[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 53 (Thursday, April 18, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E491]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CONGRATULATING BERTRAM JAMES ASKWITH

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. TIMOTHY H. BISHOP

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 18, 2013

  Mr. BISHOP of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate Bertram 
James Askwith, who celebrated his 102nd birthday on March 2, 2013. Bert 
was married for almost 60 years to Miriam Teidor, who passed away in 
2001; they had four children, one of whom, Patti Askwith Kenner, is a 
constituent who lives in East Hampton, New York.
  Mr. Askwith is a remarkable man who still works nine hours a day at 
the company he founded while he was a college student at the University 
of Michigan. Still very active, he travels to work each day by train 
from his home in Harrison, New York.
  Mr. Askwith was born in 1911 at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle 
Creek, Michigan, where his father Herbert worked as the public 
relations director for the doctor who delivered him, Dr. John Harvey 
Kellogg, who was later portrayed by Anthony Hopkins in the film, The 
Road to Wellville.
  While he was a student at the University of Michigan in 1928, Mr. 
Askwith objected to the high train fare of $100 for students who needed 
to travel home from Ann Arbor to New York. He chartered a bus from a 
local company, put a sign on it saying ``Campus Coach Lines,'' started 
a sign-up sheet in the Student Union, and paid for four years of 
college by transporting students at a more reasonable rate.
  After graduating from college in 1931, Mr. Askwith moved to New York 
City and purchased his first bus. Now, 82 years later, he remains the 
Chief Operating Officer of Campus Coach Lines providing charter service 
to private groups in New York City and as well as college groups, 
public and private schools, baseball and football teams, leading 
American corporations, and for family events.
  At age 102, he still enjoys his daily routine but he has never 
forgotten his years at the University of Michigan. He built ``Bert's 
Cafe'' in the undergraduate Shapiro Library and celebrated his 100th 
birthday with 600 students and the University of Michigan band playing 
``Happy Birthday'' as he cut the ribbon for ``Bert's Study & Campus 
Center.'' When asked what was his favorite birthday, Mr. Askwith always 
replies, ``the next.''
  Mr. Askwith is active in many philanthropic causes and served as 
chairman of his local United Way, where he remains on the Board of 
Directors. He is involved in the Museum of Jewish Heritage, a living 
memorial to the Holocaust in Battery Park and the Askwith Forum at 
Harvard University in memory of his parents who were students there.
  On behalf of myself, and the first congressional district of New 
York, I congratulate Mr. Askwith for an inspirational 82 years of hard 
work and dedication to his business, Campus Coach Lines and to wish him 
the very best 102nd birthday.

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