[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 74 (Friday, June 7, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E990-E991]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO HELEN THORP STREET

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 6, 2002

  Mr. UDALL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Helen Thorp 
Street, a citizen of Colorado. Helen died on May 6, 2002 and left a 
legacy of public service and dedication to the field of law and 
community leadership.
  Helen was born in Marion, Kansas in 1912, and at nine years old, 
moved to Colorado when her widowed mother took up residence at the 
Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. These were adventurous times for Helen 
and she was inspired to branch out on her own and run away from home. 
Given streetcar fare by the hotel's bellman, she traveled for about an 
hour, had a change of heart and returned to the safety of her historic 
residence and its protective staff.
  Helen graduated from The Kent School for Girls in 1929 and traveled 
east by train to study at Vassar College, where she received a Bachelor 
of Arts degree in 1932. She was also a student at the Sorbonne in 
Paris. She returned to Denver, and in 1936, began her legal studies at 
the Westminster College of Law at the University of Denver, above the 
Mapelli Meat Market, where she graduated with honors in 1939. She 
received the top score on the Colorado bar examination in 1940, but no 
firm in Colorado would hire her. Law was a man's profession and no one 
would give her a job.
  In 1940, Helen joined the University of Denver's law school faculty, 
becoming the first woman in the United States to teach at an accredited 
law school. She represented indigent clients at the Legal Aid Society 
of Denver and after World War II, began a solo practice in the estates 
and trusts Field.
  Helen married John Campbell Street, a West Point graduate and 
attorney from Alabama in 1942, and their daughter, Kimbrough Street 
Schneider, an estates and trusts attorney in Seattle, Washington, 
survives them.
  For over 50 years, Helen was an active volunteer for many of Denver's 
charitable and

[[Page E991]]

civic entities. She served on the Board of the Legal Aid Society of 
Denver. She also served on the Board of the Community Chest, the 
predecessor of the United Way, was an active volunteer of the Margery 
Reed Mayo Nursery and helped reorganize the Denver Orphans' Home into 
the Denver Children's Home, serving on its board for six years.
  Her longest and most significant association was with the Denver 
Symphony Association. She joined the Board in 1964, serving in many 
leadership roles. She became president and chairman of the Board from 
1979-1982. One of her most significant symphony contributions was never 
known or recognized by the public. When the Symphony's founder, Helen 
Black was ready to retire, the orchestra did not have the money to give 
her a pension. Helen Street picked up the telephone and in one 
afternoon raised sufficient monies to fund Miss Black's pension.
  Helen also served on the Board of the Children's Hospital, was active 
in the Central City Opera House Association and recorded law books for 
Recording for the Blind.
  Among her many awards and honors for community service were the 
Distinguished Service Award conferred upon her by the Denver Rotary 
Club Foundation in 1983 and the Mary Lathrop Trailblazer Award in 1991 
from the Colorado Woman's Bar Association. Never one to withhold her 
opinions, in her acceptance speech to the event's attendees, she was 
bluntly critical of lawyers and their emphasis on billing. ``Your fees 
are much too high!'' she told the Bar's members.
  Colorado is a better place because of Helen Thorp Street. I applaud 
this remarkable woman and the legacy she has left our state, the 
practice of law and the example she set for community activists 
throughout our country. She will be missed by us all.

                          ____________________