[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 126 (Thursday, October 7, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1828]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             TRIBUTE TO THE HONORABLE DONALD GLENN BROTZMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOEL HEFLEY

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, October 6, 2004

  Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker. I rise today to recognize and remember the 
life of former Republican Congressman Donald Brotzman of Colorado, who 
recently passed away at the age of 82. Congressman Brotzman honorably 
represented Colorado's second Congressional District from 1962 through 
1975, during some of this great nation's most tumultuous and trying 
times.
  He was born June 28, 1922 on a farm in Logan County, on Colorado's 
eastern plains. Both a musician and three-sport athlete at Sterling 
High School, Don Brotzman won a football scholarship in 1939 to the 
University of Colorado in Boulder where he was an all-conference center 
and varsity letter-winner in shot put and discus.
  As war continued to rage on the other side of the world, Don Brotzman 
delayed his education and served as an Army officer in Yokohama, Japan, 
and the Philippines through World War II. Following the end of the war, 
he returned to Boulder to complete degrees in business and law in 1949.
  Mr. Brotzman began working as a lawyer in Boulder in 1950, and was 
elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 1952 and later the 
State Senate. Local media named him the outstanding freshman member in 
both chambers.
  By 1959, he was appointed United States Attorney for Colorado by 
President Eisenhower and served as such until he was elected to the 
U.S. House of Representatives in 1962, where he was voted president of 
his freshman class.
  Congressman Brotzman served five terms and helped to shape laws such 
as the Clean Air Act and the Public Broadcasting Act. He reached across 
the aisle to champion causes such as the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area 
west of Boulder, a national program to help runaway youth and a tax 
credit for higher-education expenses. Despite serving on the minority 
side of the aisle, he successfully found the funds to complete the 
Chatfield Dam and Reservoir, and sponsored the bill authorizing the 
building of Bear Creek Dam and Reservoir in Colorado.
  Furthermore, he persuaded the Johnson Administration to sponsor a 
study that eventually changed the Army's environmental practices at the 
Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Adam's County, Colorado, and he was one of 
the first members of Congress to call for an all-volunteer military.
  Colorado lost a great friend and a tremendous leader when it lost 
Donald Brotzman. His strong western values and commitment to always do 
what was right, despite partisan interests and outside persuasion, has 
continued to serve as a great example.

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