[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 69 (Monday, May 23, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1056-E1057]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO THE LATE MARK ELMORE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DENNIS MOORE

                               of kansas

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 23, 2005

  Mr. MOORE of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Mark 
Elmore of Olathe, who worked and guided Johnson County Developmental 
Supports, JCDS, for 27 years. Sadly, Mark Elmore died Sunday, May 15, 
at the age 61. I knew Mark Elmore. He was a good and decent man.
  Based in Lenexa, JCDS is a comprehensive community service agency 
that supports Johnson County people of all ages with mental retardation 
and other developmental disabilities, along with their families. It 
provides direct services to more than 500 individuals daily. Elmore 
joined the agency as executive director in 1978. His leadership moved 
the agency from a period in the late 1970s, when staff cutbacks were a 
reality and financial stability was threatened, to the steady growth 
and fiscal solvency JCDS enjoys today.
  Annabeth Surbaugh, chairman of the Johnson County Board of 
Commissioners, led the Johnson County community in mourning the death 
of this dedicated and well respected leader. As she stated publicly on 
learning of his death, Mark Elmore's commitment to JCDS was total. He 
took tremendous pride in the accomplishments of JCDS, leading the 
highly recognized agency through nine consecutive 3-year national 
accreditation awards. His self-imposed job description included doing 
whatever was needed to provide the best services and programs to 
consumers with special needs to enhance their overall quality of life.
  Chairman Surbaugh noted that in the early years of developing JCDS, 
Elmore was known to have taken clients into his own home, to visit them 
in their homes and at work, and to even shovel snow off sidewalks 
outside the facility to ensure the safe arrival of both staff and 
consumers. ``Johnson County has lost a great man with a great heart and 
a great friend. Mark Elmore was a man of high principles. His 
encouragement, dedication, and compassion for the special-needs 
community set an example for all of us,'' Surbaugh said. ``He was the 
heart and soul of JCDS.''

  Mark Elmore also was well known throughout the state of Kansas, 
becoming a driving force in creation of developmental disability 
programs and legislation in the state. Elmore was a key player in the 
development and implementation of the 1995 Developmental Disability 
Reform Act, which emphasized opportunities for integration and 
inclusion in community life. Changes ushered in by the Act have 
resulted in a continued expansion of services and supports at the local 
level, and the advance of what has now become a coordinated network of 
individual and agency service providers, which in Johnson County now 
serves nearly 1,000 individuals and families.
  In a statement, Gayle Richardson, chairperson of the JCDS Governing 
Board, spoke

[[Page E1057]]

on behalf of the agency in reacting to Elmore's death. ``If you wish to 
learn how to leave this world a better place, I commend Mark Elmore to 
you. He was not only a skilled professional, but a man beloved by his 
family, staff, and the folks he served at JCDS. He gave his heart and 
his mind to his job, and his legacy to us is a flourishing agency, 
whose mission is to enhance the lives of people with disabilities--not 
a glamour job, but a most satisfying one,'' Richardson said. ``He made 
us proud and eager to fulfill this mission. One of his last gifts was 
to work with the Board to ensure the health of JCDS beyond his term, 
which came all too soon.''
  County Manager Michael B. Press agreed. ``His life truly exemplified 
the spirit of public service: to help the needy, to succor the 
distressed, and to serve the community without regard to the necessary 
personal sacrifices required,'' he said. ``Our hearts and prayers are 
with his family at this time. He will be missed.''
  Mark Elmore is survived by his wife, Jeanette; son and daughter-in-
law, Brenton and Kirsten Elmore; daughter and son-in-law, Tracie and 
Raymond Kaiser; and two grandsons. The couple would have celebrated 
their 40th anniversary next month.
  Mr. Speaker, Johnson County has suffered a tremendous loss with the 
untimely death of Mark Elmore. I join with all Johnson Countians in 
mourning his loss, and place in the Congressional Record two articles 
from the local news media reporting on Mark Elmore's life and legacy:

               [From the Kansas City Star, May 18, 2005]

                  Advocate for the Disabled Dead at 61

       Mark Elmore, the Olathe man whose dedication and passion 
     for those with developmental disabilities spanned more than 
     three decades, died Sunday of a brain tumor. He was 61.
       As executive director of Johnson County Developmental 
     Supports, Elmore helped create landmark legislation in 
     Kansas. The new laws allowed those with mental and physical 
     challenges to live in their own homes and learn life skills 
     vital to landing a job, making friends and finding meaning in 
     life.
       ``He gave his heart and mind to this job,'' said Gayle 
     Richardson, chairwoman of the support group's board of 
     directors. ``His legacy to us is a flourishing agency.''
       ``Flourishing'' was not the adjective Elmore would have 
     chosen 27 years ago.
       In 1978, he was hired to turn around the agency facing deep 
     federal cuts that threatened to close its doors.
       He streamlined the agency and improved services by 
     listening to parents and their children about their desire to 
     live at home, away from sterile and impersonal institutions. 
     He found money to hire expert workers and expand services.
       When Elmore started, the agency served 66 persons. Today, 
     Johnson County Developmental Supports, also known as JCDS, 
     serves 530 clients daily and oversees aid for more than 1,300 
     residents. Its annual budget is $20 million.
       ``Johnson County has lost a great friend with a great 
     heart,'' said Annabeth Surbaugh, chairwoman of the Johnson 
     County Commission. ``Mark Elmore was the heart and soul of 
     JCDS.''
       In the early years, Elmore was known to take clients in to 
     his own home for days and weeks at a time, Surbaugh said.
       Those who knew him best describe a tireless, 36-year 
     cheerleader and fund-raiser for the developmentally disabled 
     who organized lobbying efforts in Topeka to create new laws 
     and disability programs.
       In 1996, he was the first to receive the Distinguished 
     Leadership Award from InterHab, an advocacy group he helped 
     found in 1969.
       ``His life truly exemplified the spirit of public service: 
     to help the needy . . . and to support everything fine and 
     noble,'' said Mike Press, the county manager.
       Outside of work, Elmore enjoyed home remodeling, spending 
     time in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and restoring a Model A, 
     Thunderbird and a 1965 Mustang. He had planned to retire 
     later this year.
       Last week he underwent a biopsy of a spot on his brain. 
     Surgery revealed a tumor more extensive than originally 
     thought. He lapsed into a coma and did not regain 
     consciousness.
       He is survived by his wife, Jeanette; son and daughter-in-
     law, Brenton and Kirsten Elmore; daughter and son-in-law, 
     Tracie and Raymond Kaiser; and two grandsons. The couple 
     would have celebrated their 40th anniversary next month.
       Services will be at noon Saturday at the College Church of 
     the Nazarene, 2020 E. Sheridan St., Olathe. The family 
     suggests memorial contributions to Friends of Johnson County 
     Developmental Supports, 10501 Lackman Road, Lenexa, KS 66219.
       Dennis Tucker, associate executive director of the support 
     group, will serve as interim director until a new leader is 
     named.
                                  ____


                  [From the Olathe News, May 18, 2005]

                Longtime County Executive Director Dies

                           (By Dan J. Smith)

       The man who for nearly three decades led a county agency 
     that provides care for people with developmental disabilities 
     has died.
       Olathe resident Mark Elmore helped grow Johnson County 
     Developmental Supports and had served as the organization's 
     executive director since 1978. Elmore, who was 61, died 
     Sunday at Olathe Medical Center.
       ``Mark was one of the special people that come around once 
     in a lifetime,'' said Trish Moore, Elmore's friend and 
     director of human services and aging for the county. ``He 
     believed in what he was doing, and he created programs that 
     will last and help people forever. He left a great legacy.''
       Under Elmore's leadership, JCDS earned three-year national 
     accreditations nine consecutive times and provided services 
     each day to more than 500 people with mental retardation and 
     other disabilities.
       ``He had incredible passion for what he was doing,'' Moore 
     said. ``He had wonderful ethics, and he was a great advocate. 
     He was the person that you would want as a colleague, as a 
     neighbor and as a friend.''
       Elmore opened his home to several JCDS clients during the 
     agency's infancy, said Annabeth Surbaugh, chair of the 
     Johnson County Commission.
       ``I've been here as an elected person for 13 years, and to 
     myself and many people in this county, Mark was Developmental 
     Supports,'' Surbaugh said. ``He had been there so long, and 
     he was so committed to it that it wasn't a job. It was his 
     mission in life.''
       ``If you wish to learn how to leave this world a better 
     place, I commend Mark Elmore to you,'' a written statement 
     read from Gayle Richardson, chair of the commission-appointed 
     JCDS board, which oversees the agency. ``He was not only a 
     skilled professional, but a man beloved by his family, staff 
     and the folks he served at JCDS.
       ``He made us proud and eager to fulfill his mission,'' 
     Richardson wrote. ``One of his last gifts was to work with 
     the board to ensure the health of JCDS beyond his term, which 
     came all too soon.''
       Elmore and his wife, Jeanette, would have celebrated their 
     40th wedding anniversary next month. Jeanette, two children 
     and two grandchildren survive.
       A noon funeral service is scheduled for Saturday at the 
     College Church of the Nazarene, 2020 E. Sheridan St. Penwell-
     Gabel Funeral Home is handling funeral arrangements.
       The family suggests memorial contributions to the Friends 
     of Johnson County Developmental Supports, 10501 Lackman Road.
       Dennis Tucker, associate executive director of JCDS, will 
     assume interim executive director duties until a successor is 
     named.

                          ____________________