[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 102 (Tuesday, June 19, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E861]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PASSING OF EARL MASSEY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. KAREN BASS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 19, 2018

  Ms. BASS. Mr. Speaker, I am sad to report the passing of my dear 
friend and colleague, and a former Congressional staff member, Earl 
Massey, laid to rest on June 16, 2018.
   Devoted to Los Angeles and to serving its diverse communities, Earl 
was an activist, who worked with the faith community, small businesses, 
nonprofit organizations and government agencies to help the community 
thrive. Having grown up in a military family, he went to work for the 
Los Angeles Fire Department in 1980. He came to work with me at the 
Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment 
shortly after the civil unrest in 1992, and he founded his own 
organization, Surviving in Recovery (SIR) that same year.
   Earl aided in the development of prevention and intervention 
programs with a wide range of issues such as substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, 
police and community relations, violence prevention, teen pregnancy 
prevention, STD prevention, and teen drug prevention/intervention, 
including for Charles Drew University. He was a contributing author to 
Substance Abuse Prevention: A Multicultural Model by Snehendu B. Kar 
published in 1999, he worked on research projects with UCLA and the 
Rand Corp., and is accredited with contributions to multiple 
publications. When President Bill Clinton offered a long-overdue 
apology for the Tuskegee Syphilis Study in 1997, he worked with the 
Presidential committee tasked with establishing trust between 
researchers and minority communities.
   I welcomed him to my Congressional staff when first elected, and I 
appreciated his many community connections, his work ethic, and his 
focus on service and social justice.
   Later in life Earl focused on emergency preparedness. Having 
survived the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 as a child, he knew the 
disruption and harm that results when people are unprepared for 
disaster. His firm, Disaster Awareness Project, conducted seminars for 
hundreds of people. At the time of his passing, Earl served as Vice 
Chairperson for the Latin American Bible Institute College Board of 
Trustees and advisor to the American Red Cross, USC's Southern 
California Earthquake Center, The Great Shakeout, CERT (Community 
Emergency Response Team) and a multitude of nonprofit organizations in 
Los Angeles County and Central California.
   Earl touched many, many lives and his passing leaves a hole in the 
community that all of us must work to fill. May he rest in peace.

                          ____________________