[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.
____________________