[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 150 (Tuesday, November 19, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2106-E2107]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO NORMAN T. SCHINDLER

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 19, 2002

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in paying 
tribute to Norman T. Schindler who will celebrate his 100th birthday 
tomorrow--November 20. It is an extremely noteworthy event to mark the 
centennial of Norman's birth, but it is more important--and deserving 
of attention at any age--to acknowledge his remarkable record of public 
service.
  Norman Schindler was the son of a successful Austrian father and a 
regal Romanian mother, who left Europe to find a new life in the United 
States. Although he faced great challenges in his new country, his 
timely departure for America may have saved his life because he avoided 
the horrors of the Holocaust which took the lives of 6 million of his 
fellow Jews in Austria and elsewhere in Europe, including many of his 
own family.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Schindler's life in many ways was the America 
dream--he began as

[[Page E2107]]

an industrious eight-year-old selling fresh eggs and delivering 
packages on the streets of New York City during the era of horse-drawn 
carriages. His ambition and hard work led him to found the Nortex and 
Schindler companies, which were headquartered on the 43rd floor of the 
Empire State Building. He married his wonderful wife Fran, and they 
have enjoyed a happy 45 years together.
  His family and business success is matched by an enviable record of 
public service. Just two years after the end of the Second World War, 
his family received notification from the Government of Austria that 
they were heirs to property in the city of Vienna. In memory of the 
members of his family who were victims of the Holocaust, the family 
directed that the property be turned over the city for use as a park.
  In 1962 he established the first corporate day care and nursery 
facility in the United States for the children of working mothers at 
his manufacturing plant in Fall River, Massachusetts. Norman Schindler 
has been a leader in a number of areas, particularly since he and Fran 
established their home in Florida. He served as president of the South 
Florida Humane Society for fifteen years, was treasurer of the 
Papanicolou Cancer Research Center (now the Sylvester Cancer Center) 
for seven years, was a founder of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation of 
Miami Beach, on the board of the Hebrew Academy of Miami Beach, and 
became a ``Grand Donor'' to the Miami Beach Alzheimers Foundation.
  Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in paying tribute to 
Norman T. Schindler for his exemplary public service on the occasion of 
the centennial of his birth.

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