[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 7 (Friday, January 12, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E90-E91]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 REMEMBERING CALVIN WILLIAM VERITY, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOE WILSON

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 12, 2007

  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, former Secretary of 
Commerce Calvin William Verity Jr., 89, of Beaufort, South Carolina, 
died Wednesday, January 3, 2007, at the Beaufort Memorial Hospital. He 
was born January 26, 1917, in Middletown, Ohio, the son of Calvin 
William Verity, Sr. and Elizabeth (O'Brien) Verity.
  Secretary Verity was a graduate of the Phillips Exeter Academy and 
Yale University. He served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1942-
1946. Mr. Verity worked for Armco Steel from 1946 until his retirement 
in 1982 as CEO and Chairman of the Board. He was named Secretary of 
Commerce by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and served two years in 
that position. During the 1970s and 80s he served as Chairman of the 
U.S. Chamber of Commerce and as Chairman of the U.S.-Soviet Trade and 
Economic Council. He was also the Chairman of the Presidents Task force 
on Private Sector Initiatives under President Reagan.
  Secretary Verity is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Peggy 
``Happy'' Verity Power and J.P. Power of Edwards, Colorado; two sons 
and daughters-in-law, Jonathan George Verity and Victoria Verity of 
Beaufort, South Carolina, and William Wymond Verity and Paula Verity of 
Beaufort, South Carolina; seven grandchildren, William Verity Power 
(Kate), Jonathan Warfield Power (Jody), Jonathan Edward Verity, 
Victoria Heye Verity Nellen (Bill), Elizabeth Wymond Verity, George 
Murray Verity, and Hannah Bakewell Verity; four great grandchildren, 
James Matthew Power, John Gray Power, Thomas George Power, and Brooks 
Verity Power; and two sisters, Betsy Verity Blakey of Columbus, Ohio 
and Jean Verity Woodhull of Dayton, Ohio.
  On January 5, Sandra Walsh of the Beaufort Gazette penned the below 
tribute to Mr. Verity:

             Former Secretary of Commerce Dies in Beaufort

       Serving as President Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Commerce, 
     Calvin William Verity Jr., shared the stage with political 
     giants.
       But in Beaufort, where Verity shared his Spanish Point home 
     with his beloved wife, he is remembered by friends as a 
     `giant of a man.'
       Verity died Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2007, in Beaufort Memorial 
     Hospital. He was 89.
       Verity, who suffered from asthma, had been hospitalized for 
     four days and died from complications of pneumonia, his 
     oldest son John Verity said Thursday.
       ``I think the key to his success over the years was his 
     ability to work with people,'' John Verity said.
       ``His leadership was based on building consensus and 
     creating an environment where people would work together.''
       Verity was sworn in as President Ronald Reagan's Secretary 
     of Commerce Oct. 19,

[[Page E91]]

     1987, after secretary Malcolm Baldrige was killed in a rodeo 
     accident. He served until the end of Reagan's term in January 
     1989.
       As U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Verity established the 
     Malcolm Baldrige Award, which ``in the 1990s helped 
     businesses improve the quality of their work,'' John Verity 
     said.
       He then retired and moved to Beaufort's Spanish Point 
     neighborhood in the early '90s with his wife, Peggy, who died 
     in 1999.
       ``He was a giant of a man,'' Verity's next door neighbor 
     and friend of 21 years, Guy McSweeney, said Thursday. ``He 
     was one of the most remarkable men I have ever known; 
     everyone that knew him loved him.''
       Between 1970 and the 1980s, Verity served as chairman of 
     the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and as chairman of the U.S.-
     Soviet Trade and Economic Council.
       Reagan also appointed him as the chairman of the 
     President's Task Force on Private Sector Initiatives.
       Verity worked for Armco Steel from 1946 until he retired in 
     1982 as chairman of the board of the company now known as AK 
     Steel Corp. He is the grandson of George M. Verity, who 
     founded the firm.
       Verity was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1946.
       McSweeney said Verity maintained a lifelong interest in the 
     Navy.
       About 10 years ago, McSweeney said he and Verity rode 
     aboard what was originally a Soviet training ship, the 
     Druzhba, from the Bahamas to Maryland alongside 200 U.S. Navy 
     and Russian cadets.
       ``He was always coming up with something fun to do,'' 
     McSweeney said. ``From duck hunting or riding on a jet to 
     California, he was always into something.''
       Neighbor Polly Swenson recalled a time when former U.S. 
     Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor visited Verity at 
     his Spanish Point home and caught a speckled bass from his 
     dock.
       Swenson said even in his later years, when Verity used a 
     motorized scooter, he would sit on a bluff behind his home 
     nearly every day and look out to the water.
       ``He would always say, `Isn't this the most beautiful place 
     on Earth?' Swenson said. ``Beaufort was very much a part of 
     him.''
       Verity and his wife played active roles in Beaufort's 
     community and were responsible for raising money for several 
     organizations, including a Verity scholarship fund through 
     the Technical College of the Lowcountry and an education fund 
     for the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Lowcountry.
       ``He just loved people,'' longtime friend Helen Harvey 
     said. ``He loved to help people; he did so much for so many 
     people through his connections.''
       St. Helena Island resident and freelance editor Cheryl 
     Lopanik helped Verity organize information for his biography, 
     ``59 Years with the Right Woman,'' a recollection of Verity's 
     life with a focus on his wife, self-published in 2003.
       ``He was devastated in losing her, but he wanted to put 
     this book together because he knew it would have made her 
     happy,'' Lopanik said. ``He had wonderful stories and 
     memories that were very exact . . . He had a very good 
     perspective on his life.''
       Verity was born Jan. 26, 1917, in Middletown, Ohio, a son 
     of Elizabeth O'Brien and Calvin William Verity Sr.
       He was a graduate of the Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale 
     University.
       Verity was a member of the boards of directors of Mead 
     Corp., Chase Manhattan Bank, Eli Lilly, Taft Broadcasting, 
     the First National Bank in Middletown and The Chairman of the 
     Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.
       Survivors include a daughter, Peggy ``Happy'' Verity Power 
     of Edwards, Colo.; two sons, Jonathan George Verity and 
     William Wymond Verity of Beaufort; two sisters, Betsy Verity 
     Blakey of Columbus, Ohio, and Jean Verity Woodhull of Dayton, 
     Ohio; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
       Services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at The First 
     Presbyterian Church, Beaufort. The family will receive 
     friends after services at 120 Spanish Point Drive, Beaufort.
       Burial will be at the Woodside Cemetery in Middletown.
       Memorials may be made to the Bill and Peggy Verity Career 
     Education Fund for the Boys and Girls Clubs of the 
     Lowcountry, 17B Marshellen Drive, Beaufort, SC 29902.

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