[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 20 (Thursday, February 1, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E241-E242]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING HENRY M. THOMAS III

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. RICHARD E. NEAL

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 31, 2007

  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, on Wednesday night, January 
24, 2007, the University of Massachusetts presented Henry M. Thomas III 
of Springfield, MA, with its Distinguished Service Award. This award 
recognizes the ``demonstrated leadership'' and ``exemplary 
accomplishments'' of an individual, and I can think of no one more 
worthy than my friend Henry Thomas.
  Henry Thomas is a life-long friend of mine and I would like to extend 
at this time my heartfelt congratulations to him upon receiving this 
prestigious honor. I would like to include in the Congressional Record 
today a history of Henry Thomas's accomplishments and dedication to the 
city of Springfield, social activism and education. Congratulations 
Henry on an award that is well-deserved.


   Distinguished Achievement Award Presented to henry m. thomas iii, 
                           January 24, 2007.

       No one in our time has made greater civic contributions to 
     western Massachusetts than Henry M. Thomas III, or shown 
     greater courage and resolve in doing so. His record of 
     achievement during the past three and a half decades has been 
     dazzling in its depth and diversity.
       Thomas is president and chief executive officer of the 
     Urban League of Springfield Inc., which he joined in 1971 as 
     youth and education director. The Urban League serves the 
     African American community by promoting through advocacy and 
     services the academic and social development and the economic 
     self-sufficiency of young people and families. It also 
     fosters racial inclusion and social justice.
       Thomas showed an early aptitude for leadership. Within 4 
     years he was promoted to director of voter registration and 
     education at the Springfield Urban League, and then to deputy 
     director. In 1975, when only 25 years old, he was named 
     president and CEO, the youngest person ever so appointed in 
     an Urban League affiliate. He is a past president of the 
     National Urban League Executives and served for 2 years as 
     vice president for youth development at the New York office 
     of the National Urban League, developing infrastructure to 
     support inner-city youth.
       Many other institutions and organizations have been touched 
     by Thomas's energetic idealism and executive skill. As the 
     first African American chairman of the Springfield Fire 
     Commission from 1985 to 1998, he demonstrated a courageous 
     willingness to challenge a rule that forbade fire department 
     applicants from having an arrest record, as opposed to a 
     conviction--this at a time when blacks and Latinos were 
     frequently arrested on spurious grounds. Ten years later, as 
     the first black chairman of the Springfield Police 
     Commission, Thomas received death threats after granting 
     three African Americans promotions to sergeant.
       In January 2006, Governor Mitt Romney appointed Thomas vice 
     chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education, on which he 
     had served since 2001. Thomas was also recently appointed to 
     the transition team of Governor Deval Patrick.
       Camp Atwater in North Brookfield, MA, the Nation's oldest 
     African American summer youth residential camp, has long 
     benefited from Thomas's support: he reopened it in 1980 
     following a 6-year hiatus and serves

[[Page E242]]

     as its CEO. He also serves on a number of local and national 
     boards and commissions. Thomas founded and is the presiding 
     chairman of the board of Springfield's New Leadership Charter 
     School, is a member of the board of the American Camping 
     Association, and chairs the board of trustees of the 
     Springfield Cable Endowment. He founded and is a co-chairman 
     of Step Up Springfield and is on the executive committee of 
     the Hamden County Regional Employment Board.
       An earnest and inspired educator, Thomas has been a 
     visiting professor in the Master's of Regional Planning 
     Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and at 
     Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts. He hosts a weekly 
     community talk show, ``Urban League Community Focus,'' now in 
     its 15th year on Springfield radio station WTCC.
       Thomas grew up in Springfield, where at Technical High 
     School he was his class's only black gymnast. Equally adept 
     on the gridiron, he was offered dozens of college football 
     scholarships and accepted one at American International 
     College in Springfield. There he founded the black student 
     organization and earned a bachelor's degree in psychology in 
     1971 and a master's degree in human resource development 2 
     years later. In 1983 he received a jurisprudence doctorate 
     from Western New England College School of Law. Thomas has 
     called his law degree ``an invaluable tool for dealing with 
     government officials, community leaders, and the business 
     aspects of running a multimillion-dollar nonprofit agency. . 
     . . Virtually every area of my work involves law in some 
     degree.''
       He has also received honorary doctorates from Westfield 
     State College and Bay Path College. In 1999, he received an 
     Executive Leadership Program Certificate from the Kennedy 
     School of Government at Harvard University.
       Thomas gives enormous credit to his wife, Devonia J. 
     Thomas, for the support and encouragement she has provided 
     throughout his career. The Thomases have been married for 35 
     years and live in Springfield's historic Forest Park 
     neighborhood in a home well stocked with books and artifacts 
     reflecting their love of African American history and African 
     art, especially Shona art from what is now Zimbabwe. Their 
     son, Perren, is an investment banker on Wall Street. Their 
     daughter, Shadae, is a fourth-grade teacher in Cambridge, MA. 
     Thomas relaxes by playing racquetball and the saxophone and 
     by reading and watching a good deal of football.

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