[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 181 (Thursday, October 22, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6397-S6398]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING JOHN McNAMARA

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, Winston Churchill famously said: ``If 
you're going through hell, keep going.'' Persevere, don't give up. It 
is good advice.
  Here is another bit of good advice for weathering hard times: Look to 
a brighter future, but also study the past. Look at how others before 
you have triumphed over similar difficulties, and learn from their 
example.
  During these hard, pandemic times, leaders and communities--and 
anyone,

[[Page S6398]]

really--would do well to study the life and accomplishments of an 
exceptional leader, the former mayor of Rockford, IL, John McNamara.
  John died on September 30 at the age of 81. As Rockford's mayor from 
1981 to 1989, he helped guide Rockford through a national recession, 
which crippled the manufacturing industry in his city. When he took 
office, Rockford's jobless rate stood at 11.5 percent. Eighteen months 
later, it had ballooned to nearly 25 percent, the highest unemployment 
in the Nation. For the first time since the Great Depression, the 
city's population declined. The New York Times reported that Rockford 
was ``bleeding away its jobs and its people.''
  Speaking with a Rockford Register Star reporter in 2006, John 
McNamara recalled those times. He said: ``People would come into my 
office to tell me about their situation. It was very heart-wrenching 
and emotional. It hit you in the gut.''
  John McNamara steered Rockford through those dark years with a strong 
leadership style and an irrepressible, infectious sense of optimism. He 
believed in Rockford's people and possibilities, and he inspired others 
to believe in them, too.
  By the start of his second and final term in 1985, the city's economy 
was on an upswing. While part of the improvement was due to a broader, 
national economic recovery, much of Rockford's rebound was the result 
of bold decisions by McNamara to overhaul the city's government.
  He professionalized the mayor's office and realigned the city's 
finances. He worked to create opportunities for economic growth and 
prosperity. He made smart investments in infrastructure to create new 
jobs and attract new industries to Rockford and to diversify and 
strengthen the city's economic base. He spearheaded the resurrection of 
downtown Rockford.
  He helped to establish a local tourism bureau and an arts council. He 
committed public funds to turn an old Sears Roebuck building into the 
Rockford Museum Park, home to the Rockford Art Museum, the Discovery 
Center, and the Rockford Dance Company.
  He worked for social justice for all of his city's residents. In a 
city where the school district had twice faced lawsuits for racial 
discrimination, he made racial healing a priority. He told his children 
that his favorite day of the year was Martin Luther King Day; he loved 
the inspiration he drew from visits to African-American churches. He 
established a Mayors Task Force on Homelessness.
  He was famous for his blunt speaking style and his booming voice, 
which echoed throughout city hall. He was funny, with a loud laugh. In 
his days as mayor, he stood 6-foot-4 and weighed about 180 pounds, 
tops. People used to marvel that such a big laugh could come from such 
a thin frame. He greeted people with a big hug and a big smile. He 
listened.
  He was a Democrat who didn't believe that any political party has a 
monopoly on good ideas. He was elected by Democrats and Republicans, 
and he appointed people from both parties to serve in city committees. 
One of his favorite sayings was: ``If you can't make a friend, don't 
make an enemy.''
  A Republican who served during his years as mayor, current Rockford 
Alderman Frank Beach said: ``John was a strong man [who] loved our 
community--a man of integrity, a man that put shoe leather to his 
convictions.''
  He motivated and inspired people, and he was energetic and tireless.
  Rockford was John's adopted hometown. He grew up in Whiting, IN, 
where his folks ran a small mom-and-pop grocery. He had two sisters. In 
his school, he was class president. He also played football, 
basketball, and baseball, and he was on the bowling team. He earned a 
bachelor's degree from Notre Dame University and a law degree from the 
University of Michigan.
  In 1965, on a blind date, he met Barbara Runkle, a young woman from 
the northern suburbs of Chicago. They ate at a diner and walked around 
Chicago. The next day, he drove 60 miles to see her again. He made that 
same 60-mile drive to see Barbara every day for months until they 
married on June 26, 1965.
  John and Barbara were married for 55 years and raised six children, 
three daughters and three sons, including Rockford's current mayor, Tom 
McNamara.
  Shortly after their wedding, John did a tour of duty in Vietnam as a 
captain in U.S. Army intelligence and earned a Bronze Star. After his 
military service, he passed up a chance to practice law in downtown 
Chicago and moved to Rockford to work as an assistant public defender 
in Winnebago County. He said his work in steel mills and factories 
during college and law school pushed him toward a practice in which he 
could help people.
  He had public service in his blood. His father had served on the city 
council and school board in Whiting, and two of his uncles were mayors. 
John's own career in public office started in 1974, when he was 
appointed by Rockford's mayor to fill a vacancy in the city's Third 
Ward. He ran for reelection the following year, winning a 4-year term. 
He took a year off after his term ended and, a year later, announced 
that he would run for mayor.
  If you asked him what accomplishment he was most proud of as mayor, 
John didn't mention new buildings or economic development deals. He was 
proudest that he had helped the people of Rockford believe in a better 
future during a dark time. He was proud that he chose not to seek a 
third term, instead endorsing his protege, then-city administrator 
Charles Box, who would go on to become Rockford's first Black mayor, 
serving for three terms.
  John remained active in Rockford's civic life. He joined William 
Charles Investments Ltd. He also worked part-time for Rockford 
University; as the liberal arts college's first vice president for 
development, he helped save it from going under during tough times. In 
2009, I was honored to nominate John to serve on a Federal Advisory 
Committee on Student Financial Assistance, an independent, bipartisan 
panel formed to advise Congress and the U.S. Secretary of Education on 
making college more affordable. He just never stopped trying to help 
people.
  I will close with this story. On a chilly spring day in 1978, when 
John was serving on the city council, he helped save the life of a man 
who jumped off the State Street Bridge. John was in the Rockford 
Register Star building when he saw the man teetering on the bridge's 
railing. He took off running, but by the time he reached the bridge, 
the man had already jumped into the frigid Rock River. With the help of 
another man and a 16-year-old boy who happened to be passing by, John 
pulled the man out of the river. The only casualty was the new suit he 
was wearing, a bit of a luxury for a defense lawyer with six young 
children.
  John McNamara later told a columnist: ``I was shaking all the rest of 
that afternoon--not because I was cold. You just hate to see a guy get 
that despondent.''
  That was John McNamara in a nutshell, willing to act boldly yet 
humbly to give someone else hope. He was a class act who led by 
example, and he was my friend. Loretta and I offer our condolences to 
John's wife Barbara, their six children--John, Kate, Dan, Mary, Nell, 
and Tom and their spouses--and to John and Barbara's 16 grandchildren. 
He loved them all deeply. He will be missed.

                          ____________________