[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 195 (Tuesday, December 11, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN RECOGNITION OF PRADEEP GUPTA

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 11, 2018

  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Pradeep Gupta as he departs 
the South San Francisco city council. Councilman Gupta served four 
years during a time of enormous change in South San Francisco, and 
previously served for three years as a planning commissioner.
  South San Francisco is a city of 67,000 with a long and colorful 
history. Immigrants settled in the early 1900's and were the backbone 
of a thriving industrial hub. The city was once home to steel mills, 
meat packing plants, and paint manufacturers, among many industrial 
enterprises. Today, South San Francisco is universally recognized as 
the biotechnology capital of the world, and the founding location of 
the biotechnology industry with Genentech's establishment in 1976 in 
the city's Oyster Point area.
  Pradeep Gupta fits well with his city's history. In 1964, he arrived 
in the United States from India with a superb education and ambition, 
but little money. He attended Purdue and obtained his MSEE in 1966 and 
his PhD in Electrical Engineering in 1969. He had a successful 
engineering career around the globe working with Southern California 
Edison, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and as a 
consultant to USAID and the World Bank on international energy 
projects. Ultimately, Pradeep and his wife, Kumkum, settled in South 
San Francisco.
  Councilman Gupta is a scientist at heart, and a leader in growing the 
connections between industry and local schools. He initiated the 
Steering Committee on Biotechnology, Workforce and Education. He worked 
hard with the Genentech Foundation so that a new $7.9 million 
biotechnology laboratory at South San Francisco High School could be 
approved and constructed. Today's students in South San Francisco 
schools come from around the globe. Councilman Gupta is living proof 
that America thrives when its immigrants have opportunity. Extending 
this lesson to others, and using his position on the council for 
educational advocacy, is a passion of Councilman Gupta.
  Population growth is rarely without conflict. Historically, South San 
Francisco has extended the hand of welcome to new arrivals and allowed 
for the construction of ample housing at affordable prices. In recent 
years, global capital flowing into the biotechnology sector has brought 
explosive employment growth to the east side of the city. Councilman 
Gupta was far-sighted enough to welcome new, high density housing in 
the city's core and around the train station so that employees could 
find homes near their jobs. On numerous occasions over the years, 
Councilman Gupta remarked to me or to my staff about how troubled he 
was by the hardships created by skyrocketing rental and homeownership 
costs. He can be proud that developments near the core and near the 
BART station around Chestnut and the El Camino Real will allow many 
families to settle and work in the community.
  San Mateo County is one of a few communities to have created its own 
electricity aggregator. Peninsula Clean Energy delivers greener, less 
expensive electricity than the existing utility. Councilman Gupta, with 
his extensive history in the industry, was an invaluable contributor to 
the effort to bring this service to San Mateo County residents.
  Among his many responsibilities on the council, he has served as a 
board member of the Association of Bay Area Governments, as the Chair 
of the Economic Strategy Group, as Mayor in 2017, and as a board member 
of the C/CAG Resource Management and Climate Protection Committee. He 
performs all these official duties while also being a loving father to 
his children Seema and Susheem, and a loving grandfather to grandson 
David and granddaughters Riya, Raveena, and Nadia.
  I closing, I want to remark upon the goodwill and grace of Pradeep 
Gupta. He is my friend, and I've known him to be passionate, but I've 
never seen him cross. I've known him to be energetic, but he's always 
organized. His constituents recognize him as highly educated but 
nonetheless a man who easily relates to others. In short, he is a 
quintessential leader of South San Francisco--outgoing, responsive to 
community needs, and deeply devoted to his family. As he closes this 
chapter in his life, others will open.
  I spent my childhood in this city, and despite all of the outward 
change the community remains rooted in family, faith and country. In 
sum, South San Francisco, the Industrial City, is a place of generous, 
loving people vigorously engaged in the enterprise of building the 
United States of America. Pradeep Gupta will be remembered by his 
neighbors and friends as a master builder.

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