[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 95 (Monday, July 15, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1253-E1254]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 MEMORIALIZING MS. GEORGIA BALL TRAVIS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL M. HONDA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 15, 2002

  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me 
in honoring the life and work of Ms. Georgia Travis, whose amazing life 
came to a peaceful end on March 12, 2002, after 94 wonderful years. Ms. 
Travis committed her extraordinary life to the betterment of others, 
through social work, teaching, writing, and countless other endeavors, 
culminating in the creation of the Georgia Travis Center for homeless 
women and children. This shelter, along with the indelible imprint she 
left on so many lives, will stand forever as the legacy left by this 
amazing woman.
  Georgia Travis dedicated her personal and professional life to 
helping others. Born in 1908 in Kansas City, Missouri, Georgia was 
brought up in a family with a keen awareness of social injustice and 
inequity. She was taught to lend a helping hand to those in need, a 
notion that would dictate the course of her long life. After becoming 
one of the first students to earn a master's degree from the University 
of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, she began working 
in the relatively new field of medical social work, helping stress 
patients in Chicago and disabled children in Seattle. By the late 
1930s. Ms. Travis was traveling the country as a consultant for the new 
Washington, DC, based Crippled Children Service Department and the U.S. 
Transient Bureau. In 1953, Georgia was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship 
which sent her to Sydney, Australia, to teach. Shortly after returning 
to the States, she settled into what would eventually become her 
permanent home: the Bay Area of California.
  The State of California may never fully realize the full extent of 
Ms. Travis' contributions, but I would like to take moment to share 
some of the many highlights. By 1962, just a few years after arriving 
in the Bay Area, she was name California Social Worker of the year. A 
year later she became a professor of Social Services at San Diego State 
University, teaching graduate level courses until her retirement in 
1970. But Georgia's idea of ``retirement'' was as unconventional as it 
was prolific.
  Ms. Travis lived in retirement with the same spirit and ideals of her 
childhood and professional life; she could sense injustice and 
suffering, create solutions, and see the process through to the end. 
After the passing of her mother in 1971. Georgia found solace and 
balance in the Quaker faith, and became a member of the Quaker Society 
of Friends. Strengthened by her new faith, Georgia focused her efforts 
on the plight of the homeless community, a pursuit that would lead her 
to some of the biggest accomplishments of her life. She started out 
with fundamentals like providing meals at the Family Center in Agnews 
Hospital and distributing clothing at the Family Shelter in East San 
Jose. Then, with the help of the American Association of University 
Women, Georgia organized a committee that develops and provides the 
homeless, especially women and children, with improved services and 
outreach. She convinced Stanford University to conduct a major study on 
homeless children, and helped initiate educational programs for the 
children as well. Mr. Speaker, the list of her successes, of the 
tangible changes she made for thousands of people, is far too long to 
describe here. But I would like to make note of perhaps her greatest 
accomplishment of all: the establishment of the Georgia Travis Center.
  In 1992, the nonprofit San Jose shelter agency InnVision honored the 
wishes of Ms. Travis by opening a new shelter for homeless

[[Page E1254]]

women and children, to be named after the woman who perhaps had done 
more for their cause than anyone else in the city's history. At the 
Center, volunteers help women and children get back on their feet by 
providing meals, medical care, childhood-development courses, and 
classes on computers and career planning. The Center provides them not 
only with new hope for the future, but a sense of a security and value 
that may have been taken away from them when their homes were lost. 
Ever humble, Ms. Travis was embarrased by the attention of having her 
name immortalized, but the Georgia Travis Center will forever be a 
working tribute to Georgia's insatiable desire to empower, enlighten, 
and improve the lives of those in need of help.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to mourn the loss of a friend and a role 
model. I had many opportunities to work with Ms. Travis, and what 
amazed me most about her was the ability she had to instill in others 
the same passion and resolve that she herself had in everything she set 
out to accomplish. The Bay Area should feel fortunate to be chosen as 
the beneficiary of her great works, and I personally feel fortunate to 
represent a district so deeply touched by her.

                          ____________________