[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 94 (Tuesday, June 29, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7794-S7795]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL HOOKER, CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH 
                                CAROLINA

  Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. President, I rise today to note with sadness the 
death this morning of the Chancellor of the University of North 
Carolina at Chapel Hill, Michael Hooker.
  Chancellor Hooker was a friend and someone whom I have known for a 
number of years. He was a man of vision, enthusiasm, energy, 
brilliance, and he had an extraordinary love for the State of North 
Carolina.
  His passing is not only a loss for those of us in the University of 
North Carolina family, but for all North Carolinians. By making a great 
university better, Michael Hooker made a lasting contribution to our 
entire State.
  The truth is that his death was both a shock and a blow. Just 
yesterday he was at work in Chapel Hill.
  He was diagnosed this year with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and had been 
undergoing treatments at the National Cancer Institute in Maryland and 
also at the UNC Hospitals.
  While he was up here, I had the pleasure of seeing him a few times. 
Not too long ago, I ran into him and his wonderful wife Carmen, who is 
an extraordinary woman, right outside the Senate Chamber. He looked 
well and was feeling optimistic at that time about his health. He did 
take a brief leave from his job for treatment of the disease, but for 
most of the year, he was hard at work.
  I cannot say how sad I felt to learn this morning the news that his 
cancer had grown worse and that it took him at an early age--at the age 
of 53. My thoughts and prayers go out to Carmen, his wonderful wife, 
and to their children.

[[Page S7795]]

  Let me tell you, Mr. President, just a little more about Chancellor 
Hooker and what he has done for my State of North Carolina.
  He was the first person in his family to get a college degree--a 
philosophy degree from Chapel Hill in 1969. His father was a coal 
miner. He always credited his parents' belief in hard work and good 
education for his own success.
  After graduation, he left North Carolina to get a graduate degree and 
to enter the world of academics. He taught philosophy at Harvard. He 
was president of Bennington College and also president of the 
University of Massachusetts system. He was president of the University 
of Maryland at Baltimore County.
  He returned to North Carolina in July of 1995 to become UNC's eighth 
chancellor. And he really attacked the job. One year he visited every 
single county in North Carolina--and we have 100 counties in North 
Carolina--to make sure that every person in the State knew they were 
connected with their university. Then he made sure that the faculty and 
administration at UNC were connected to the State. He once took the new 
faculty and administrators from other States on a week-long bus tour of 
North Carolina.
  The truth of the matter is that men like Michael Hooker have long 
lists of accomplishments. They serve on many blue ribbon panels; they 
get lots of honorary degrees; they write great scholarly pieces; they 
are placed on many ``best of'' lists. I could go through a great deal 
of these with respect to Chancellor Hooker, because he accomplished all 
of those things.
  But in the end, I think Michael Hooker himself valued people most. I 
believe he would like to be remembered for all of the things he did to 
make people's lives better. He understood the need for education, not 
only because it expands men's and women's minds but because it makes 
our society better, stronger, more prosperous, and more equitable. He 
was an extraordinary and wonderful man.
  He said it best himself, if I could just quote him:

       There is only one reason to have a public university, and 
     that is to serve the people of the state. That should be the 
     touchstone of everything we do: whether it's in the interest 
     of North Carolina and our citizens. Our litmus test is the 
     question: Is what we do in Chapel Hill helping the factory 
     worker in Kannapolis?

  The best tribute we can give him is all the good works performed in 
the future by those who were touched by him and his life. Chancellor 
Hooker was an extraordinary man. He will be missed by me, he will be 
missed by every single citizen in North Carolina, and he will be missed 
by all those who knew him.
  With that, I yield the floor, Mr. President.
  Mr. WELLSTONE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Let me just thank the Senator from North Carolina. 
Having been an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina, 
having done my doctorate work there, having had two children born in 
Chapel Hill, and having known Chancellor Hooker, I am also very sorry 
to hear of his death--a very young man. It is really a loss for North 
Carolina and the country. I appreciate the Senator's eloquence.
  There are other Senators on the floor, so I am going to try to be 
brief and take only an hour or so--less than that, much less than that.

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