[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 31, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H132]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO WILL DWYER
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, this is kind of a sad occasion
for me. Today I rise to pay tribute to Will Dwyer, who was my former
communications director of the Committee on Government Reform and
Oversight. He passed away earlier this month after a long battle with
cancer.
He began his media career as a broadcast documentary producer in the
1950s, and then he moved to Washington to start a career in public
service. He was a native of Rochester, New York; and he began his
congressional career in the 88th Congress by working for Frank Horton
of New York. He served as his administrative assistant for some time.
Then after his stint in public service, he left Washington for the
private sector. He returned to Rochester where he held the post of
Republican county chairman. During that time, he also founded a
telecommunications privacy service.
Will knew that life was too valuable to let a day go by without
enjoying everything that it had to offer. He was a man with an
incredible thirst for new and different experiences, and he returned to
school in mid-life and received his law degree while he was in his mid-
40s.
Earlier this decade, Will was called back into public service by the
gentleman from California (Mr. Radanovich). It was on his reputation on
Radanovich's staff that we hired him to be our communications director
with the Committee on Government Reform.
Although I knew Will for only a short period of time, he was a very,
very fine man, a man of impeccable integrity, really cared about this
country, a very patriotic fellow. He lived his life knowing that every
day was something to savor. It was his attitude that brings me to the
floor today to pay tribute to this man whom we are all going to miss a
great deal, my friend, Will Dwyer.
So God in heaven, I hope you are blessing Will because he was a man
who should be blessed a great deal.
Mr. Speaker, I insert into the Record an article that appeared in the
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle about the life of my good friend, Will
Dwyer, as follows:
[From the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Jan. 18, 2001]
William F. Dwyer II Dies of Cancer at 65
William F. Dwyer II is described as a dynamo, a restless
man, an irrepressible force.
He worked in politics from Monroe County to Washington,
D.C., and was a Rochester broadcaster. He got his law degree
in his late 40s, spoke on behalf of the tobacco industry,
even ran a modular home business in California.
But there was one constant theme in Mr. Dwyer's life--his
limitless interest in people.
``He was such an egalitarian,'' said Mr. Dwyer's wife,
Constance Drath. ``He talked to the grocery clerk, the
mailman, the elected officials. He loved learning about
everyone.''
Mr. Dwyer died of cancer last week in Washington. He was
65.
Mr. Dwyer was born in Rochester on March 30, 1935, and grew
up in the city. He graduated from a military academy in New
Jersey as the class valedictorian, Drath said.
He returned to Rochester in the mid-1950s and began a
career in broadcasting at WHAM-AM (1180). Family and friends
say that Mr. Dwyer--a tall man with a curly head of brown
hair--had a deep, resonant voice that was perfect for the
airwaves.
In 1962, Mr. Dwyer moved to the political arena, going to
work for Frank Horton, a Penfield Republican just elected to
Congress. He became Horton's administrative assistant,
basically his right-hand man, and instituted weekly radio
feeds that would be picked up by Rochester radio stations.
Mr. Dwyer also used a radio communications system that kept
the Horton campaign in touch with him. ``This wasn't done
back then,'' said Horton, who called Mr. Dwyer not just a
valued employee but a good friend.
``I could tell him anything,'' Horton said. ``You can't say
that about everybody.''
He left Horton's office in the late 1960s and started a
public relations firm that often worked with political
campaigns. He worked closely with the Republican Party and in
1970 was named Monroe County chairman of the party.
Richard Rosenbaum, himself a former county GOP chairman,
said that Mr. Dwyer's style was ``benevolent
aggressiveness.''
``He was a great PR man, who could make lemonade out of the
most awful lemons,'' he said.
Mr. Dwyer left Rochester for Washington in 1972 and worked
in the Nixon and Ford administrations, mainly as a Labor
Department spokesman for new workplace safety and health
standards.
In 1975, he became a spokesman for the now-defunct Tobacco
Institute, which spoke on behalf of cigarette manufacturers.
In 1980, Mr. Dwyer moved to California with Drath. In two
years, he obtained his law degree from Southwestern
University of Law in Los Angeles. He and Drath opened a law
firm in Beverly Hills, specializing in wrongful employment
termination cases and immigration issues.
During the 1980s, he dabbled in other ventures, including a
modular home company.
In 1994, politics came calling again, and Mr. Dwyer served
as a press secretary for Rep. George Radanovich, R-Calif.,
then as communications director for the House Government
Reform Committee.
Through all the changes in his life, Mr. Dwyer remained
upbeat and eager for new challenges, Drath said.
``This was a man who knew the art of living in the
moment,'' she said. ``He never looked back, never had any
regrets.''
Along with his wife of Washington, Mr. Dwyer is survived by
their two children Scott Dwyer and William Dwyer III of
Washington; Elizabeth Sellers of Paris and Geoffrey Dwyer of
Brockport, his children from his previous marriage to Eleanor
Clarke, now Eleanor Lawton of Brighton; and two sisters,
Carol Stearns of Washington, Conn., and Anne Colgan of East
Rochester.
A memorial service will be held at Georgetown Presbyterian
Church in Washington at noon Wednesday.
Memorial contributions can be made to the National
Colorectal Cancer Research Institute at Entertainment
Industry Foundation, 11132 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, CA
91604.
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