[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 79 (Friday, June 3, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1044]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               HONORING THE LIFE OF BYRON WAITE LEYDECKER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, June 3, 2011

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
remember my friend Byron Leydecker, who passed away on May 12, 2011.
  Byron was a good friend, and he was a true champion on behalf of the 
rivers and fisheries of California. Thanks to Byron's passion and 
determined advocacy, the Trinity River is today in better shape than at 
any time since the 1960s.
  Byron lived his life with passion. Passion for what he believed and 
for his friends. He expected a lot of those of us in public service: he 
would let you know of his gratitude when you met his expectations and 
his disappointment when we disappointed him. At the end of the day, 
Byron was fun.
  He will be missed by all his friends in California and across the 
country, and generations of Californians will benefit from his 
dedication to the Trinity and his tireless belief in the fundamental 
and lasting value of a healthy river.
  I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record this San Francisco 
Chronicle article about Byron Leydecker's life and many 
accomplishments, and I ask my colleagues to join me in remembering 
Byron and in expressing our condolences to his children and 
grandchildren.

            [From the San Francisco Chronicle, May 26, 2011]

             Byron Leydecker, Former Marin Supervisor, Dies

                           (By Peter Fimrite)

       Byron Waite Leydecker, a former bank executive and Marin 
     County supervisor who helped stop development in the Marin 
     Headlands and, for nearly two decades, drove the restoration 
     and protection of his beloved Trinity River, died May 12 in 
     his home in Mill Valley.
       Mr. Leydecker, who was 83, had been battling lung and liver 
     cancer.
       Mr. Leydecker was born in Oakland on Aug. 28, 1927. He 
     served briefly on the battleship Iowa at the end of World War 
     II before enrolling in Stanford University, where he 
     graduated in 1950 with a degree in economics. During the 
     Korean War, he served as a public information officer in the 
     U.S. Army in Washington.
       He worked briefly as a securities analyst and in 1953 got a 
     job at Chico's Anglo National Bank, which later became 
     Crocker Bank. By the time he left, he had become the bank's 
     youngest-ever vice president. In 1962 he helped found Redwood 
     Bank, where he was chairman of the board and chief executive 
     officer until the bank was sold in 1981.
       In 1963, Gov. Edmund G. ``Pat'' Brown appointed Mr. 
     Leydecker to the Marin County Board of Supervisors. He won 
     re-election in 1964. As a supervisor he fought a proposed 
     development known as Marincello, which would have allowed 
     construction of 20,000 homes in the Marin Headlands.
       Never shy about speaking his mind, Mr. Leydecker could be a 
     gruff taskmaster. He may have sometimes lacked diplomacy, but 
     he was amazingly adept at getting what he wanted, said his 
     friends and colleagues.
       He started racing cars in the 1970s and, driving a modified 
     Porsche, won the 1977 Northern California championship of the 
     prestigious Sports Car Club of America circuit.
       The construction of Trinity Dam and Lewiston Dam in the 
     1960s and diversions of water as part of the Central Valley 
     Project were sore spots to Mr. Leydecker, who had fished the 
     Trinity in the 1930s when it was nearly pristine.
       He decided to take action in 1991, when a channel 
     improvement project by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation choked 
     the Trinity River with silt. It was so bad that Mr. Leydecker 
     got stuck in the mud on a side channel while he was fly 
     fishing. ``He was madder than a wet hen,'' said his friend 
     Tom Stokely, the water policy analyst for the California 
     Water Impact Network. ``He called me up and he must have 
     yelled at me for a half hour. Then he said, 'I've got money. 
     I can hire a lawyer.' It was the beginning of a long and 
     wonderful relationship.''
       Mr. Leydecker forced the bureau to stop digging along the 
     river and in 1992 founded the nonprofit Friends of the 
     Trinity River. The group fought to establish minimum annual 
     water flows, improve fish habitat and enhance the riparian 
     ecosystem.
       ``He was an authentic champion for rivers and fish, but 
     especially the Trinity River,'' said Assemblyman Jared 
     Huffman, D-San Rafael, who chairs the Assembly Water, Parks 
     and Wildlife Committee.
       Mr. Leydecker, who always wore a pressed button-down shirt 
     with blue jeans and cowboy boots, fought until the very end 
     for Trinity River improvements and against water diversions 
     in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
       ``He gave so much of his time and effort that it would be 
     remiss as his friend for me not to continue that effort,'' 
     said Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, who once spent several 
     days hiking and rafting the river with Mr. Leydecker. ``He 
     had a sense of romance about big rivers and what they bring 
     to a society.''
       He is survived by sons John Leydecker of San Rafael and 
     Mark Leydecker of Aspen, Colo.; daughters Caroline ``Lama 
     Palden'' Alioto of San Rafael and Criss Troast of Nantucket, 
     Mass.; and eight grandchildren.
       A memorial service will be held June 5 at 3 p.m. at Marin 
     Art & Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., in Ross. 
     Donations may be sent to the California Water Impact Network, 
     808 Romero Canyon Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108.

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