[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 61 (Thursday, April 26, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S2811]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 2011 CONNECTICUT WOMEN'S HALL OF FAME

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize the 2011 
Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame inductees and their contributions to 
the recent history of the State of Connecticut and our Nation.
  In the spirit of preserving the often untold accomplishments of 
impactful leaders from Connecticut, each year the Connecticut Women's 
Hall of Fame publicly honors several women, living or deceased, to 
share their stories, preserve their legacies, and update and equalize 
the history that is taught to our children. The Connecticut Women's 
Hall of Fame has created and maintained a remarkable space, free of 
charge, where the utmost respect can be paid to women who have made 
immeasurable impacts to our daily lives.
  On October 25, 2011, at the 18th Annual Induction Ceremony and 
Celebration ``Women of Influence: Creating Social Change''--Isabelle M. 
Kelley, Denise Lynn Nappier, and Patricia Wald were inducted. These 
three women are trailblazers, taking on various leadership positions in 
government while breaking through stagnant stereotypes and archaic 
traditions.
  Isabelle M. Kelley devoted her passion for societal transformation, 
drive to accomplish, and energetic entrepreneurship to the problem of 
food shortages faced by our country's most impoverished families. Ms. 
Kelley was born in Connecticut in 1917 and remained there throughout 
her high school and college years, attending Simsbury High School and 
the University of Connecticut. Upon graduation in 1938 with an 
economics degree, she was asked to join the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture as an economist to examine food purchasing trends, which 
inspired a life-long interest in our country's food supply. In this 
capacity, she was the first to publicly link malnourishment in children 
to limited school achievement. She was asked by President Kennedy to 
serve on a task force to realize a national food stamp program. In 
1964, she authored the Food Stamp Act and was appointed as the first 
Director of the Food Stamp Division of the USDA. It was the first time 
any woman directed a national social program at the USDA and led any 
type of consumer affairs or marketing division in any Federal agency.
  Ms. Kelley passed away in 1997, but students of public health and 
nutrition can listen to and read transcripts of her oral history 
project by Harvard University's Schlesinger Library, whose aim was to 
capture the voices of 38 women ``who had achieved positions of high 
rank in the federal government during the middle decades of the 
twentieth century.'' In 2011, she was invited into the USDA's Hall of 
Heroes.
  The Honorable Denise Lynn Nappier, now serving her fourth term as 
Connecticut's first female State treasurer and first elected statewide 
official, and the country's first African American female State 
treasurer, can serve as a role model to women around the country who 
strive to impact the field of financial regulation. Born in 1951 in 
Hartford, Treasurer Nappier ran for city treasurer in 1989. After 
working 10 years to engender Hartford's financial development, she won 
the position of State treasurer. She made visits to schools around the 
State, teaching students how to save and budget--paving the way for 
success in their finances as adults. The Connecticut Women's Hall of 
Fame joins other esteemed organizations that have honored Treasurer 
Nappier, including the Girl Scouts of Connecticut, the Hartford College 
for Women, the National Association of Minority and Women Law Firms, 
the Government Finance Officers Association, and the National Political 
Congress of Black Women.
  The Honorable Patricia Wald has dedicated her career to public 
service and the law, retiring from her seat as the first female judge 
for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to 
serve on the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. Born in 1928 
in the city of Torrington, she went on to attend law school at Yale 
University as one of only 11 women in her graduating class. Judge Wald 
was motivated to go into government service by the possibilities of 
social reform, especially addressing issues concerning poverty and 
criminal justice. In 1964, she was nominated by President Johnson to 
the President's Commission on Crime in Washington, DC. After serving 
the Carter administration as Assistant Attorney General for Legislative 
Affairs, she was appointed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of the 
District of Columbia in 1979, where she served for 20 years, eventually 
as chief judge. Since her retirement from the bench, she has been asked 
to join several commissions and task forces, including President Bush's 
Commission on Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding 
Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Constitution Project's Guantanamo 
Task Force. Most recently, she has served on the advisory board of the 
Coalition for the International Criminal Court. I join those who have 
honored Judge Wald, including members of the International Human Rights 
Law Group, the American Lawyer Hall of Fame, and the American Bar 
Association, in celebrating her commitment to the law, especially in 
protecting our country's most vulnerable.
  I know my colleagues will join me in honoring these remarkable women, 
who weathered criticism and risked public failure to inspire current 
and upcoming public servants and to better the lives of future 
generations.

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