[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 151 (Tuesday, November 15, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2356-E2357]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   A TRIBUTE TO DR. HERBERT K. ABRAMS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. RAUL M. GRIJALVA

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 15, 2005

  Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Dr. Herbert 
K. Abrams, a life-long Champion of health care for all.
  Dr. Abrams has been a particular example to me. He arrived in Tucson 
in 1968, about the time I was marching in the streets with other 
Chicanos asking for better health-care and recreation facilities. 
Within a few years, he had shown those of us in the protest movement 
that a big heart, intelligence, patience and persistence could convince 
a government to respond to the needs of the people. I will forever be 
grateful to him for that quiet leadership.
  Dr. Abrams was hired by Dr. Monte DuVal, founding dean of the 
University of Arizona's College of Medicine, to create what became the 
Department of Family and Community Medicine. He also acquired federal 
funding for the El Rio Santa Cruz Neighborhood Health Center.
  In each case, he prepared a foundation for growth.
  In the early 1970s, he organized family practice clinics in what were 
then the small towns of Marana, Benson and Casa Grande. Today, his 
philosophy of taking medical care to those outside metropolitan areas 
is vested in the department's Rural Health Program, which supports 
rural clinics and family practice by young doctors.
  Back in Tucson, the clinic Dr. Abrams helped create has shortened its 
name to El Rio Health Clinic, but expanded its service to 11 locations. 
El Rio was designed to serve the poor; it continues with that emphasis 
today, but is open to all with a sliding fee schedule.
  Through the years, he also has been a significant supporter during 
difficult times for E1 Pueblo Clinic and the Pima County-owned Kino 
Community Hospital, now known as University Physicians Healthcare (UPH) 
Hospital at Kino Campus.
  His impact on medical care has been recognized with the naming of two 
buildings in his honor. One is the College of Medicine building that 
houses the department he founded. The other will be visible next fall 
when construction is completed on the $28 million Herbert K. Abrams 
Public Health Center on the Kino Campus.
  Dr. Abrams came to Tucson already a recognized health-service 
pioneer. He had spent the preceding 16 years in Chicago, where he 
established the Martin Luther King Neighborhood Health Center and the 
40,000-member Union Health Service, an early-day health maintenance 
organization that last year celebrated its 50th anniversary.
  More than 60 of his scientific papers have been published. Many of 
them examined occupational medicine, and he has performed specific 
research on farm workers and pesticides and on the use of the short-
handled hoe.
  Dr. Abrams is known internationally, having worked, consulted or 
performed research in China, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, 
Israel and Papua New Guinea. He was a commissioned officer in the U.S. 
Public Health

[[Page E2357]]

Service from 1942 to 1946 and served two years of that time training 
medical officers and working on a cholera control team and as area 
medical rehabilitation officer in China. He returned to China on at 
least six other occasions, including earlier this year when he again 
met with medical colleagues he had first known 60 years ago. He has 
studied occupational and environmental health along the U.S.-Mexico 
border, and has consulted for the World Health Organization.
  Dr. Abrams received degrees of Doctor of Medicine and Master of 
Science from the University of Illinois in 1940 and a Master of Public 
Health from Johns Hopkins University in 1947. He received his 
bachelor's degree from Northwestern University in 1936.
  Through the years, Dr. Abrams, 92, has pursued his goals with a soft 
voice and a smile. He knows that this nation still does not provide 
health care for all, and last year wrote an op-ed article reminding 
Tucson newspaper readers that 45 million Americans remain without 
health insurance.
  A poster on a wall in his office asks: ``Whatever happened to health 
care for the poor?'' Dr. Abrams answered the question for Arizona Daily 
Star reporter Jane Erikson earlier this year, saying: ``Not much . . . 
we still have a long ways to go . . .''

                          ____________________