[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 55 (Thursday, April 14, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2500-S2501]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TRIBUTE TO GOVERNOR JOHN ``JACK'' GILLIGAN

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, today I wish to honor John ``Jack'' 
Gilligan, a model of public service, of decency and intellect, who 
turned 90-years-old last month and now celebrates the 40th anniversary 
of his administration as the 62nd Governor of Ohio.
  Today there is a great debate on the future of country, as there was 
when Jack served as Governor of Ohio from 1971-1974. Our economic 
competitiveness was threatened by expanding debt, declining 
manufacturing, rising gas prices, and waning dominance in technology 
and innovation. Today, we face those challenges coupled with 
competition from emerging powers in Asia and productivity increasing 
but wages stagnating in America. Whether 40 years ago or today, what 
the middle class looks like in America what we want the future of our 
country to look like depends on our leaders making smart, tough, and 
sometimes politically unpopular decisions.
  That is the role Jack Gilligan played, with poise and skill, and with 
honesty and candor. When Ohio's public workers needed a voice at that 
table, he expanded their collective bargaining rights. Understanding 
that education and infrastructure are keys to our economic 
competitiveness, he bolstered investments in each, while understanding 
tax burdens also mean better schools, safer roads, and stronger vital 
public services like police and fire protection. He also expanded the 
right to vote by lowering the voting age to 18 years old and expanded 
programs for mental health services and environmental protection.
  It was during his time as Governor, when I first met Jack Gilligan. 
It was 1972, when I ran in my first election, for State Representative 
for the Ohio House representing my hometown of Mansfield. Jack visited 
me one day and offered simple advice, ``Be yourself, know who you're 
fighting for and what you stand for.'' It is advice that I have 
followed ever since, wisdom that applies to anyone seeking to uphold 
the sacred public trust.
  And by listening to Jack, you learn about the great State of Ohio of 
its geographic and demographic diversity. Jack will say we are a 
different State every 20 miles. We have the same farmers but who grow 
different crops. We have small towns, but we also have different rural 
communities. We have the same immigrants but from different countries; 
the same union family but from different unions. Jack understands that 
the diversity of our State not only makes it the heartland of America 
but also its heartbeat.
  Born March 22, 1922, in Cincinnati, John Gilligan graduated from St. 
Xavier High School in 1939 and the University of Notre Dame in 1943. He 
then enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving in the Atlantic, the Pacific, 
and the Mediterranean during World War II. He was awarded a Silver Star 
for his service in Okinawa.
  Upon returning to his hometown after the war, he completed a master's 
degree and doctorate course work in English literature at the 
University of Cincinnati. He then began his teaching career at Xavier 
University.
  In 1953, he began his decades long service to the people of Ohio. 
From 1953 to 1963, Jack served on the Cincinnati City Council during 
the civil rights era. His progressivism took him to the U.S. House of 
Representatives in 1964 as the Congressman from Ohio's 1st District, 
where he helped pass groundbreaking progressive pieces of legislation, 
like the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. Undaunted by his defeat for 
reelection--after his district was gerrymandered--and for the Senate in 
1968, Jack continued his public service beyond the halls of government.
  By 1970, he ran for Governor, driving an old, used van he bought from 
a dry cleaner and sleeping on a cot in the back. When a voter asked if 
he or she could help, he asked them to fill the van with gas. He won. 
And he fought each day thereafter to represent the interests of Ohio's 
middle class.
  After leaving the Governor's office in 1974, Jack was asked by 
President Carter to serve as Director of the United States Agency for 
International Development, USAID, leading efforts to reorganize our 
Nation's foreign assistance management programs. By the

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1980s and 1990s he returned to teaching, returning to teach at his alma 
maters, the University of Notre Dame, where he helped found the Kroc 
Institute for International Peace Studies, and the University of 
Cincinnati College of Law. But even in academia, Jack remained active 
in politics and public service. In 1999, at the age of 78, the former 
Congressman-turned-Governor served on the Board of Education for 
Cincinnati Public Schools.
  And throughout his commitment to public service, Jack Gilligan has 
remained a steadfast family man. He married Katie Dixon, with whom he 
raised four children before she died in 1996. He since remarried to 
Susan Freemont, a family practice physician from Cincinnati.
  As the family patriarch, he has inspired his children Donald, 
Kathleen, John, and Ellen to pursue the public good. Kathleen now 
serves as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, having 
previously served as Governor of Kansas the only time in our Nation's 
history that a father and daughter have served as Governors. Secretary 
Sebelius helped pass the most important health care law since the 
creation of Medicare and Medicaid, enacted with the help of her father 
nearly 50 years earlier. To Jack's family, thank you for sharing him 
with a grateful State and a grateful Nation.
  2011 marks the 90th birthday of John ``Jack'' Gilligan's and the 40th 
anniversary of his leadership as Ohio's Governor. To Jack, I thank you 
for your service and for your counsel. And thank you for your continued 
belief that the fight for social and economic justice is always worth 
it, so long as we remember who we fight for and what we stand for.
  Happy Birthday, Governor.

                          ____________________