[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 2 (Thursday, January 6, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E31-E32]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING TOM VANDERGRIFF

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOE BARTON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 6, 2011

  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I, along with Representatives 
Burgess, Granger and Marchant, wish to inform the House that on 
December 30, 2010, the great State of Texas lost a lion. Tom 
Vandergriff, former mayor of Arlington, Texas, former County Judge of 
Tarrant County, and former Member of the United States Congress, left 
this life at the age of 84. All of us in north Texas will mark time 
from the moment we heard of the loss. The loss is monumental.
  Few people have had such a positive impact on the development and 
quality of life of north Texas, and no one has had a greater impact on 
Arlington. His friends and admirers are legion, his accomplishments 
legendary. He was the personification of an ideal, the ideal of a 
selflessly devoted public servant who always put the people ahead of 
personal gain or ambition.
  Arlington history is generally divided into two epochs: BV and AV, 
Before Vandergriff and After Vandergriff. He first sought and won 
elective office in 1951 when he became the ``boy mayor'' of Arlington 
at the age of 25. At the time Arlington was a small town on the 
railroad midway between Dallas and Fort Worth. Vandergriff saw the 
town's potential and set out to make it a center of prosperity in its 
own right while fostering a new spirit of cooperation within the north 
Texas region. Arlington, now the 49th largest city in the U.S. with 
370,000 people, would never be the same, and neither would north Texas. 
Indeed, it was Vandergriff who coined the phrase, ``Metroplex,'' which 
is still the term usually applied to describe the Dallas-Fort Worth 
area.
  His first major achievement was convincing General Motors executives 
to locate their new automobile assembly plant in Arlington. His family 
owned a Chevrolet dealership in town, which gave him access to General 
Motors Corp. Upon hearing that GM planned to build a plant in north 
Texas, he sold Arlington as a superior location by telling GM, as he 
would later tell the story, that if they put the plant in Dallas, it 
would make Fort Worth angry; if they put it in Fort Worth, it would 
make Dallas angry. He ended his pitch by convincing them that if they 
put it in Arlington, everybody would be happy. The plant produced its 
first automobile in 1954 and today is the only GM plant in the U.S. 
that makes full-size SUVs.
  The GM plant began a building boom in Arlington that has lasted more 
than 55 years. Knowing a small town on well water could not sustain 
rapid growth nor accommodate the needs of industry, Vandergriff 
convinced the voters of Arlington to pass an initiative to build a 
large reservoir to meet the town's future needs. The effort proved to 
be as controversial as it was monumental for a small town, but the 
initiative passed, and Lake Arlington

[[Page E32]]

was built. The project was ridiculed by many in Arlington and dismissed 
by others in the region as ``Vandergriff's Folly,'' but the folly 
became ``the miracle lake'' upon its completion. Large equipment was 
being removed from the site in 1957 when one of the worst and longest 
droughts in Texas history broke, and it began to rain. The lake, which 
experts believed would take years to fill, was full in 18 days. The 
lake ensured the explosive growth that came in the decades of the '60s, 
'70s, and '80s that made Arlington, Texas one of the fastest growing 
cities in America.
  As a college student at the University of Southern California, 
Vandergriff was very familiar with Anaheim and by the late 1950s was 
aware of the tremendous economic impact tourism had on the city after 
the opening of Disneyland theme park in 1955. He knew, because of 
Arlington's central location, that the same benefits could accrue to 
his city with a product of similar appeal. It came as no surprise to 
those familiar with the Vandergriff vision for Arlington when he became 
instrumental in establishing the Six Flags Over Texas theme park in 
1961. The park was an instant hit, and people all over the southwestern 
United States began traveling to Arlington for family style 
entertainment. The first of the Six Flags parks, it still operates at 
its original location in Arlington.
  But Vandergriff didn't stop there. A devoted baseball fan, he was 
determined to bring professional baseball to north Texas. The effort 
took years and saw hopes dashed time and again before he finally 
convinced owner Bob Short to move his Washington Senators to Arlington 
in 1972. The effort did not endear him to the people of the nation's 
capital. On one of his many visits to meet with Short, he was 
unceremoniously kicked out of a taxicab when he made the mistake of 
telling the cabbie why he was in town. The Washington Senators became 
the Texas Rangers Ball Club, and Tom Vandergriff became the team's 
biggest fan and supporter. When his beloved Rangers won their first 
American League Pennant by beating the New York Yankees in Arlington 
last October, Vandergriff was there in the ballpark he helped build to 
cheer them on.

  Today, Arlington is host to more than seven million visitors each 
year and is the second most popular tourist destination in the state, 
bringing millions of dollars in revenue to the city annually. The 
city's entertainment district boasts Six Flags theme park, the Texas 
Rangers Ballpark, a new Dallas Cowboys football stadium, the National 
Bowling Congress and Museum, Hurricane Harbor water park, and clusters 
of shops and restaurants that make Arlington the City of Wow for 
millions of Texans.
  In his 26 years as mayor, two years as a member of Congress, and 16 
years as County Judge of Tarrant County, Vandergriff championed two 
more causes relentlessly: regional communication and cooperation and 
helping the University of Texas at Arlington become a major institution 
of higher learning. Believing that everyone in north Texas would 
succeed if they worked together for the good of the region, Vandergriff 
spent decades finessing, cajoling, and winning over the leaders of 
other cities in the region. He led the effort to establish and became 
the president of the north Central Texas Council of Governments which 
today is the Metropolitan Planning Organization for all of north Texas. 
He was a strong advocate for regionalism well into his eighties, and 
the economic might of the region is a testament to that effort.
  Vandergriff's efforts on behalf of his hometown university are 
equally impressive. When he became mayor, Arlington College was a tiny 
two-year institution affiliated with Texas A&M that was formerly a 
military school and then an agricultural college. Vandergriff knew it 
could be more, and if Arlington were to succeed as a city, so must its 
college. He led the effort to make the college a four-year university. 
Working with then-governor John Connally, he succeeded when the college 
became a full university within the University of Texas system in 1964. 
Today, the University of Texas at Arlington is the largest UT campus 
outside of Austin and the fastest growing university in the state. It 
is quickly becoming a major research facility and contributes more to 
the local economy than any industry in the city.
  There is more, of course, much more. In a life lived as fully and as 
well as his, there is always more to tell: his unwavering support and 
leadership of Arlington Memorial Hospital, his support and leadership 
of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, his support of local public 
schools, his support of a long list of non-profit agencies, his decades 
as an active member of the United Methodist church, and his roles as 
husband, father, grandfather, and mentor to a very long list of 
aspiring leaders. All of this almost didn't happen, at least not in 
Texas.
  Vandergriff was born on January 29, 1926, to W. T. and Charles 
Vandergriff in Carrolton, Texas. The family relocated to Arlington when 
Tom was 12. After graduating from Arlington High School, Vandergriff 
attended USC where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1947. He married 
his high school sweetheart, Anna Waynette Smith in 1949. Blessed with a 
deep, sonorous voice that he used with perfect diction, he prepared for 
a career in radio and broadcast journalism. After graduation he applied 
for and was a finalist in the competition for what he thought would be 
the job of his dreams, but he lost out to another young applicant. 
Vandergriff returned to Texas to join his father's automobile 
dealership, disappointed and convinced that he was a better candidate 
for the broadcast job. The young man who got the job was Chet Huntley.
  Chet Huntley would gain fame as an NBC news anchor and reach millions 
of listeners nationwide, but the loser in that early competition, Tom 
Vandergriff, would touch millions in north Texas in ways that were 
deeper and arguably more significant. Many have their own stories to 
tell about Vandergriff, many humorous because he possessed a wonderful 
sense of humor, many thankful because he touched so many with acts of 
kindness large and small, and many inspirational because he inspired 
us, goaded us, and led us to be greater than we thought we were and 
achieved things we never thought possible. All in north Texas are 
better off today because Tom Vandergriff was here, and our children and 
grandchildren will have better lives even though they will never know 
him. Those of us who did will never forget him.
  Well done, good and faithful servant.

                          ____________________