[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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