[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 63 (Tuesday, May 4, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E848]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                A TRIBUTE TO THE HONORABLE OLIVER OCASEK

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. THOMAS C. SAWYER

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 4, 1999

  Mr. SAWYER. Mr. Speaker, we rise to honor Oliver Ocasek--one of 
Ohio's most distinguished citizens. On May 20, Oliver Ocasek will 
receive the YMCA of the USA's Volunteerism Award--the YMCA's highest 
honor. The YMCA is honoring Ocasek for his more than 50 years of 
service to youth organizations. We rise today, not only to recognize 
his deserved selection for this award, but to recognize a lifetime of 
service to the people of Ohio.
  Sen. Ocasek's devotion to education extends well beyond his 
volunteerism with the YMCA. He co-founded the Ohio Hi-Y Youth in 
Government Model Legislature program with Governor C. William O'Neill 
in 1952 and supervised it throughout his service on the Ohio-West 
Virginia Board of the YMCA. He has served on the greater Akron area 
boards of Goodwill Industries, Shelter Care, and the Salvation Army. He 
also has been a professional educator in a wide variety of capacities: 
a teacher, a principal, a school superintendent, and a professor at 
both the University of Akron and Kent State University. He was 
instrumental in bringing together our regional institutions of higher 
learning to create the Northeastern Ohio Universities' College of 
Medicine. He capped his educational service with three terms on Ohio's 
State Board of Education.
  This breadth of service to youth is impressive by itself. But alone, 
it does not capture Oliver Ocasek's contribution to the people of Ohio. 
Oliver Ocasek was one of the most influential legislators in the 
Statehouse, where he served in the Senate for 28 years from 1958 to 
1986. In the 1970's, he became the first Senate President elected by 
his peers due to a change in the Ohio Constitution. Along with 
Republican Governor James Rhodes and Democratic House Speaker Vernal 
Riffe, Sen. Ocasek made many of the decisions to keep state government 
moving forward. He was an expert on Ohio's complex school funding 
system and used his knowledge, experience, and position to benefit 
local students. His enormous influence came from his savvy and from the 
hard, tedious work of studying, debating, refining, and reaching 
decisions on difficult and often contentious state issues.
  He is astute, well-steeped in history, a gifted orator and a man of 
heart-felt compassion. Oliver Ocasek's larger-than-life ambitions drove 
him hard in politics and in civic life in general, not in search of 
personal gain and glory, but in order to use his talents and positions 
to care for the least of his brothers and sisters. Last year in the 
Akron Beacon Journal, Sen. Ocasek expressed his philosophy: ``Nothing 
breaks my heart more than for a child to not have parents who care or 
to not have a chance for a good education. That's been my commitment--
my life--to provide a good education for all children.'' His leadership 
has inspired tens of thousands of young people touched by his 
commitment to education and to the YMCA youth programs over the last 
half-century.
  Today, many people disparage public service and doubt that one person 
can make a difference. Oliver Ocasek would profoundly disagree. And 
more importantly, his efforts and their recognition by the YMCA are the 
evidence to the contrary. His service to the people--and particularly 
the youth--of Ohio shows that, with hard work and commitment, one 
person can make a difference. And we are grateful for the difference 
that he has made.

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