[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 170 (Sunday, December 30, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2007-E2008]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO ALEXANDER J. BECKLES

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Sunday, December 30, 2012

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Alexander J. Beckles, a 
great Bahamian-American and friend, who was on my staff for sixteen 
years and was my Legislative Director for eight years. Known to us as 
Alex, I have also heard my dear friend Chairman John Dingell call him 
``Little Shaft.''
  I first met Alex back in 1985 when he would come by my office on the 
7th floor of the Longworth Building to visit the late Ms. Brenda E. 
Pillors, his friend and my former Chief of Staff of twenty-five years. 
Brenda was my first hire as a member of this institution back in 
January 1983.
  One day back in 1986, Alex approached me saying, ``Can I speak with 
you, Congressman Towns. I need your advice,'' and I told him to come on 
into my office. Alex explained that he was now working for my friend 
Congressman Gus Savage, but Congressman Clyde Holloway, R-Forest Hill, 
Louisiana, had offered him a job for his upcoming re-election campaign. 
After all, Alex had been the field coordinator for the Faye E. 
Williams, D-Alexandria, LA 8th Congressional District race two years 
earlier. During that period, Alex and Congressman Clyde Holloway had 
become friends, and the Congressman wanted Alex to work for him because 
of his relationship with the Black community in the 8th Congressional 
District of Louisiana. My response to Alex was, ``If Clyde Holloway is 
willing to give you a better paying job, take it and don't look back.'' 
I'm happy to say, Alex took my advice and the rest is history.
  Alex later worked on Congressman Holloway's Congressional staff from 
1987 to 1992 as a Legislative Assistant and on a number of projects, 
such as a feasibility study for the Red River during and after large 
scale flooding in Central and Northwest Louisiana. Alex was most proud 
of his leadership in the Gulf States Counter-Narcotic Initiative, a 
unique multi-state counter-narcotics operation in Louisiana, 
Mississippi, and Alabama, funded by the Department of Defense.
  Alex's first job on Capitol Hill was with Congressman Tom Delay, R-
Houston, Texas, where Alex had attended Texas Southern University and 
resided for some 14 years before coming to Washington, DC. Alex also 
worked for the following members of Congress: Congressman George Brown, 
D-California, Congressman Mervyn M. Dymally, D-California, and 
Congressman Gus Savage, D-Illinois, where he was able to work on a bill 
which set the national standard for minority set-asides within the 
Federal Government, particularly in the Department of Defense.
  Alex later came to work for me in 1993, after Congressman Holloway 
lost to Congressman Richard Baker in the November election

[[Page E2008]]

of 1992. He was an indispensable resource to the constituents of the 
10th Congressional District of Brooklyn, New York from 1993 to 2008, as 
Legislative Assistant and later as my Legislative Director. Nobody had 
more zeal for the job, and more loyalty to the office and the 
constituents of the District.
  An example of his service to the people of Brooklyn was demonstrated 
in 1994 when we received a phone call into the District office, just 
before President Bill Clinton was forced to send American troops to 
Haiti. The matter concerned a 7 year old Haitian-American girl that was 
living with her grandmother in Port-au-Prince, and the last commercial 
Air France flight had departed Haiti a few days earlier. The mother, 
who lived in Brooklyn, was frightened and deeply concerned for her 
daughter's safety. Her child, it seemed, was stranded in what was soon 
to be a war zone with no way out.
  Alex spoke with the mother of the child and told her to give him a 
few days and she will have her baby home safe with her in Brooklyn. On 
that Thursday, my Chief of Staff, Brenda Pillors, informed me that I 
would need to be at Kennedy International Airport the next day to meet 
the mother of a 7 year old Haitian girl, who lives here in Brooklyn and 
had not seen her daughter in over a year. She further informed me that 
Alex had arranged to fly the child out of Haiti earlier that day on 
Mission Flights out of Fort Lauderdale. I do not know, nor did I ask, 
how Alex was able to get this child out of Haiti just before the war 
started. But he did it. This is an example of why the staff always 
called Alex ``Mr. Fix-it'' and joked that no one could ever figure it 
out but he was able to get it done.
  Mr. Speaker, I wish to say thank you to Alexander J. Beckles for all 
his many years of service on my Congressional staff, to this 
institution, and to the American people.

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