in our 
Capital, and his tireless efforts are reflected in so many rejuvenated 
aspects of the city around us. When thinking of this great man we do 
well to recall the epitaph of Sir

[[Page S8875]]

Christopher Wren at St. Pauls Cathedral, London: ``Si monumentum 
requiris, circumspice.'' (If you would see his monument, look around).
  I ask that an obituary from the New York Times from August 24 be 
printed in the Record.
  The obituary follows:

       Charles A. Horsky, 87, Dies; Left Imprint on U.S. Capital

                          (By Irvin Molotsky)

       WASHINGTON--Charles A. Horsky, a lawyer and former 
     Government official who helped redevelop the nation's capital 
     during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, died 
     Wednesday at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Md. He was 
     87 and lived in Silver Spring.
       The cause was kidney failure, said his daughter, Margaret 
     Horsky Burns.
       Mr. Horsky argued many cases and held many important 
     positions in a law career that began in 1934, but it was his 
     work as adviser to the President for national capital affairs 
     from 1962 to 1967 that had the greatest impact on those who 
     live in or visit Washington, an impact that will be felt for 
     years to come.
       President John F. Kennedy appointed him to the White House 
     job and Lyndon B. Johnson carried him over when Johnson 
     succeeded to the Presidency in 1963. During Mr. Horsky's time 
     at the White House, he pressed for switching money from a 
     highway project to the construction of a subway system, and 
     the resulting Metro is now regarded as one of the best in the 
     world.
       He worked on the redevelopment of Pennsylvania Avenue, a 
     project that was begun after the 1961 inaugural parade and 
     Kennedy determined that America's Main Street had become 
     seedy and unworthy of a great nation. That project is just 
     being completed with the opening soon of the Ronald Reagan 
     Building.
       Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who served in the Kennedy 
     Administration with Mr. Horsky, recalled that they were 
     reviewing plans for the redevelopment of Pennsylvania Avenue 
     on Nov. 22, 1963, when they received the word that the 
     President had been shot. The plans were to be presented to 
     Kennedy for his approval the next day.
       Another of Mr. Horsky's accomplishments is enduring a 
     melancholy chapter. For years, Washington was run as a 
     virtual fiefdom of Congress, with residents having no say in 
     its government. During the Johnson Administration, a push was 
     made to establish home rule for Washington and it was Mr. 
     Horsky who played the pivotal role in getting legislation for 
     it through Congress.
       Mr. Moynihan, reached at his home in upstate New York, 
     said: ``Charlie Horsky was `Mayor of Washington.' He looked 
     forward to giving that up and getting home rule for the city 
     of Washington, and he accomplished a great deal toward that 
     end.''
       In recent years, however, with the District of Columbia's 
     budget deficit ballooning out of control, Congress has taken 
     back much of that power and placed it in the hands of a 
     control board.
       Mr. Horsky's other activities included establishing the 
     Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, rescuing Union 
     Station and opening both the National Building Museum and the 
     University of the District of Columbia.
       He was born in Helena, Mont., graduated from the University 
     of Washington 1931 and received a law degree from Harvard 
     University in 1934. He served as a lawyer in the Solicitor 
     General's office until 1939, when he joined Covington & 
     Burling, one of Washington's leading law firms, staying there 
     for the rest of his career except for his White House years.
       After World War II, Mr. Horsky served as an assistant 
     prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials and argued many 
     cases before the Supreme Court, including a case that 
     challenged the wartime internment of Americans of Japanese 
     ancestry.
       ``I was trying to persuade the Court that there was no 
     legitimate basis for the Army to arrest citizens,'' Mr. 
     Horsky said in a 1989 interview with The Washington Post. ``I 
     couldn't get enough information to make it stick.''
       Mr. Horsky lost his argument before the Supreme Court, but 
     in 1988, Congress approved and President Ronald Reagan signed 
     a bill that offered the nation's apologies to Japanese 
     Americans and provided payments to those who were interned.
       A partner at the firm, David B. Isbell, said that Mr. 
     Horsky took senior counsel status, that is, a reduced work 
     load, in 1981 and that until he was slowed down by illness 
     two years ago, he had kept active in the firm by arbitrating 
     railroad disputes.
       His wife of 58 years, Barbara Egleston Horsky, died two 
     years ago.
       Besides his daughter, Ms. Burns, a resident of Falls 
     Church, Va., Mr. Horsky is survived by a sister, Flora Wertz 
     of Missoula, Mont., and two grandchildren.
       Despite his advancing years, Mr. Horsky maintained a rugged 
     regimen. ``He never wore an overcoat, even on the coldest 
     day,'' Mr. Isbell said of his colleague. ``I don't think he 
     had one. It may have had something to do with his coming from 
     Montana.''
       That Great Plains frame of mind prevailing as recently as 
     1989, when he drove around in the middle of winter in his 
     1962 Ford convertible, often with the top down. When asked in 
     the interview in The Post about his lack of an overcoat, he 
     said, ``I am sure I had one in college.''

                          ____________________