[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 147 (Tuesday, September 16, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1808-E1809]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              REMEMBERING LEONARD B. ``BUD'' DOGGETT, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 16, 2008

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, on August 13, when the Congress was in 
recess, the Washington, DC, region lost one of its great civic leaders 
when Leonard B. ``Bud'' Doggett, Jr.,

[[Page E1809]]

passed away at the age of 87. Bud will be remembered by all for his 
steadfast dedication to community, especially through ``Heroes,'' the 
non-profit organization he founded to support the families of law 
enforcement officers and firefighters killed on the job. His legacy of 
civic involvement should be an inspiration to all of us. I ask that an 
editorial in the Washington Post about Bud's life, as well as the 
obituary about him from the same paper, be inserted in the Record. We 
offer our sympathies to his family.

             L.B. Doggett Jr.; Parking Tycoon, Civic Leader

                          (By Adam Bernstein)

       L.B. ``Bud'' Doggett Jr., 87, a publicity-averse D.C. 
     commercial parking magnate who emerged in the 1960s as a 
     major civic leader and a central backstage figure in politics 
     and community development, died Aug. 13 at his home in 
     Washington after a heart attack.
       Mr. Doggett was president and chief executive of Doggett 
     Enterprises, the parent corporation of Doggett's Parking, 
     which was founded by his parents in 1926.
       It was the city's first private parking company, and the 
     younger Mr. Doggett guided it quietly to greater prominence 
     after taking over in the 1950s. For decades, he was a force 
     in preventing the District from building municipally owned 
     parking garages and challenging private firms, a rarity for a 
     large U.S. city.
       Mr. Doggett, who also amassed a large portfolio of real 
     estate interests, was a dominant business figure in the city 
     under the old federally appointed District Commissioners 
     system and during the emergence of elected leaders in the 
     mid-1970s.
       He liked to joke privately that he was ``Shanty Irish,'' 
     but he was an effective fundraiser for politicians on Capitol 
     Hill and in what was then known as the District Building as 
     well as a trusted power broker between the political elite in 
     the city and the federal government.
       His support was considered crucial to the completion of 
     large ventures, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the 
     Performing Arts and the old Washington Convention Center, 
     heralded as the country's fourth largest after it was built 
     in 1982. It was demolished in 2005.
       A key legacy was Mr. Doggett's belief in keeping business 
     in the, city despite the devastating riots of 1968 and later 
     tax increases. He held high offices with what is now the 
     Greater Washington Board of Trade--he served a term as 
     president in 1967--and led many efforts to rejuvenate 
     downtown.
       While leading the board, he helped donate thousands of 
     dollars' worth of equipment for training courses in typing 
     and hairdressing as well as sports uniforms and toys for 
     residents of the Valley Green housing complex in Southeast.
       Longtime broadcasting executive Andy Ockershausen said Mr. 
     Doggett was ``a good negotiator and believed in downtown 
     Washington. He always felt if downtown was thriving, the 
     whole metropolitan area would thrive. He kept his business 
     here, refused to move it out of city.''
       Leonard Brent Doggett Jr. was born Aug. 25, 1920, in the 
     District and attended Georgetown Preparatory School.
       He entered World War II as an Army Air Forces pilot, then 
     transferred to the Army infantry after he was reprimanded for 
     flying under a bridge during training in Texas.
       As an infantryman, he received decorations for heroism. 
     They included the Bronze Star for organizing a defense unit 
     as others evacuated wounded soldiers from a besieged French 
     village.
       He took over his family's parking business in the 1950s and 
     began a large push into real estate. He bought old rowhouses, 
     which he rented as rooming houses before razing them for 
     parking lots.
       He also won federal parking concessions, including lots for 
     the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. 
     He later focused on major hotel chains, such as Sheraton and 
     Hilton.
       With other parking barons, such as Dominic F. Antonelli Jr. 
     of Parking Management, he forged important business ties to 
     Capitol Hill. They made campaign donations to legislators 
     including Rep. John L. McMillan (D-S.C.), the longtime 
     chairman of the House District Committee, to prevent the 
     creation of a municipal parking authority.
       He also was board chairman of several Washington banks and 
     a director of Pepsi-Cola Bottling.
       Ockershausen said Mr. Doggett prohibited publicity for his 
     extensive charitable work.
       In 1964, Mr. Doggett founded a nonprofit organization, 
     Heroes, that dispenses financial aid to families of law 
     enforcement officers and firefighters killed in the line of 
     duty.
       John Tydings, a former Board of Trade president who is 
     involved with Heroes, said Mr. Doggett gave millions of 
     dollars out of his pocket to help 225 law enforcement 
     families in the Washington area.
        ``He set the bar high for civic leaders,'' Tydings said.
       His wife of 57 years, Gladys Denton Doggett, died in 1999. 
     A son from that marriage, Leonard Doggett Ill, died last 
     year.
       Survivors include his wife of eight years, Cherrie Wanner 
     Doggett of Washington; a daughter from his first marriage, 
     Frances Foster of Boca Raton, Fla.; a stepdaughter, Kristine 
     Harrington of Arlington County; a sister, Rose Marie Melby of 
     Gaithersburg; and three grandchildren.
                                  ____


               [From the Washington Post, Aug. 16, 2008]

                              Bud Doggett

       Leonard B. ``Bud'' Doggett Jr., the parking lot tycoon and 
     D.C. power broker who always had the best interests of the 
     city at heart, probably wouldn't have liked us writing about 
     him in this space--he shunned publicity. But Mr. Doggett, who 
     died Wednesday at the age of 87, exerted a powerful, mostly 
     unseen and highly beneficial influence on the District during 
     more than half a century. When he became president of what is 
     now the Greater Washington Board of Trade in 1967, most 
     businesses discriminated against minorities; Mr. Doggett 
     urged his colleagues to accept diversity. He spearheaded 
     projects that helped rejuvenate the city's downtown slums. 
     City leaders advancing a worthy cause knew that they could 
     count on Mr. Doggett. He would ask, ``Are you sure that's all 
     you need?'' and end the conversation by saying, ``The check 
     is in the mail.'' Most recently, Mr. Doggett was a driving 
     force behind the District's impressive Hurricane Katrina 
     relief efforts.
       Mr. Doggett's friends say that his concern for the city 
     stemmed from his humble roots. He was born in 1920 and grew 
     up in an Irish tenement in an area near Union Station that 
     immigrants affectionately called ``Swamppoodle.'' After 
     serving in World War II, he went to work for his parents, who 
     owned a small number of parking lots downtown. Mr. Doggett 
     started out working as a valet, often babysitting jalopies 
     filled with children while their parents took in a show. He 
     eventually took over the parking lot business from his father 
     and expanded aggressively, amassing a lucrative portfolio of 
     real estate.
       But Mr. Doggett's most lasting legacy will undoubtedly be 
     Heroes, a nonprofit organization he founded in 1964 that 
     supports families of law enforcement officers and 
     firefighters killed on the job. ``As a police officer with 
     four kids of my own, I can't even put into words how 
     important this program is,'' Patrick Burke, D.C. assistant 
     police chief, told us. Heroes has given millions of dollars 
     to the families of slain public servants and has helped put 
     hundreds of children through college. Not bad, for a self-
     described shanty Irishman from Swamppoodle.

                          ____________________