[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 115 (Tuesday, July 31, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1362-E1363]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       IN HONOR OF BRUCE WOOLPERT

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 31, 2012

  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of myself and my 
colleagues, Representatives Eshoo, Lofgren, and Honda, to honor the 
life of Bruce Woolpert, a remarkable businessman, a noted 
philanthropist, and a stalwart of the Monterey Bay and San Francisco 
Bay Area communities. As the leader of the Granite Rock Company, Bruce 
will be remembered for his integrity and his generosity, not only to 
his employees, but to the community where he was raised and in which 
Graniterock was based.
  Bruce Wilson Woolpert was born on May 30, 1951 to Mary Elizabeth 
``Betsy'' Wilson Woolpert and Bruce Gideon Woolpert. Betsy's father, 
Arthur Roberts Wilson incorporated Granite Rock Company in 1900 after 
seeing an opportunity with a small granite quarry located in Aromas, 
California. Bruce was a native to Watsonville, California, the beacon 
of the Pajaro Valley. He attended MacQuiddy Elementary School, E.A. 
Hall Junior High School, and graduated from Watsonville High School in 
1970. He went on to study economics and mathematics at the University 
of California, Los Angeles, graduating summa cum laude. He obtained a 
Master's Degree in Business Administration from Stanford University in 
1976, graduating first in his class, and going on to work for Hewlett 
Packard. By 1986, he returned to Graniterock to serve as President and 
CEO.
  It was at Graniterock that Bruce sought to make a company where its 
workers were delighted to come to work every day. He was a

[[Page E1363]]

gifted leader and renewed the company's core values of safety, 
dedication to excellence in customer service, the growth and 
development of Graniterock people, honesty and integrity, continuous 
improvement, and lifelong learning. As a result, the company was 
awarded the United States Department of Commerce's Malcolm Baldridge 
National Quality Award in 1992, the first winner of the California 
State Quality Award, the Construction Innovation Forum's NOVA Award in 
1994, and consistently ranked in the top 25 of Fortune Magazine's 100 
Best Places to Work.
  Among other charitable pursuits, Bruce maintained a special interest 
in supporting education in the Pajaro Valley, where he was instrumental 
in the creation of the Committee for Good School Governance. He 
realized that his role as a leader to his employees expanded far beyond 
the asphalt of the company's driveway and went through the streets of 
the city, seeking to make a better life for all.
  Mr. Speaker, I know that I speak on behalf of the entire House, when 
I offer the nation's deepest sympathies to Bruce's wife, Rose Ann, his 
daughter Marianne, his son Arthur, his brother Stephen, and his 
extended Graniterock family. He was a hero and a leader that sought to 
change the world one rock at a time.

                          ____________________