[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 162 (Monday, December 17, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8067-S8068]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

                                 ______
                                 

                      REMEMBERING CARMEN WARSCHAW

 Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, today I ask my colleagues to join 
me in honoring Carmen Harvey Warschaw, the great California 
philanthropist and political leader who died at age 95 on election day, 
a week after she had made sure to vote by mail. Carmen was a trusted 
mentor, adviser, and dear friend to me, and I will miss her.
  Carmen Harvey was born in Los Angeles in 1917. Her parents had 
immigrated to America from Lithuania, and her father founded the Harvey 
Aluminum Company. Carmen grew up in La Canada, graduated from the 
University of Southern California, and married Louis Warschaw, her high 
school sweetheart.
  From an early age, both Carmen and Lou were active in the California 
Democratic Party. Throughout the

[[Page S8068]]

years, Carmen worked tirelessly to elect Democrats at the local, State, 
and national level. She attended every Democratic National Convention 
from 1948 to 2008, many as a delegate. In the mid sixties she served as 
the party's Southern California chairwoman, was a member of the 
Democratic National Committee, the first woman to chair the California 
Fair Employment Practices Commission, and a board member of 
California's coastal and fair housing commissions.
  Carmen's passion for politics was equaled by her compassion and 
philanthropy. She was an active member of many organizations, including 
the Los Angeles Music Center, the Truman Library Institute, the Jewish 
Federation of Greater Los Angeles, and the Women's Guild and Helping 
Hand of Los Angeles.
  Carmen long served as a member of the board of directors at Cedars-
Sinai, where she endowed medical and research chairs and founded the 
PROs, which funds the Louis Warschaw Prostate Cancer Center. Two years 
ago, at age 93, Carmen joined me on a tour of the Cedars-Sinai 
Emergency Room and Operating Room; I remember joking that she was the 
only person I knew who could get me to put on scrubs.
  Carmen was also very generous to her alma mater, USC, where she and 
Lou helped to establish the Casden Institute for the Study of the 
Jewish Role in American Life and the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of 
Politics at USC. In 2003, Carmen endowed a chair in practical politics 
at the Unruh Institute so that students could learn about the nuts and 
bolts of politics as part of their political science education.
  This world and Carmen's beloved State of California are much better 
places thanks to her passion, compassion, and commitment. On behalf of 
the people of California, I send my deepest gratitude and condolences 
to her daughters, Hope and Susan; her sons-in-law, John Law and Carl 
Robertson; her grandchildren, Jack Law-Warschaw, Cara Robertson, and 
Chip Robertson; and her great-grandchildren and many friends. We will 
all miss this dynamic force of nature and extraordinary woman.

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