[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 16, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E55]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING MR. WILLIAM ASTOR KIRK

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 16, 2019

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. 
William Astor Kirk on his great contributions to civil rights activism.
  Raised in the East Texas town of Harleton, William began his journey 
to higher education at Wiley College, a historically black college 
located in Pittsburg, Texas. He transferred and continued his 
trajectory at the prestigious Howard University in Washington, earning 
both his bachelor's and master's degrees in Political Science. He then 
pursued his doctorate at the University of Texas. He also completed 
postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics and Political 
Science in England as a Fulbright scholar. He later served as a 
regional director of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity and as an 
adjunct associate professor of organization theory in the Graduate 
School of Management and Technology at the University of Maryland. He 
was founder and CEO of the Organization Management Services 
Corporation.
  Kirk, also a United Methodist layperson, served as a director of the 
public affairs department of the Board of Church and Society of the 
United Methodist Church from 1961 to 1966 and as the board's interim 
top executive in 1987 and 1988. He played a historic role in ending 
institutional segregation in the United Methodist Church.
  Overcoming discrimination was a fight he knew well. He had earned a 
doctorate in political science at the University of Texas at Austin--
the university's first Ph.D. awarded to an African-American.
  Kirk also led Huston-Tillotson students in various protests against 
segregated public facilities in Austin during that era, and he was said 
to be instrumental in the desegregation of the city's library and other 
facilities.
  He was known as a complete gentleman, a person who believed in 
forgiving and in not allowing bitterness to define his life.
  Before his death, Kirk had prepared an omnibus resolution to end 
discrimination against sexual minorities, to be presented at the 2012 
General Conference of The United Methodist Church.
  William Astor Kirk died on Friday, August 12, 2011, at 89 years of 
age. He and his wife Vivian, who died in 2010, had been members of 
Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington since 1984, and he served 
in many leadership roles. He is survived by his son, William A. Kirk, 
Jr., his late daughter Marie Kirk Dunn, daughter-in-law Hillary, his 
late son-in-law Reginald Dunn, and four granddaughters Ayanna, Jenelle, 
Allison and Stefanie.
  Madam Speaker, today I honor the life of Mr. William Astor Kirk for 
his many contributions to ending discriminatory practices in the United 
Methodist Church as well as throughout the City of Austin. William made 
a career of serving others, and his work had a direct and positive 
influence on the lives of literally thousands.

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