[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 3, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1117]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          IN MEMORY OF MICHAEL J. HANDY: THE VETERANS' VETERAN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 3, 2003

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in tribute to Michael J. Handy, 
Director of the Mayor's Office of Veterans' Affairs in the City of New 
York. Mr. Handy died on May 31 from a heart attack. He was 55 years 
old.
  Mr. Handy was first appointed to head the Mayor's Office of Veterans' 
Affairs by Mayor David Dinkins in the late 1980's, and was reappointed 
to that position by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
  For Mr. Handy, service to veterans was not a partisan issue. Indeed, 
he was New York's Veterans' Veteran, having dedicated 30 years of his 
professional life to assisting the men and women who had served in our 
Nation's Armed Forces.
  He had served in Vietnam as an enlisted man in the Air Force. But as 
his loving wife Edna has pointed out, Mr. Handy's service after the 
war, and to the very end, was a response to a call that struck him so 
deeply that it became central to his life. For him, working for and 
with veterans was not so much a job, or a political office, it was a 
passion.
  I first began working with Mr. Handy in the late 1980's when he 
became involved with the Congressional Black Caucus Veterans 
Braintrust, which I chaired. Mr. Handy became a fixture at those annual 
meetings which convened each September during the Black Caucus' Annual 
Legislative Conference.
  Mr. Handy was one of the very first advocates for federally assisted 
housing for disabled and veterans, which culminated eventually in a 
program to provide such housing, administered by the Department of 
Housing and Urban Development and the Veterans' Administration.
  In his later years, Mr. Handy was a persistent advocate for raising 
the benefits received by Reservists and National Guardsmen to equal 
those of active duty soldiers. His voice in that area has been heard in 
Washington, where Democrats in Congress are pushing such legislation.
  Mr. Handy, a native New Yorker, was a lively, kind and gentle man 
whose service to New York City's veterans, including those residing in 
my Congressional District, I will never forget. He followed his 
vocation with the greatest enthusiasm, attending every parade, every 
meeting, every dedication, in the hope that somehow his presence would 
make a difference for his constituents which numbered more than half a 
million veterans in the city and nearly 400 veterans organizations.
  Mr. Handy, in his Director's statement at the Office of Veterans' 
Affairs, described New York as a city of ``patriotic Americans--men and 
women--who have put themselves in harm's way to preserve our way of 
life. We owe those who wear, and those who wore, the uniform of the 
United States of America a debt of gratitude for their service and 
their sacrifice.''
  Mr. Speaker, we all owe Michael Handy a comparable debt. We thank and 
commend him. And we pray that you will ease the pain of his loss being 
endured by his dear wife Edna, his loving daughters, extended family 
and his many friends.

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