[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 30 (Thursday, March 9, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E341]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN MEMORY OF HELEN MARY WILLIAMS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 9, 2006

  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Helen Mary 
Williams. Helen Mary passed away on Tuesday, January 10, 2006. She will 
be missed dearly by countless members of the community which she served 
so thoughtfully over the past 30 years.
  Helen Mary was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up during the Great 
Depression. She attended Coe College and graduated Cum Laude in 1942 
with a Bachelor's degree in Speech. While in college, she volunteered 
for her local radio station, becoming one of the first women in Iowa to 
be on the radio. She went on to become Assistant Program Director at 
WIND in Gary, Indiana. Later, she moved back to Chicago where she was a 
writer and broadcaster for CBS.
  In the late 1950s, Mrs. Williams decided to become a teacher and she 
made her way to Pasadena, California. As a science teacher at Cleveland 
Elementary School, Mrs. Williams founded the Junior Audubon Science 
Club in 1959. The Club was dedicated to teaching inner-city youth about 
nature. With the help of community activists and involved parents, the 
science club expanded and was renamed Outward Bound Adventures (OBA) 
and incorporated as a nonprofit environmental educational youth 
organization. When asked about the beginnings of OBA, Mrs. Williams 
said, ``It was really laughable when we started doing these trips back 
in 1959 and 1960. None of the leaders had done much in the way of High 
Sierra trips, so we goofed a bit. But we also learned. And now we found 
out that kids are basically kids; by that I mean, they respond well to 
positive reinforcement both inside and outside the classroom.''
  Mrs. Williams knew that OBA was exactly the type of program that 
every inner-city youth should have available to them, and by 1969, Mrs. 
Williams and OBA had served over 20,000 urban youth. Helen Mary 
Williams was a visionary. She had faith that people would believe in 
her vision; she had faith that every child could learn and improve 
academic and social skills by being exposed to the wonders of the great 
outdoors. Mrs. Williams served on the OBA Board of Directors until her 
death and received many awards throughout her career. The time and 
energy she gave to children and their parents was remarkable. Helen 
Mary leaves behind more than 30,000 youth and adults whose lives have 
been forever changed.
  I ask all Members of the United States House of Representatives to 
join me today in honoring the life of Helen Mary Williams.

                          ____________________