[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 84 (Monday, June 18, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1138-E1139]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    A TRIBUTE TO WAYMAN F. SMITH III

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. WM. LACY CLAY

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 18, 2001

  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to offer my comments and warmest 
congratulations on the retirement of my friend, Wayman F. Smith III, 
who is leaving his position as Vice President of Corporate Affairs for 
the Anheuser Busch Corporation after 20 years of dedicated service. 
Throughout his life, Wayman Smith has remained a committed public 
servant who has made it his life's work to expand opportunity and raise 
the aspirations of African Americans in both his native St. Louis and 
our country as a whole.
  As a young man during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Wayman 
made the dangerous journey through the segregated South to help 
register African American voters as part of the NAACP Voter 
Registration Project. Later in the Sixties, Wayman entered the 
political arena and was elected to the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, 
where he served for twelve years. He also served four years on the 
Board of Police Commissioners for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police 
Department.
  Wayman Smith began his high school years in the 1950s at the 
segregated Summer High School in St. Louis, but later transferred to 
and graduated from Soldan High School following the U.S. Supreme 
Court's decision in Brown vs. Board of Education. After completing his 
undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Monmouth 
University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, Wayman later went on to 
earn his Juris Doctorate degree from Howard University School of Law. 
Following his graduation from law school, Wayman became a partner in 
the law firm of Wilson, Smith, McCullin and Smith and later served as a 
judge in the St. Louis Metropolitan Court and served as the director of 
the Conciliation for the Missouri Commission on Human Rights.
  During the last twenty years, Wayman has served as Vice President of 
Corporate Affairs for the Anheuser Busch Corporation, where he has been 
credited with building positive and economically productive 
relationships between Anheuser Busch and the African American 
community. Under Wayman's leadership, Anheuser Busch's Corporate 
Affairs Department expanded its Minority Purchasing Program initiative 
from less than $1 million to nearly $200 million. As a result, the 
Anheuser Busch Corporation today holds the honorable distinction of 
having done business with every African American, Hispanic and women-
owned financial institution in the nation.
  Additionally, his department has raised over $160 million for the 
United Negro College Fund and he founded the ``Budweiser Jammin' for 
Education Fund'' a major provider of college scholarship funds for our 
nation's urban youth. Literally hundreds of organizations have 
benefited greatly from Wayman's assistance, including the Congressional 
Black Caucus Foundation, which received a direct contribution from 
Wayman Smith to help pay off the mortgage on its Washington, D.C. 
headquarters.
  In addition to his professional responsibilities, Wayman Smith has 
always been a leader in community involvement. He founded and chairs 
the African American Initiative for the United Way: a program that has 
raised millions of dollars for worthwhile charities in the St. Louis 
Metropolitan Area. Wayman is also Chairman of the Board of Regents for 
one of our nation's historically black educational institutions, 
Harris-Stowe State College, and serves on the Howard University Board 
of Trustees where he is also Chairman Emeritus. Wayman Smith also 
participates on the boards of the St. Louis Gateway Classic Foundation, 
the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Rankin Technical College, 
the NAACP Special Contributions Fund, and the United Way of Greater St. 
Louis.
  Now after twenty years at the corporate helm, Wayman plans to enjoy 
his early retirement from Anheuser Busch by returning to his first 
love, private legal practice. This summer, Wayman will rejoin his 
brother, Christopher M. Smith, Sr. and six other attorneys in the Smith 
Partnership in St. Louis, where he will continue to represent Anheuser 
Busch as well as other national and international interests.
  It is my pleasure and honor to recognize Wayman F. Smith III, for the 
many contributions he has made on behalf of his beloved City of St. 
Louis, his community and his nation.

[[Page E1139]]



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