[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 135 (Friday, October 12, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1692]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  IN RECOGNITION OF LLOYD R. LaCUESTA

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 12, 2012

  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Lloyd R. LaCuesta, one of 
the best-known faces in the Bay Area. For 36 years, Lloyd's face and 
voice have been beamed into millions of living rooms every night during 
the award-winning Ten O'clock News on KTVU. His reporting is a chief 
reason why the newscast is rated as one of the best in the country.
  With 43 years in journalism, Lloyd is often considered the dean of 
reporters in the Bay Area. He is the longest tenured reporter at KTVU 
and has run its South Bay Bureau for decades. I have had the pleasure 
to be interviewed by Lloyd many times and have witnessed his 
professionalism and attention to detail first hand; he is meticulous, 
fair and won't give any public official a pass.
  Lloyd has covered some of the biggest stories of our region and time: 
The Loma Prieta earthquake, the Oakland Hills fire, the eruption of Mt. 
Saint Helens, the L.A. riots in 1992, the Columbine school shooting, 
Hurricane Mitch in Honduras, the Kobe earthquake, the Marcos vs. Aquino 
presidential campaign in the Philippines, and the list goes on. So many 
of us in the Bay Area experienced these events through his eyes.
  Early in his career Lloyd covered a story that would affect the way 
he reported for decades. He was doing a live stand up from Stanford 
Hospital where the family of a Castro Valley man was holding a vigil 
because he needed a heart. Lloyd reached into his wallet, pulled out 
his driver's license with the pink donor dot and said, being an organ 
donor is a way to make a life-changing gift, even though you will never 
meet the recipient. A few days later, he received a call from a woman 
who told him that her daughter had died in an accident and she donated 
the daughter's heart because she had seen his story and remembered his 
words. This experience powerfully reminded Lloyd that his reporting 
affected lives and that he carried a responsibility to always be 
mindful of people.
  Before coming to KTVU in August of 1976, Lloyd worked for the Los 
Angeles Herald Examiner, KMPC Radio, KNX-CBS Newsradio, American Forces 
Korea Network, KABC Radio, KABC TV and KGO TV.
  He has won several of the most prestigious journalism awards, 
including six Emmys from the National Academy of Television Arts & 
Sciences, NATAS. His reporting was essential in the Ten O'Clock News 
winning a national Edward R. Murrow Award for Newscast Excellence in 
2004 from the Radio-Television News Directors Association, RTNDA.
  One of his award-winning series took Lloyd to Vietnam in 1986. He 
followed three Vietnam veterans who went back to find their Amerasian 
children they had fathered during the war. It was fathers like them 
that in 1982 led to the Amerasian Act which allowed children born in 
Cambodia, Korea, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam after December 31, 1950 and 
before October 22, 1982 to immigrate to the United States.
  Lloyd was the first elected national president of the Asian American 
Journalists Association and the first president of Unity Journalists of 
Color. He is on AAJA's list of pioneer Asian American journalists and 
received the group's Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2004, he was 
inducted into the NATAS Silver Circle for his many years of outstanding 
Bay Area reporting.
  Lloyd was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1947. He received his BA in 
journalism from Los Angeles and San Jose State Colleges and his Masters 
in Journalism from UCLA.
  In his retirement, Lloyd is looking forward to spending more time 
with his family and friends and a slower pace of life with more time to 
read, play tennis and travel. He is married to Mona Lisa Yuchengco and 
has two daughters, Angelisa Marie LaCuesta-Russo and Elena Maria 
LaCuesta-Roberson.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask the House of Representatives to rise with me to 
honor a broadcast icon who has been part of the fabric of the Bay Area 
for decades. Not long ago, a person saw the retired reporter in San 
Mateo, stopped him and said, ``You used to be Lloyd LaCuesta!''--I'm 
sure that won't be the last time. Lloyd will be deeply missed by 
viewers, public officials and his co-workers alike.

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