[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 127 (Monday, November 13, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2010-E2012]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     A TRIBUTE TO PAUL DE LA GARZA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. C.W. BILL YOUNG

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, November 13, 2006

  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Paul de 
la Garza, a hard charging newspaper reporter for The St. Petersburg 
Times with a generous heart of gold who died on October 29, 2006.
  Many of our colleagues worked with Paul as he reported on stories 
affecting our national security and the health care of our country's 
veterans. Paul was an outstanding investigative reporter who mined his 
many sources to effect necessary changes in the way in which we deliver 
medical care at our Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers. He 
also spent time earlier this summer in Iraq as he did extensive 
reporting on the war there and the role U.S. Central Command plays in 
managing our troops on the ground.
  Paul was more than a reporter though. He was first and foremost an 
outstanding husband to his wife Georgia and a loving father to his two 
children Monica, 12, and Carlos, 11, both of whom he adopted from 
Mexico.
  His is the story of the American dream, growing up poor in a small 
Texas town. He worked 40 hour weeks as a fourth grader to help out his 
family. Later he delivered newspapers and waited tables to put himself 
through college at the University of Texas. He was a reporter with the 
Associated Press and Chicago Tribune before becoming a regular on the 
front pages of The St. Petersburg Times as a reporter in the Washington 
and Tampa bureaus.
  Following my remarks, Mr. Speaker, I would like to include tributes 
to Paul from The St. Petersburg Times, The Tampa Tribune and The 
Chicago Tribune. They speak to Paul's success as a reporter but more 
importantly his compassion and love for his family, his friends, and 
for those most in need of help.
  Mr. Speaker, I knew Paul de la Garza as a reporter, but I will 
forever miss him as a very special friend who always kept life's 
priorities in order. My prayers go out to Paul's family, especially to 
Georgia, Monica and Carlos, as they deal with the loss of a great man, 
a great husband and a great father.

             [From the St. Petersburg Times, Oct. 30, 2006]

              Passionate Reporter ``Never Met A Stranger''

       Paul de la Garza, a hard-driving St. Petersburg Times 
     reporter whose passion for the big story was matched by love 
     of family, died Sunday (Oct. 29, 2006) after an apparent 
     heart attack.
       Mr. de la Garza, 44, who had survived a heart attack 2 
     years ago, collapsed at his Davis Islands home about 10 a.m. 
     after complaining of chest pains. He was taken by ambulance 
     to Tampa General Hospital, where he died about 1 p.m.
       As a journalist, Mr. de la Garza was widely respected for 
     mining sources and breaking big stories, most recently about 
     VA hospitals and the Special Operations Command at MacDill 
     Air Force Base.
       ``He was a driving investigative reporter. This is very 
     shocking,'' said U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, a frequent source 
     for Mr. de la Garza, sometimes dinner companion and 
     occasional target. ``He was very respected by the folks I 
     know. They trusted him.''
       Young's wife, Beverly, recalled tears running down de la 
     Garza's face, as she led him through VA wards full of wounded 
     soldiers.
       ``Paul is really compassionate. He really cares,'' she said 
     Sunday. ``He's the most wonderful Democrat I ever knew. I 
     can't believe this has happened to him and Georgia and the 
     kids. This is wrong.''


                            Texas upbringing

       Mr. de la Garza was born in Port Isabel, Texas, near 
     Brownsville, one of six children.
       His father was a shrimper and his heritage was Mexican, 
     though he sometimes pointed out that some ancestors lived in 
     Texas before the United States annexed it. His given name was 
     Jesus Pablo, but friends called him Jesus only when they 
     wanted to annoy him.
       By fourth grade, he was working 40 hours a week, collecting 
     bait for fishermen, his wife, Georgia, said.

[[Page E2011]]

       He waited tables and worked at the school newspaper to earn 
     his way through the University of Texas. Then he worked his 
     way up the ranks of the Associated Press, with stints in 
     Chicago, Southern Illinois and Newark, N.J.
       Mike Konrad, now Hernando Times editor, was managing editor 
     of the Southern Illinoisan, in Carbondale, when Mr. de la 
     Garza was posted there for the AP.
       ``This was a guy who could work sources like nobody I've 
     ever seen in my life,'' Konrad recalled. ``Within weeks of 
     getting there, he was getting stories our reporters were 
     missing, just because he had met so many people. And there 
     was nobody in the world who would not talk to Paul.''
       Sometimes, boldness and charm was all it took. As the 
     Chicago Tribune's Mexico City bureau chief, Mr. de la Garza 
     interviewed Latin American presidents and rebel leaders 
     alike. On assignment in Cuba, he ran into Milton Berle and 
     asked him for a cigar-smoking lesson.
       ``I still have the cigar box that Milton Berle signed for 
     him,'' said Georgia de la Garza. ``They smoked Cohibas 
     together.''
       Once, when Mr. de la Garza was vacationing in New Orleans, 
     a limousine driver pointed out Fats Domino's house. Mr. de la 
     Garza jumped out with a video camera and talked his way in, 
     where Domino's band was practicing for a Jazz Fest 
     performance. Fats, himself, stayed in back of the house.
       ``Paul never met a stranger,'' recalled Times colleague Tom 
     Scherberger, who witnessed the scene. ``He introduces himself 
     and we are hanging out with Fats Domino's band. Finally, one 
     of the band politely says that Fats won't come out until we 
     leave. Only later, did we discover that Paul had pushed the 
     button wrong on the camera and we never got any video.''
       Mr. de la Garza first worked at the Times from 1992 through 
     1994, where he covered Tampa police news, wrote a column, and 
     helped edit the Tampa section.
       Then he worked for the Chicago Tribune for six years, both 
     in Mexico City and in Chicago, where he was a reporter and 
     assignments editor.
       He returned to the Times in 2000, in part, because he and 
     his wife wanted a more stable environment for two orphans 
     they had adopted in Mexico City--Monica, now 12, and Carlos, 
     11.
       ``The two things he cared the most about were his family 
     and his work,'' said John Dunn, longtime friend and Tampa 
     General spokesman. ``Just about every conversation we had 
     sitting over pints were about Georgia and the kids.
       ``No matter how bad a day he had, that put him in good 
     spirits.''
       It wasn't just the children. The de la Garza house often 
     was opened to extended family. When Georgia's brother died, 
     they took in her niece. When Paul's father had a stroke, they 
     took in his parents.
       During his second stint at the Times, Mr. de la Garza 
     covered the Pentagon, the military and veterans affairs. Last 
     summer, he wrote a detailed, insider's look at Army Gen. John 
     Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, as he toured 
     Afghanistan and Iraq.
       ``This is a heartbreaking loss. He really went after 
     stories because they would make a difference in the lives of 
     goodhearted folks,'' said Paul Tash, Times editor, chairman 
     and CEO. ``He had so much to offer both as a father and 
     husband and also as a reporter.''


                            Cancer survivor

       In 2001, Mr. de la Garza was diagnosed with Hodgkin's 
     disease and underwent extensive cancer treatments. After 2 
     years with no recurrence, he and his wife rented a B&B in his 
     beloved New Orleans and celebrated with about 40 friends from 
     around the country. One photograph shows him in a colorful 
     hat, a Jazz Fest scarf around his neck and sunglasses.
       ``Paul the journalist was very different than Paul, the 
     regular guy,'' recalled Sandra Gadsden, the Neighborhood 
     Times editor.
       ``The journalist was a stickler for detail. He would hang 
     on every sentence. Paul the man was just a fun-loving laid-
     back guy.''
       Mr. de la Garza is survived by his wife; daughter Monica 
     and son Carlos: mother, Jesusa de la Garza and sister Via 
     Camacho, both of Austin, Texas, and brothers Eduardo of 
     Houston and Alberto of Galveston, Texas.
       Funeral services have not been set.
                                  ____


                [From the Tampa Tribune, Oct. 30, 2006]

                     Times' Military Reporter Dies

                            (By Mark Holan)

       Tampa.--Paul de la Garza, military and veterans affairs 
     reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, died Sunday of an 
     apparent heart attack. He was 44.
       A cancer survivor, de la Garza was described by his friend 
     and editor, Pat Farnan, as a strong reporter who enjoyed 
     spending time with his family.
       He is survived by his wife, Georgia, and two children, 
     Carlos and Monica.
       For a September profile of Army Gen. John Abizaid, de la 
     Garza spent five days traveling in the Persian Gulf, 
     Afghanistan and Iraq.
       ``Paul was definitely among the more assertive, if not 
     industrious, journalists who had the military beat,'' said 
     Lt. Col. Mike Escudie, media affairs officer for Central 
     Command. He said the Abizaid profile got good reviews from 
     the military.
       ``It was a testament to his professionalism,'' Escudie 
     said.
       ``He had tremendous passion for his work,'' said Farnan, 
     the Times' interim metro editor who supervised de la Garza in 
     recent years.
       De la Garza joined the Times' Tampa bureau in 1992 after 
     eight years of reporting for The Associated Press. He left to 
     work as a Mexico City correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, 
     then rejoined the Times in August 2000 in Washington, DC, as 
     the national security and foreign affairs reporter. He later 
     returned to Tampa and lived on Davis Islands.
       De la Garza earned a bachelor's degree from the University 
     of Texas in Austin.
       In June 2002, de la Garza was diagnosed with Hodgkin's 
     disease, a form of cancer. Soon he was physically and 
     mentally worn out by his chemo treatments.
       A five-minute meeting at the White House that September 
     with cancer survivor and Tour de France champion Lance 
     Armstrong, a fellow Texan, led the reporter to an unexpected 
     inspiration for his recovery.
       ``I don't have to turn to the rich and famous, to the 
     heroes of the sports world, to get me through the anxiety, 
     the depression, the fear of the what-ifs,'' de la Garza wrote 
     in the Times. ``My heroes are right in front of me, ordinary 
     folks who every day make my life better.''
                                  ____


               [From the Chicago Tribune, Oct. 30, 2006]

                      Journalist Known for Empathy

                 (By Flynn McRoberts and Tonya Maxwell)

       Paul de la Garza, the son of a shrimper who rose from the 
     poverty of south Texas to become a columnist and foreign 
     correspondent for some of America's top news organizations, 
     died of a heart attack Sunday in his Tampa home.
       Mr. de la Garza, 44, drew on his modest circumstances to 
     bring an empathy to his stories for the Chicago Tribune, the 
     St. Petersburg Times of Florida and the Associated Press. 
     Whether it was revealing computer-system fiasco at the 
     Department of Veterans Affairs or chronicling the ragged life 
     of a street vendor on Chicago's West Side, Mr. de la Garza 
     cared intensely about the people he wrote about, said his 
     wife, Georgia.
       Mr. de la Garza spent more than two decades in journalism, 
     working as a police reporter, a wire-service editor, a 
     columnist and a foreign correspondent. Most recently, he was 
     a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, where his stories 
     about the VA's troubled computer system resulted in the 
     massive project being shut down.
       ``He always wanted to get to the truth. He was very 
     passionate about it,'' his wife said. Of his VA coverage, he 
     had recently told her: ``I know I've made a lot of headway, 
     but there's so much more to do--so much more to do.''
       Last month, the St. Petersburg Times published Mr. de la 
     Garza's account of visiting Qatar in July with Army Gen. John 
     P. Abizaid, Commander of U.S. Central Command. Mr. de la 
     Garza had been trying to accompany the general for years, 
     said Mike Konrad, an editor at the St. Petersburg Times and 
     friend since 1986, when the men met as journalists in 
     Carbondale, IL. ``It was one of his coups,'' Konrad said. 
     ``He told me when he came back how the general told his staff 
     to give him access to everything on the trip.''
       As a journalist, Mr. de la Garza was a master at 
     cultivating sources and connecting with people, be they 
     office workers, political figures or top generals, Konrad 
     said.
       ``He'd been writing a lot about problems at the VA, it was 
     so symbolic of the type of work he did. He really believed in 
     the mission of journalism. When he saw wrongs, he really 
     wanted to make them right. He wanted to expose wrongdoing.''
       Mr. de la Garza was born in Port Isabel, Texas, where his 
     father was a shrimper and his mother worked as a hotel maid.
       He began working in the 4th grade, selling bait to 
     shrimpers along the Gulf of Mexico waters off South Texas. 
     One of six children, Mr. de la Garza, known as Chuy to 
     friends and family, first considered writing as a career in 
     junior high school.
       Intending to study political science at the University of 
     Texas at Austin, Mr. de la Garza took a journalism class and 
     loved it. He worked as a reporter and editor at the student 
     paper and then was offered a job in the Chicago bureau of the 
     Associated Press.
       ``He had a nickel in his pocket when the AP offered him a 
     job,'' his wife said. ``His mom bought him a suit at Sears, 
     and his brother gave him the money to fly to Chicago. When he 
     first got there, he slept on his trench coat until he got his 
     first paycheck. And some colleagues at the bureau gave him 
     furniture.''
       Mr. de la Garza met his wife, a chef and artist, while he 
     was working in southern Illinois for the Associated Press. 
     She said she fell in love with him on their first date, 
     Valentine's Day, when he serenaded her at a restaurant. In 
     1994, Mr. de la Garza came to the Chicago Tribune as a metro 
     reporter, and later became a foreign correspondent in the 
     Mexico City bureau, an assignment he relished, said George de 
     Lama, then the associate managing editor for foreign and 
     national news.
       ``Paul was someone who was always willing to do any story 
     no matter where it took him. He was one of the first Latinos 
     on our staff to be a foreign correspondent,'' said de Lama, 
     now deputy managing editor, news. ``Paul loved being a 
     foreign correspondent, where the assignment is more of a life 
     than it is a job. I think he was happiest when he was living 
     that life on the road looking for stories.'' While serving as 
     the Tribune's Mexico City bureau chief, Mr. de la Garza and 
     his

[[Page E2012]]

     wife adopted two children in 2000--Monica, now 12, and 
     Carlos, 11.
       He left the Tribune in 2000 and moved to Washington, DC, to 
     return to work for the St. Petersburg Times before moving to 
     the newspaper's Tampa bureau.
       A jazz music fan, Mr. de la Garza made an annual pilgrimage 
     to the New Orleans jazz fest with a group of acquaintances. 
     One of those festivals stood out for friends and family: the 
     2003 version, when loved ones converged from around the 
     country to celebrate Mr. de la Garza's having beaten 
     Hodgkin's lymphoma.
       In addition to his wife and children, Mr. de la Garza is 
     survived by his mother, Jesusa, two brothers and a sister. 
     Services are pending.

                          ____________________