[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 61 (Friday, March 27, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E334]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TRIBUTE IN HONOR OF MAYOR SUSAN HAMMER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 27, 2020

  Ms. ESHOO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and work of 
an extraordinary leader, former Mayor Susan Hammer of San Jose, 
California. She was a woman ahead of her time, one who championed 
diversity, the arts and the need for paying workers a living wage.
  Susan Hammer was born on December 2, 1938, in Altadena, California. 
She grew up in nearby Monrovia and graduated from UC Berkeley, where 
she met her husband Phil. She died on March 7, 2020 at her home in 
Willow Glen, San Jose, with her family by her side.
  After working on John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign, and at the 
newly formed Peace Corps, Susan and Phil returned to his hometown of 
San Jose. She worked on several campaigns and served on the San Jose 
City Council from 1983 until she was elected Mayor in 1991. She served 
as the 62nd mayor of San Jose from 1991 to 1999, working for diversity 
among city commissions, created the Mayor's Gang Prevention Task Force 
and began a partnership between the City and San Jose State University 
to build the Martin Luther King Library in downtown San Jose. She 
introduced policies that required the replacement of low-income housing 
destroyed by redevelopment and required city contractors to pay their 
workers living wages. She pushed for the construction of the Mexican 
Heritage Plaza and earned the renaming of the San Jose Repertory 
building, the Hammer Theater.
  Susan Hammer served on the Santa Clara County Juvenile Justice 
Commission and was a founding member and President of the San Jose 
Museum of Art. She was appointed to the Advisory Committee on Trade 
Policy and Negotiations by President Clinton, the first woman and the 
first elected official to serve on the Committee. Governor Gray Davis 
named her to the California State Board of Education.
  Mayor Hammer's son Matt said his mother . . . ``was our model of 
living a life of compassion and devotion to the community.'' The San 
Jose Mercury (March 10, 2020) in an editorial praising her, quoted her 
farewell address in which she said she hoped to be thought of as a 
mayor ``who built community by championing the potential of people; who 
fostered social action; and who changed the face of the city by 
nurturing its spirit.'' ``Mission accomplished'' is the Mercury's 
evaluation of her work, and I wholeheartedly agree.
  Madam Speaker, I ask the entire House of Representatives to join me 
in honoring the life and work of Susan Hammer, a great and good woman 
who set the `gold standard' in public service. We express our most 
sincere condolences to her husband, their three children, and all who 
had the privilege to know her. We are a better community and a stronger 
country because of Susan Hammer. I was blessed to know her and she will 
always be a source of inspiration to me.

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