[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 2 (Thursday, January 6, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H69-H71]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING TOM VANDERGRIFF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, Judge Tom Vandergriff was a Member 
of the House of Representatives from January 1982 until December 1984. 
He was defeated for reelection in November of 1984 by Dick Armey, moved 
back to Texas, and switched parties from the Democrat Party to the 
Republican Party. In 1990 he was elected county judge in which he 
served from 1990 until 2007. He passed away on December 30, 2010. His 
memorial service is tomorrow afternoon at the University of Texas at 
Arlington's Texas Center from 1 till 3.
  Judge Vandergriff was a personal friend of mine. When I first was 
given part of Arlington in the redistricting process in 1992, he agreed 
to be my cochairman for my campaign. He was just an absolute gentleman 
and helped in every way possible. One of the most unique things about 
Judge Vandergriff is that in his entire political career, which spanned 
from 1951 until 2007, he never held a political fund-raising event for 
himself. He did actually accept political contributions obviously but 
he never solicited and he never held an organized political event that 
he himself organized on his behalf. I thought that was astounding in 
the modern political era to be as successful politically as he was 
without having to go out and do the numerous fund-raisers that most of 
us have to do.
  We are going to miss Judge Vandergriff. He's got a list of 
accomplishments a mile long. He was mayor of Arlington from 1951 until 
1967. During his tenure as mayor, he was able to get the General Motors 
assembly plant located in Arlington; he helped get the Texas Rangers, 
which were then the Washington Senators, to move to Arlington, and was 
able to attend the World Series this past October in which he saw the 
Texas Rangers first of all win the American League and then fight 
valiantly against the San Francisco Giants who ultimately won the World 
Series.
  He wanted to be a broadcaster. He went to USC in Los Angeles, applied 
for a broadcasting job in 1947, and was not successful in getting that 
broadcasting job. It went to somebody named Chet Huntley, who later 
became an anchorman on NBC News. Judge Vandergriff returned to Texas to 
assume a role in his family's Chevrolet dealership with his father, 
which he maintained that dealership except for times when he was a U.S. 
Congressman in some capacity.
  We're going to miss Judge Vandergriff. We give our condolences to his 
family. Again, he was a Member of Congress from 1982 until 1984 and he 
will be missed.
  On December 30, 2010, 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

[[Page H70]]

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 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 styled 
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.
  I now yield to Congresswoman Kay Granger of Texas who wishes to speak 
also on behalf of Judge Vandergriff.
  Ms. GRANGER. Today we remember with great fondness Tom Vandergriff. 
Tom was a leader in everything he did. He was a man who saw challenges 
and tried to solve them. He found opportunities and made them work for 
us. He had a vision that he always reached for. He never accepted the 
status quo. He was always working for what ought to be.
  As a successful businessman, a mayor, a Member of Congress and a 
county judge, he did so much to promote economic development and 
opportunities to make Tarrant County, Texas which it is today. Just 
think of this: Starting as, what he was called, the boy mayor, he was 
25 years old. He served his community, helping Texas bring General 
Motors, Six Flags Over Texas, the Texas Rangers, all to north Texas. He 
had a vision to anticipate the needs of a growing community and 
population. But more than that, he was a decent and kind man. His grace 
was matched only by his courage, and his personal character was 
exceeded only by his compassion for others. He was the epitome of a 
great public servant. He will be missed but not forgotten; and our 
thoughts and prayers are with his family.
  Mr. BARTON of Texas. I yield to the gentleman from Denton, 
Congressman Burgess.

[[Page H71]]

  Mr. BURGESS. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  As a member of the Tarrant County delegation, I also want to stand in 
remembrance of Tom Vandergriff and his 55-year career in public 
service. Thirteen years it took him to bring major league baseball to 
Arlington, Texas, and he took the team from Washington, DC that was 
then known as the Senators; had to fight two Presidents in a bipartisan 
fashion, both Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.
  Judge Vandergriff was the original representative from the 26th 
District of Texas when it was formed after the 1980 census. My fondest 
memory of Judge Vandergriff is, however, as the voice of the Texas 
Rangers. Along with Dick Risenhoover, he would do the broadcasts. They 
were spellbinding and exciting and kept me away many times from my 
graduate school studies.
  To his family, we offer our prayers and condolences. Thank you, Judge 
Vandergriff, for 55 excellent years in public service.
  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I know we have a new protocol for 
recognizing former Members who have passed away. Is it appropriate 
under our rules to have a moment of silence for Judge Vandergriff? And 
if so, how would I request such a moment of silence?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair would recommend that the gentleman 
from Texas consult with the leadership on making such requests.
  Mr. BARTON of Texas. So it would not be appropriate at this time?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman is correct, and the 
gentleman's time has expired.

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