[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 145 (Tuesday, October 13, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2135-E2136]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO REVEREND LYNN HAGEMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 13, 1998

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to an 
extraordinary human being and a man who made an enormous contribution 
to the lives of the people of East Harlem,

[[Page E2136]]

New York City and State, and the United States, the Reverend Lynn LeRoy 
Hageman. Reverend Hageman, who died last Saturday evening at the age of 
67, was known in New York, the United States and around the world as a 
pioneer in the area of addict rehabilitation for his integrated, 
comprehensive approach to helping drug addicts.
  Reverend Hageman was born in 1931 in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1956, he 
received a Bachelor of Divinity from the University of Chicago. Upon 
graduation, he worked with children in the Department of Welfare in 
Chicago and at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Chicago, the site of the 
first church-centered program for addict rehabilitation.
  In 1959, he moved with his wife Leola and their three children, 
Erika, Hans and Ivan, to East Harlem, where he began serving as an 
Evangelical United Brethren minister at the East Harlem Protestant 
Parish. In 1963, he founded an experimental narcotics program at Exodus 
House on 103rd Street, between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. There, 
Reverend Hageman developed a step-by-step approach to rehabilitation, 
involving total abstinence, spiritual guidance, group therapy and 
artisan training. The program served thousands of addicts with 
exceptional rates of success.
  As a result of his work, Reverend Hageman served on the Mayor's 
Committee on Narcotics Addiction and frequently appeared in 
professional journals, newspapers and on television. Reverend Hageman 
was an active participant in the fight for civil rights and spent time 
in an Albany, Georgia jail with Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Even 
as he was carrying on his work, Reverend Hageman received a Doctor of 
Ministry from Drew Theological Seminary in 1976.
  Reverend Hageman was a man of rare courage, intelligence and 
dedication, whose energy, creativity and perseverance were without 
limit. His legacy is simple and powerful: he worked tirelessly to 
improve the lives of others, particularly those women and men who were 
working to overcome drug addiction. He helped thousands, but approached 
each as an individual, one by one, step by step.
  His legacy is also very much alive and can serve as an inspiration to 
all of us. It is alive in the lives of the thousands of individuals he 
was able to help, and who are living more fulfilling and productive 
lives today. It is also alive at Exodus House on 103rd Street. After 
Reverend Hageman suffered a stroke in 1981, and was unable to carry on 
his work as fully, his wife Leola reinvented Exodus House as an after-
school program for the children of drug addicts. In 1991, his two sons, 
Hans and Ivan, transformed Exodus House into the East Harlem School, a 
highly successful middle-school now in its seventh year of operation.
  Mr. Speaker, the people of the 15th Congressional District, the City 
of New York and the United States owe Reverend Lynn Hageman a great 
debt of gratitude for his exceptional life of service to others. 
Through his work and energy and courage, his warmth and wonderful sense 
of humor, he was an enormous presence in our community. He will be 
sorely missed.

                          ____________________