[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 15 (Wednesday, February 16, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E152]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING STEPHAN L. HONORE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. KEN BENTSEN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 16, 2000

  Mr. BENTSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Stephan L. Honore for being 
awarded the Peace Corps' Franklin Williams Award for Outstanding 
Community Service. Mr. Honore, who was among the first wave of Peace 
Corps volunteers and the first black American to join the Peace Corps, 
has distinguished himself as an extraordinary role model for minorities 
and all young people interested in community service.
  After hearing President John F. Kennedy's impassioned vision of young 
Americans giving service for peace, Mr. Honore answered the call in 
1960 by joining the ``Peace Corps Council,'' a student group at Ohio 
State University. As president of his student body, Mr. Honore had 
already been given the chance to travel to Cuba as a student where he 
was forever transformed by witnessing the conditions that his brethren 
from other countries had to endure daily. Instead of going to Florida 
during Spring Break as a student his senior year, Mr. Honore helped 
organize a trip to Washington with the Peace Corps Council where he met 
with numerous foreign embassies to see what they thought of JFK's 
vision. He then met with most of the Ohio Congressmen and Senators to 
lobby on behalf of the Peace Corps.
  Mr. Honore's generous spirit and political awakening compelled him to 
become one of the first wave of 28 trainees-invitees--and the first 
black American--to work as a Peace Corps volunteer. In 1961 he traveled 
to Columbia to offer his services in Rural Community Development. Mr. 
Honore's goal was to help improve living conditions of those living in 
poverty and hunger and to teach troubled communities how to become 
self-sufficient. At the same time, Mr. Honore learned much about his 
own African heritage through working with black Colombians who were 
descended from escaped slaves.
  After a two-year stint in Colombia, Mr. Honore was promoted to 
Associate Director of the Peace Corps and stationed in the Dominican 
Republic. He oversaw all Peace Corps volunteers in the Northeast 
quarter of the Dominican Republic and put his skills to use running 
vital programs.
  Mr. Honore's desire to help others continued when he returned to Ohio 
from 1968 to 1971 to run a community Health Demonstration Projected and 
Model Cities Program in blighted communities. He again left for the 
Dominican Republic to serve as the country's Director from 1978 to 
1981. He still keeps close ties to his former co-workers, and is 
currently Secretary of Friends of the Dominican Republic, an 
organization of retired Peace Corps members who served in the Dominican 
Republic.
  In between stints of community service, Mr. Honore earned a law 
degree and held a professorship at Texas Southern University from 1974-
1984. I am proud to claim him as a constituent living in my 25th 
Congressional District of Texas. True to his philosophy, he is active 
in our Houston community, serving as past president of the Diocesan 
Board of Education and the Woodshire Civic Club, and as organizer of 
Anti-Apartheid activities in the 1980s, as well as a Precinct Judge. He 
continues to help people who are caught in the system by representing 
clients in immigration and political asylum cases, often on a pro bono 
basis. He recently started his own business as a foreign currency 
exchange consultant.
  Mr. Speaker, I congratulate Stephen L. Honore for receiving an award 
from the Peace Corps for outstanding service to his community and to 
Houston. He has not only improved the lives of countless people through 
his service in foreign lands, the positive impact he has had on the 
lives of youths in this country and in Houston is immeasurable. He is a 
true role model for all young people who want to engage in public 
service.

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