[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 142 (Tuesday, September 9, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H7939-H7940]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING HARRY A. MARMION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Bishop) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BISHOP of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Harry A. 
Marmion who recently passed away after a long and distinguished career 
in which he served of president of two colleges and as president of the 
United States Tennis Association during the time when the Arthur Ashe 
Stadium what constructed and opened.
  He was an outstanding leader in all of these roles, but more than 
that, he was an outstanding person. He remained active and involved in 
life until the day he died. And I am proud to have called him my mentor 
and my friend.
  Harry Marmion loved people, and they loved him. His quick wit and 
engaging personality enabled him to rally people to get the job done, 
whether it was establishing the John Steinbeck Room in the Southampton 
College Library or overseeing the naming of Arthur Ashe Stadium.
  Following his graduation from Fairfield University, Harry served for 
2 years in the United States Marine Corps as an infantry officer. He 
then served in the Marine Corps Reserve for 26 years, retiring as a 
colonel. Dr. Marmion held a law degree from Georgetown University and a 
Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut.
  At the age of 37, he was appointed president of St. Xavier College in 
Chicago, a position he held from 1969 to 1972. In 1972, he was 
appointed president of Southampton College of Long Island University. 
During his presidency, I was an administrator at the college and thus I 
had the opportunity to see firsthand his leadership style and his 
ability.
  He was always accessible and able to talk to people from all walks of 
life. He helped position Southampton College as a liberal arts 
institution with specialties in marine science and the fine arts, and 
it was during his tenure that Southampton students won the college's 
first three Fulbright Scholarships.
  Harry was always available for advice and good counsel. I often 
relied on his judgment and advice after I was appointed provost of 
Southampton College and later when I was elected to Congress.
  In 1980, he was appointed vice president for academic affairs and 
professor of law and management at Fairleigh Dickinson University in 
New Jersey.

                              {time}  1945

  He retired after 10 years, only to embark on a second career with the 
United States Tennis Association.
  His love of tennis began in the 1980s when he was ranked a senior 
player in the East, despite the fact that he had never played tennis 
until he was in his 30s. After serving as the president of the Eastern 
Tennis Association and on the USTA's board of directors, Harry became 
its 43rd chairman and president of the USTA's board in 1997. During his 
tenure, he oversaw the renovation of the USTA's facility in Flushing 
Meadows. He was instrumental in ensuring that the stadium be named in 
honor of Arthur Ashe, the great African American athlete, rather than 
for a corporate sponsor.
  Harry loved a good joke as much as anyone I know, but he also loved a 
good cause and was never afraid to do the right thing. He played a key 
role in the election of Judy Levering as his successor at the USTA, the 
first female to hold that position. And when Southampton College was 
facing closure in 2005, he helped form the ``Save the College'' group 
and served as one of its most influential members, proudly 
participating in the ultimately Stony Brook/Southampton campus.

[[Page H7940]]

  Always active in the community, Harry served as Southampton 
Democratic Town Chairman and as a member of the board of trustees of 
Southampton Hospital. He also wrote two books: ``The Case Against the 
Volunteer Army,'' and ``Selective Service: Conflict and Compromise.''
  Harry was also a devoted family man. He and his wife, Pat, were 
married for 54 years. They have three daughters, Elizabeth, Sarah, and 
Sheila, and nine grandchildren.
  At a February 1997 press conference when the USTA announced the 
naming of the new stadium, Harry said, ``Arthur Ashe was an outstanding 
tennis player, but we naming our new stadium in his honor because 
Arthur Ashe was the finest human being the sport of tennis has ever 
known.''
  Mr. Speaker, the same could be said of Harry Marmion: he excelled at 
his career and as a human being. I, along with hundreds of others he 
touched over the course of his life, loved Harry Marmion. I will miss 
him greatly.

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