[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 106 (Monday, June 25, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4364-S4365]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING FRANCIS VOIGT

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, it is with a mixture of pride and sadness 
that I recognize the life of a friend, Francis ``Fran'' Voigt, the 
cofounder of the New England Culinary Institute of Montpelier, VT. Fran 
passed away in May, leaving a strong legacy and many family and 
friends.
  Fran Voigt was an innovator, who originally came to Vermont to teach 
at Goddard College. In 1969, he came to Vermont with his wife, poet 
Ellen Bryant Voigt, who would later serve as Vermont's poet laureate. 
He was part of a faculty and staff at Goddard that changed the culture 
of central Vermont. While at Goddard, Fran developed programs in many 
fields, including social ecology and art therapy. Fran believed in 
hands-on education, both at Goddard and later at the New England 
Culinary Institute, known locally as NECI, which he cofounded in 1980.
  The New England Culinary Institute, which began in the basement of 
Montpelier's Capitol Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, grew quickly 
and garnered national attention. Fran and NECI were soon at the 
forefront of our

[[Page S4365]]

country's progressive culinary education movement and were recognized 
by President Bill Clinton as first runner-up for the Nation's small 
business of the year in 1994. In 2000, Fran was named Vermont Citizen 
of the Year by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.
  Vermont's culinary landscape was forever changed by the New England 
Culinary Institute, as its students opened and worked at restaurants 
throughout the State.
  In memory of Fran Voigt, I ask unanimous consent that the article by 
Stephen Mills in the May 22 edition of the Barre Montpelier Times 
Argus, ``NECI founder revered for student model,'' be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

         [From the Barre Montpelier Times Argus, May 22, 2018]

                 NECI Founder Revered for Student Model

                           (By Stephen Mills)

       Montpelier.--The Capital City reacted to news of the death 
     of Fran Voigt, co-founder of the New England Culinary 
     Institute, who died at his Cabot home Monday. He was 78.
       Voigt and co-founder John Dranow, and their wives, Ellen 
     Bryant Voigt and Louise Gluck, respectively met at Goddard 
     College and started the legendary cooking school with seven 
     students in the basement of the Capitol Plaza Hotel & 
     Conference Center on State Street in 1980.
       At the height of its success, the business was honored in 
     1994 by former President Bill Clinton as first runner-up for 
     the nation's small business of the year. It boasted a high of 
     800 students, and a number of academic offerings and outlets 
     that still include the flagship NECI on Main restaurant and 
     La Brioche bakery and cafe, and food service at National Life 
     and the cafeteria at Vermont College of Fine Arts, all in 
     Montpelier. Other operations, included a second campus in 
     Essex and NECI Commons, a restaurant on Church Street in 
     Burlington, which were discontinued. More recent contracts 
     included a $200,000 contract to train cooks for the U.S. 
     Coast Guard and a three-year contract to design and deliver a 
     training program for culinary staff at Sandals resorts in the 
     Caribbean. But NECI also was at the center of a protracted 
     legal dispute in 1999 that landed in the Vermont Supreme 
     Court after Voigt and the wives had a falling out with Dranow 
     who was ousted, and sued but finally settled. NECI is now run 
     by Milan Milasinovic, who is also president of Virginia Marti 
     College of Art and Design in Ohio and merged the two schools 
     last June after Voigt stepped down as president in January 
     2017. It has about 200 students. Voigt's daughter, Dudley, 
     said there would be no public service, but the family hoped 
     to hold a memorial service later.
       ``We would just say that he died at home after a long 
     illness,'' she said.
       ``We feel that we're very proud of NECI,'' Dudley Voigt 
     said. ``We watched him build it, and it was a unique 
     coalescing of all of his talents and gifts and curiosities.''
       According to an obituary provided by the family to be 
     published in The Times Argus, Francis George Wilheim Voigt 
     was born in in Oskaloosa, Iowa, March 27, 1940, after his 
     parents emigrated from Germany. He graduated from Wesleyan 
     University in 1962 and earned a graduate degree in political 
     theory from the University of Iowa where he met his wife, 
     Ellen Bryant Voigt. The couple came to central Vermont as 
     educational idealists in 1969. Fran Voigt accepted a teaching 
     position at Goddard College and developed some of the skills 
     he used to build the hands-on education that became the model 
     for NECI where students started in the kitchen in the 
     classroom and the student-teacher ratio was 7-1. The NECI 
     motto was: ``Learning by doing.''
       In addition to his lifelong work at NECI, Voigt was also an 
     active member of the Vermont Business Roundtable, Rotary 
     International, the Cabot School and the Vermont Chamber of 
     Commerce, which named him Vermont Citizen of the Year in 
     2000. He was also recognized in the community for his 
     signature bow ties and antique Citroens.
       Milan Milasinovic credited Voigt with visionary leadership 
     and commitment to the NECI model of culinary arts and being a 
     mentor to all at the school.
       ``He became a dear friend of mine in the last couple of 
     years of his life,'' he said. ``It's a huge loss. He was our 
     founding father and he made NECI very innovative and a force 
     as a culinary school in the United States. It's all because 
     of his entrepreneurial spirit. I'm sure the people at NECI 
     will miss him greatly. We loved this man a lot.''
       U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy credited Voigt with being ``at the 
     forefront of the progressive culinary education movement 
     nationally,'' and said the Vermont food scene would not be 
     what it is today without Voigt's contribution and leadership.
       ``His vision, hard work and dedication in founding and 
     continually reinventing NECI leaves a lasting legacy that 
     extends well beyond Vermont,'' Leahy said. ``He helped give 
     expression to Vermont's tradition of quality, taste and 
     excellence. Vermont's culinary landscape owes a significant 
     debt to his vision, and so do the communities that were 
     nourished, enriched and enlivened by those trained under his 
     leadership.''
       Montpelier Mayor Anne Watson added: ``Fran Voigt made 
     substantial cultural contributions to Montpelier, and I'm 
     certainly saddened to have lost him. We send our condolences 
     to his family.''
       The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations 
     be made in Voigt's name to the NECI scholarship fund or to 
     the Vermont Foodbank.

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