[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 49 (Thursday, April 21, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H2457]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TRIBUTE TO THE LATE MAYOR RICHARD J. DALEY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the 
greatest public servant and political leader the City of Chicago has 
ever produced, the late Mayor Richard J. Daley.
  Mayor Daley, who passed away in 1976, was elected and inaugurated to 
his first term as mayor 50 years ago this month. It is not an 
overstatement to say that the Chicago most of the world recognizes 
today is a legacy of Mayor Daley. In his 21 years in office, Mayor 
Daley earned the nickname Dick the Builder, as he helped guide the 
construction of the Sears Tower, O'Hare Airport, the John Hancock 
building, Chicago's expressway system, McCormick Place, twice, and 
dozens of other renowned landmarks synonymous with the city. Richard J. 
Daley turned the city of Al Capone and pork bellies into the world 
capital of Mies Van der Rohe and jet travel.
  The great Chicago songwriter Steve Goodman put it this way in a 
tribute song: ``When it came to building big buildings, no job was too 
tough. Daley built McCormick place twice because once was not enough.''
  Last night, Richard J. Daley's memory was honored at a dinner by 
those who knew and worked with him as well as by individuals who simply 
wanted to celebrate the legacy of this great American leader. 
Appropriately, events took place on the campus of the University of 
Illinois at Chicago, UIC, which the mayor felt was his greatest 
achievement. So strong was his commitment to education that for nearly 
30 years, from his days in the Illinois General Assembly in the 1930s 
until the completion of UIC in the 1960s, Richard J. Daley fought to 
bring a branch campus of our State's world-class public university to 
the people of Chicago and the region.
  The mayor's achievements were not limited to the city's skyline. He 
was a political leader who others, such as Presidents John F. Kennedy 
and Lyndon Baynes Johnson, counted on not only for support but good 
advice on important issues of the day.
  Mayor Daley was truly a self-made man. Before he was the leader of 
one of the world's great cities, he was a kid from the Bridgeport 
neighborhood who put himself through college and law school working as 
a cowboy at the famous Union Stockyards. As a State legislator in the 
1930s, he married a lovely young woman from Bridgeport named Eleanor 
``Sis'' Guilfoyle, with whom he raised seven outstanding children, 
including Richard M. Daley, the current mayor of Chicago; John Daley, 
chairman of the Committee on Finance of the Cook County Board and 
Democratic Committeeman of the 11th Ward; and William Daley, former 
U.S. Commerce Secretary. However, Mayor and Mrs. Daley were as proud of 
their children who pursued careers in teaching and homemaking as they 
were of their sons involved in public service.
  I had the honor to meet Mayor Daley once as a young man. After my 
father's inauguration as a Chicago alderman in 1975, our family met the 
mayor and Mrs. Daley at a reception. As the young Alderman Lipinski 
shook Mayor Daley's hand, it seemed the mayor did not recognize him, 
until the ever-observant and ever-gracious Sis Daley gently reminded 
the mayor who the gentleman in front of him was.
  Like all great leaders, Richard J. Daley had his share of setbacks 
and critics, but his legacy was and is Chicago's reputation, the City 
That Works. Mr. Speaker, let us not forget this legacy on the 50th 
anniversary of Mayor Richard J. Daley's inauguration.

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