[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 47 (Wednesday, April 10, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E413-E414]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        A TRIBUTE IN HONOR OF THE LIFE OF OLIVE ``OLLIE'' MAYER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 10, 2013

  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary life 
of an extraordinary woman. Ollie Mayer died at the age of 94, in 
Woodside, California, after a lifetime of firsts, mosts, and bests. She 
was a force of nature, a force for nature, and a force for all things 
good and just. She was ahead of her time in everything she did, and the 
list of challenges she dared to face is long and daunting. Our beloved 
San Francisco Peninsula has been the beneficiary of so much of her 
brilliance and activism, and our world is a better place because she 
graced it.
  Olive Hendricks was born on the East Coast and studied engineering at 
Swarthmore College. She and her husband, Dr. Henry Mayer, met while 
hiking the Rocky Mountains. They moved to Woodside, California, where 
Ollie started a machine shop, then a science education company, and 
then began devoting all her energies to environmental causes in the 
early 1970s. She was an activist for free speech during the McCarthy 
era and provided support for victims of blacklisting. She was an 
organizer of cultural exchanges between U.S. and Soviet women in the 
early 1960s. She was an early opponent of the Vietnam war and an early 
civil rights activist. She fearlessly took on unpopular causes, often 
alone. What an extraordinary example she set for generations to come.

[[Page E414]]

  Ollie's husband, Dr. Mayer, preceded her in death. She was the loving 
mother of Judy and Robert, and the devoted grandmother of four. She 
leaves behind countless friends, and I feel privileged to count myself 
among that group. I ask my colleagues to join me in extending our 
condolences to her family and her friends who mourn the passing of this 
great and good woman who did so much to strengthen our democracy and 
protect our environment, and lived a life that stands as an eloquent 
statement for the ages.

                          ____________________