[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 48 (Wednesday, April 4, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S3428]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN MEMORY OF SENATOR JOHN HEINZ

  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, 10 years ago today Pennsylvania lost a 
great U.S. Senator, America lost a future President, and I lost a very 
dear friend. On April 4, 1991, Senator John Heinz was tragically killed 
in an airplane crash. He was not only a close personal friend. I was 
chairman of the campaign committee when he was elected. We sat by each 
other on the floor for years. We traveled together. We fished for blues 
together off Nantucket. And we worked on many issues together in the 
Senate.
  Tonight I make these few comments in remembrance of my colleague. 
John Heinz was an extraordinary man. A person of great personal wealth, 
he was a Senator who cared dearly and deeply about average men and 
women, a Senator that fought to tear down antiquated age discrimination 
laws which failed to recognize and value the importance of older 
workers, a Senator who championed trade relief and adjustment for 
working men and women, as well as business, who fought any 
administration to ensure that workers hurt by our trade laws would not 
be victims of poverty or despair, a Senator who clearly recognized that 
our Nation's Medicare program was in desperate need of overhaul. But he 
knew his colleagues on each side of the aisle were not then, and are 
still not today, prepared to fix Medicare.
  He was a Senator who believed we could address the myriad of 
environmental concerns of our Nation while still maintaining a balanced 
recognition of America's needs for resources and business development, 
and a Senator who cared deeply and loved his family.
  John Heinz left three sons and a marvelous wife, Teresa. Tonight, I 
believe John Heinz looks down upon his family and, with that big smile 
he had which so many of us remember, he must be very, very proud. His 
family has continued his commitment to his values. John Heinz IV has 
started a school to help children who are on the verge of being 
discarded by the public school system realize their value and 
importance and that people really do care about them. Andre Heinz is 
pursuing his environmental interests advocacy by helping businesses 
across the globe understand how they and the environment can coexist 
and in many instances make larger returns for investors and working men 
and women. Christopher Heinz is finishing his MBA degree at the same 
school from which his father graduated. Christopher is likely to follow 
a business path, as his father did when Jack left Harvard.
  But his greatest untold story, the untold story of the family, 
concerns Jack Heinz's wife, partner, spirit, and true love. Teresa 
Heinz is a personal friend of mine and my wife Catherine, someone we 
have known for many years. ``Extraordinary'' is the word I use to 
describe Teresa. Following John's death, she assumed the helm of the 
many Heinz family philanthropies and has nurtured them since then. They 
were among the most innovative and pioneering foundations in this 
Nation.
  Teresa made sure that none of us forgets John or the visionary work 
he was pursuing by ensuring the Heinz family philanthropies and the 
Howard Heinz Foundation and endowment continue the pioneering work 
started by my friend, Jack Heinz. To honor Jack, Teresa created the 
Heinz Awards in 1993, a program to remember Jack, as Teresa said then, 
``in a way that would inspire not just me, but the rest of us.'' When 
she announced the program, Teresa explained:

       I view the Heinz Awards in a sense as the awards of the 
     21st century because they recognize the very qualities we 
     must embrace if we are to create the sort of future we would 
     want to live in. . . . The Heinz Awards will measure 
     achievements but also intentions.

  I gave the first of those Heinz Awards to Andy Grove to show just how 
important they have been to our economy.
  In 1996 Teresa tested in Pittsburgh her idea on how best to ensure 
early childhood education development was not just talked about but 
actually pursued. With a coalition of business leaders, the Heinz 
endowments launched Teresa's early childhood initiative, called ECI, to 
begin to tackle the issues of early childhood education and make sure 
that no family was left behind. In 1998 Teresa founded the Women's 
Institute to secure retirement, called WISER, to ensure that women, 
whether they work in or out of the home, would understand pension and 
retirement issues. Through a partnership with Good Housekeeping 
magazine, a magazine and supplement entitled ``What Every Woman Needs 
to Know About Money and Retirement,'' women are better able to be 
informed and educated on how to prepare for their financial 
future. That supplement has reached more than 25 million readers and is 
available in English, Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish today.

  Perhaps the most notable is the work that Theresa has done to help 
explain to legislators at the State and Federal levels, Jack Heinz's 
vision which he articulated, by the way, more than 14 years ago, that 
we need to make available a prescription drug benefit to all people 65 
and over.
  Through her work at Heinz family philanthropies, Terry has 
spearheaded an effort to help legislators understand this complex issue 
and how States can design solutions to solve this problem--now reaching 
a crisis state in our country. Dubbed HOPE, the Heinz plan to meet 
prescription expenses is used by many States such as Massachusetts, 
Maine, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania, which work with the foundation on 
strategies to provide prescription drugs for the elderly.
  That is perhaps the best example of what I believe is the spirit of 
John Heinz, designing a blueprint to help States determine whether and 
how they can and whether they will address such a crisis.
  Because of Theresa Heinz, the Heinz Family Foundation pursues efforts 
to keep Jack's spirit and vision alive. That is why I am here. And for 
that, each of us should be grateful. I personally thank her for all she 
has done.
  Mr. President, John Heinz, as I said, was my friend. In my own way, I 
celebrate his spirit each day when I walk on the Senate floor. He is no 
longer with us in person, but his spirit, his vision, and his 
unrelenting belief in hope lives with all of us.
  I am proud to have known this man, John Heinz, and I am proud he was 
my friend. To Theresa, I send this message: Jack's spirit is right here 
on the Senate floor. Be assured we will never, ever forget who he was, 
what he stood for, or his dream for America.

                          ____________________