[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 125 (Thursday, September 23, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11375-S11376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          MR. K. PATRICK OKURA

 Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, this coming weekend a long time 
friend of mine, Mr. K. Patrick Okura, will be celebrating his 88th 
birthday. For the past decade, Pat has been extraordinarily active in 
guiding the Okura Mental Health Leadership Foundation in order to 
ensure that young Asian Pacific American health professionals, 
representing a wide range of disciplines, will have the skills and 
experiences necessary to eventually achieve leadership roles throughout 
our nation's health and human services agencies. Pat obtained his 
baccalaureate and master's degrees in psychology from the University of 
California at Los Angeles and has long been a member of the American 
Psychological Association which recently published a special article 
highlighting his monumental accomplishments. He is currently on the 
Board of Directors of the National Mental Health Association, the U.S. 
Commission on Civil Rights, and the Japanese American National Museum. 
He is a past-President of the Japanese American Citizens League and 
founder of the National Asian Pacific American Families Against 
Substance Abuse.
  In July of 1971, during the Presidency of Richard Nixon, Pat assumed 
the position of Executive Assistant to the Director of the National 
Institute of Mental Health, NIMH. For the next decade, he remained at a 
high level policy position within the NIMH, shepherding to fruition 
numerous innovative mental health initiatives. He was an active 
participant in the deliberations of President Carter's landmark Mental 
Health Commission. For many of us in the U.S. Congress, those were the 
glory days for mental health. There was a sense of genuine excitement 
and optimism. Our nation was finally beginning to understand and 
appreciate the social and cultural aspects of health care, not to 
mention the importance of ensuring that all Americans should receive 
necessary care. Under Pat's leadership, our nation truly committed 
itself to the far reaching ``deinstitutionalization movement,'' an 
effort which would eventually bring mental illness out of the closet 
and ensure that all of our citizens would retain their individual civil 
liberties, notwithstanding any particular diagnosis, lack of economic 
resources, or lack of immediate family.
  During the mid-1980s, Pat went on to serve as Special Assistant to 
the President of Hahnemann University, once again with a unique focus 
on those projects and events that made the university the great 
educational institution that it was. As I have already indicated, for 
the past decade Pat has continued to ``give back'' to our nation by 
ensuring that future generations of

[[Page S11376]]

Asian Pacific American health professionals will begin to appreciate 
their potential for excellence in leadership. Having had the 
opportunity of personally meeting with his Fellows as they come to 
Capitol Hill each year, I must say that I have always been 
extraordinarily impressed by their dedication and commitment to our 
nation. Pat Okura has truly been a visionary role model for all of us 
and the ultimate public servant. I wish him the best on this truly 
special occasion.

                          ____________________