[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 27, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E219]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 OBITUARY OF MY FATHER WILLIAM QUIGLEY

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                           HON. MIKE QUIGLEY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 27, 2019

  Mr. QUIGLEY. Madam Speaker, I rise to include in the Record the 
obituary of my father William Quigley, published in The Chicago Sun-
Times on February 10, 2019.

    William Quigley, Army Veteran, Father of Congressman, Dies at 92

       Abandoned by his mother, the baby boy--he was about 2--
     ended up at an Indiana orphanage during the Great Depression.
       His luck changed when a WWI veteran and his wife filled out 
     the ``boy or girl'' portion of an adoption application with 
     the words: ``any child we can love.''
       That veteran, William Earl Quigley, made his adopted son 
     his namesake and gave him whatever else he could working as a 
     handyman and farmhand in a rural area outside Indianapolis.
       The origin story stayed with him always--from when he 
     served in the Army during the Korean War era as a newlywed to 
     the time he retired with a pension from AT&T--and formed the 
     bedrock motivation of his life: ``You work hard to give your 
     kids a better chance than you had.''
       On Saturday, after a long battle with Parkinson's disease, 
     Mr. Quigley, 92, died knowing he did just that.
       His daughter Chris is a retired school superintendent. His 
     daughter Linda was a social worker. His son Dan, who passed 
     away two years ago, owned a used-record store. And his son 
     Mike is a U.S. congressman.
       ``He didn't like most politicians, so the irony that his 
     son grew up to be one was not lost upon him,'' said Mike 
     Quigley, who represents Illinois' 5th Congressional District.
       Despite that fact, Mr. Quigley insisted on standing the 
     entire time as his son was sworn in to the House of 
     Representatives in 2009.
       Mr. Quigley regularly wrote letters to politicians calling 
     out ``idiocy and hypocrisy'' and dinner conversation could 
     easily be mistaken for political debate at the Quigley house.
       Whatever adopted dog the family had at the time--there were 
     many and they were all called ``Missy'' because it was easy 
     to remember--was certainly well fed.
       ``He'd spoil those dogs rotten, and sing to them even, 
     because they went through similar things as him. He knew what 
     it was like to be an orphan,'' Mike Quigley said, recalling 
     his dad's habit of mixing table scraps with gravy and 
     offering it to the dogs.
       Mr. Quigley had a unique appreciation for food surpluses.
       ``When you're hungry, you'll eat anything,'' he recalled 
     his father saying. ``We'd be like, `Yeah, right!' And he'd 
     never elaborate, he'd just say, `Trust me.' ''
       Mr. Quigley, who went by Bill, was starting his second year 
     at Purdue University when he was drafted into the Army during 
     the Korean War. He married Joan Louise Deputy in the chapel 
     of a military training facility in Georgia; the couple 
     celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary last June.
       Mr. Quigley spent his post-military career working for AT&T 
     as a supervising engineer. A promotion brought him to the 
     Chicago area in 1967. He settled in Carol Stream. Upon 
     retirement, he moved to Ottawa, Illinois, where he 
     volunteered at a homeless shelter and served on the Ottawa 
     Planning Commission.
       His hobbies included chess and reading. He also built 
     radios, stereos--and his family's first color TV.
       He was also fanatical about the Indianapolis 500; he 
     sported his checkered socks and stopwatches to the race on as 
     many as 60 occasions.
       ``To me he represented a more realistic aspect of the 
     American Dream. He did it all to put a roof over our heads 
     and food on the table,'' Mike Quigley said.
       ``He came from less than nothing and he raised four kids. 
     My accomplishments are a shadow compared to what he was able 
     to do,'' he said.
       In addition to his wife and children, Quigley is also 
     survived by six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

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