[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 133 (Tuesday, September 6, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1192]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          HONORING THE LIFE OF WOODY TRAUTMAN OF TOLEDO, OHIO

                                  _____
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, September 6, 2016

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Mr. DeForest L. 
``Woody'' Trautman, of Toledo, Ohio. Woody passed from this life on 
Thursday, August 19, 2016 at the age of 96. He was an amazing sage and 
a very community minded man. He was a man of peace.
  Woody Trautman was born to Charlotte and DeForest L. Trautman in 
Panama on June 14, 1920 while his father was stationed there in the 
U.S. Navy. Later the family moved to Drexel Hill in Pennsylvania. Woody 
went on to receive his undergraduate and graduate degrees in 
engineering from Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon 
University, in Pittsburgh and his PhD from Stanford University. He 
married his first wife Retta and together they raised 3 children until 
her passing in 1998.
  Woody's engineering talents were sought by many both in the United 
States and worldwide. He taught at Carnegie, UCLA and the University of 
New York at Stony Brook. Through the Ford Foundation he developed 
graduate schools of engineering in the U.S. He worked for Hughes 
Aircraft. He worked at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and 
Development in Paris, France. Later the family moved to Chile for five 
years while Woody helped organize a graduate school of engineering at 
the University of Concepcion through UNESCO. Settling in at the 
University of Toledo, Woody was a former president of the Technical 
Society of Toledo and was named Engineer of the Year in 1978.
  Once retired, Woody pursued his passions with vigor. He was a grief 
counselor for Hospice of Northwest Ohio for many years. He was part of 
the Interracial Religious Coalition and helped organize workshops on 
world religion. Together with his wife Judy, who he married in 2003, he 
co-founded the MultiFaith Council of NW Ohio ``to facilitate 
educational and fellowship activities to promote shared community 
service across many faith perspectives.'' According to the history, 
``When the council began, he said `all faiths and none.' '' With more 
than 500 members representing many faiths, the Multi-Faith Council is 
among the jewels in the crown that is Woody Tautman's legacy. In 
December 2014, Toledo's charter as a ``Community of Compassion,'' was 
signed after a four year effort by Woody and Judy Trautman and part of 
an international movement.
  He once noted, ``I'm honored and humbled at this opportunity to be 
able to represent the effort to get together all kinds of people in the 
same room and to share and to find out firsthand we are all the same 
human race.'' Woody, ``with his chest-length white beard, was a 
familiar figure in the audience of events that promoted understanding, 
even if organized by another group.'' His wife Judy explained, ``It 
became his trademark. People would not recognize him anymore without 
his beard.''
  Judy Trautman commented that Woody ``was persistent and intensely 
gregarious. People used to say of him that he would just keep asking 
until they stopped saying no. It was hard to say no to Woody.'' Pastor 
Ed Heilman of Park Congregational United Church of Christ summed up 
Woody best when he said, ``He was looking to do good in a practical, 
pragmatic way. His own questioning mind and his engineering mind was, 
`Something is going on in the world that needs to be fixed, let's do 
something about it,' ''
  To Judy and the Trautman children Patricia, Edwin and Craig, 
grandchildren and great-grandchildren, we extend our deepest sympathy 
to each of you on the passing of this extraordinary man. Called home, 
he most certainly was met with the embrace ``Well done, my good and 
faithful servant.''

                          ____________________