[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 147 (Wednesday, October 16, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1519]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   HONORING THE LIFE AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF DR. J. EUGENE GRIGSBY, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. ED PASTOR

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 16, 2013

  Mr. PASTOR of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 
life and contributions of the legendary Phoenix artist, community 
activist, and my personal friend, J. Eugene Grigsby, Jr. He passed from 
this life on June 9, 2013 and will be remembered at a memorial service 
on October 19th at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Phoenix. 
Dr. Grigsby was an African American artist recognized nationally and 
internationally as one of America's premier art educators. He was a 
friend and supporter who spent his life painting, educating, and 
working as a tireless advocate for community based art programs and 
social justice.
  Dr. Grigsby served on the faculty of Arizona State University (ASU) 
for 22 years, from 1966-1988. Prior to accepting that post, he had a 
long history in the Phoenix public school system. He was recruited to 
Phoenix in 1946 to establish an Art Department at the segregated Carver 
High School, which closed following the 1954 Brown vs. Board of 
Education landmark decision. Dr. Grigsby then went to Phoenix Union 
High School where he again taught Art and served as Chair of the Art 
Department. He would often let his students pile into his old blue 
station wagon and take them on field trips to Native American 
reservations, galleries and even to the home of Frank Lloyd Wright.
  Jefferson Eugene Grigsby, Jr., was born in Greensboro, NC, on October 
17, 1918. His family settled in Charlotte, NC, when he was 12 years 
old. Upon graduation from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA, in 1938, 
Eugene attended the American Artists School in New York City. 
Thereafter, Eugene graduated with a Master's degree in Art Education 
from Ohio State University in 1940.
  While teaching at Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, he met 
and married Rosalyn Thomasena Marshall. In 1942, Eugene volunteered for 
service in World War II, serving in the European Theater under the 3rd 
Army's General George Patton. In 1963, Dr. Grigsby received his Ph.D. 
from New York University.
  In 1966, he was awarded the National Gallery of Art's 25th 
Anniversary Medallion of Merit and in 1992 was inducted into the 
Arizona History Makers the first year the award was presented. Dr. 
Grigsby was a prominent member of the National Art Education 
Association and was a co-founder of its Committee on Multicultural 
Concerns-which established the J. Eugene Grigsby, Jr. Award for Service 
to Education in his honor.
  Dr. Grigsby also served on numerous boards and professional 
organizations in the Phoenix community; including, the Arizona Art 
Education Association; President, Booker T. Washington Child 
Development Center; Founder and Chair, Coalition of Black Artists and 
Others for the Arts (COBA); Chair, ABC/Az-Artists of the Black 
Community; Arizona Opportunities Industrialization Center; Neighborhood 
Housing Services of Phoenix; the Garfield Neighborhood Association; and 
the ASU Performing Arts Board.
  Eugene Grigsby's art can be seen in private and public collections 
around the world, including the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan 
Museum of Art, the Phoenix Art Museum, and Arizona State University. In 
December 2012, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton presented the inaugural 
Mayor's Arts Award for outstanding visual artist to Dr. Grigsby. After 
his death, the Award was named in his honor.
  Mr. Speaker, I am deeply honored to have known Eugene Grigsby and to 
have had some of his artwork hang in my congressional district office. 
I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing his many contributions to 
Phoenix and the global community. We have lost a great artist, teacher, 
mentor, community activist, and friend. I extend my condolences to his 
siblings, his sons, his extended family and to all in the Phoenix arts 
community.

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