[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 71 (Tuesday, June 4, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S4955]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO KEITH E. BAILEY

  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I rise today to honor a true friend of 
Oklahoma and the energy industry and a true friend of mine. Keith 
Bailey, chairman of the Williams Companies, retired last month after 
leading that company for the last 29 years. Keith is a man of energy, 
of generosity and compassion, whose values have shaped Williams and set 
a tone of integrity, creativity and vision for the industry throughout 
his career. From his office in Tulsa, OK, Keith has run a global energy 
company with a full spectrum of energy products, services and 
operations. He has also championed innovation in the telecommunications 
industry, overseeing the building of a nationwide communications 
network, which sprang from the use of the company's former oil pipeline 
assets.
  Keith is a respected leader in the energy industry and in the Tulsa 
community. His view of corporate and personal success has always 
included support for people, education and charitable causes. He has 
energetically gone about the business of supporting his community and 
his neighbors in a quiet way, but in a measurable one. His 
contributions of time, money and expertise have benefited hundreds in 
Tulsa, in Oklahoma and thousands nationally. Keith has also provided 
leadership serving the United Way, both as campaign and board chair of 
the Tulsa area, and on the United Way of America's Board of Governors. 
He has also served as the chair of the Board of Trustees at the 
University of Tulsa, board chair for the Philbrook Museum of Art and 
the Board of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Recently, 
he sponsored the buffalo mural project, which now adorns the capitol 
building in Oklahoma City.
  Keith places a high value on education. He served as a member of 
President George W. Bush's transition team on education. He has served 
on the Education Task Force of the Business Roundtable and is currently 
the chair of the National Alliance of Business and on the Board of 
AEGIS. He was actively engaged in promoting the President's education 
reform package. Three of his four children are educators, one of them 
teaching in Oklahoma.
  Keith has been instrumental in the growth of Williams. He joined 
Williams in 1973 and was named Chairman of the Board in 1994, when the 
company's assets totaled $5 billion. Today assets stand at $38 billion. 
Shareholders have enjoyed a 790 percent return from 1990 to 2001. The 
company is listed at number 174 on the ``Fortune 500'' list this year. 
On Bailey's watch, the company has grown to be the Nation's third 
largest marketer of natural gas; a top 10 power marketer; North 
America's second largest natural gas gatherer and producer; possessor 
of the largest petroleum storage facilities in North America; a top 10 
independent energy producer; and second largest gas pipeline 
transporter in the Nation.
  I know that for all his business achievements, shareholder return and 
asset growth, Keith Bailey clearly would like to be remembered in more 
humanistic terms. Bailey has said, ``when I think of my time at 
Williams, I don't think of the deals. I think of people.'' Keith Bailey 
lives the core values and beliefs of the company every day. I know he 
will be missed.

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