[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 123 (Wednesday, July 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4883-S4884]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Remembering William vanden Heuvel

  Mr. President, last month, the Nation lost a great patriot, and I 
lost a great friend, William vanden Heuvel, and I come to the floor 
today to honor his impressive legacy.
  Bill vanden Heuvel grew up in a working-class family during the Great 
Depression, and his call to public service came early in his life. As a 
child, he listened to President Roosevelt's fireside chats, and he 
became obsessed with the idea that regular people can band together and 
build a just and compassionate country.
  So upon learning of FDR's death, Bill hitchhiked alone to the 
Roosevelt estate to try to attend the funeral. He was 14 years old. 
Now, he was unsurprisingly, initially, turned away, but somehow he 
found his way to Eleanor Roosevelt, who was so impressed with the young 
man's passion for her husband's legacy that she welcomed the 14-year-
old in.
  In many ways, it is a story that is emblematic of Bill's life. He 
grew close to several prominent American leaders--from the Kennedys to 
Jimmy Carter, to diplomats and officials the world over--not by 
accident or thanks to any privilege that he was born into, but just 
because of his effectiveness; his tenacity; and his unbridled, 
infectious, contagious love for his country.
  As a young attorney in the Kennedy Justice Department, Bill was given 
a really difficult task: help integrate

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Prince Edward County, which at the time was blatantly flouting Brown v. 
Board of Education requirements. Robert Kennedy, then-Attorney General, 
personally tracked Bill's work, noticed his record of success in 
integrating Maryland's schools, and the two became close friends.
  There was another leader, Jimmy Carter, who had asked Bill to 
represent America abroad as Ambassador to the European Office of the 
United Nations, which kicked off Bill's storied diplomatic career. His 
diplomatic accomplishments are too long to go through in one speech, 
but through his work, he became a vocal and prominent advocate for the 
United Nations and the work that it does to address pressing global 
issues.
  Bill also remained committed to solving problems at home. He was a 
renaissance man, a true polymath, and a staunch civil rights advocate. 
For years, he helped lead the charge in New York City to reform its 
prisons. He became a crusader in the city. He tackled the squalid 
conditions of confinement, and he feared no one in his efforts to speak 
for the voiceless and make sure that even the most hardened criminals 
were treated like human beings. It is a big part of his legacy as well.
  And in his later life, when I got to know him, he returned to his 
first love. Bill vanden Heuvel started and led the Franklin Eleanor 
Roosevelt Institute, and he championed the long fight to establish the 
Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island. That park will stand forever as 
a testament to both the majesty of Franklin Roosevelt and the 
patriotism of Bill vanden Heuvel.
  Finally, though an obituary of a great man like Bill is filled with 
public accomplishment, for his friends and family, it is his private 
accomplishment which defined his true greatness. His wife Melinda and 
his daughters, Katrina and Wendy, and his stepchildren, Ashley and 
John, know him as a kind and loving husband and father. And the 
literally thousands of young public servants and reformers and 
diplomats that he mentored over the years, they are grateful for the 
time he took to midwife the hopes and dreams of others.
  I am one of these people. Bill took me under his wing early in my 
public service career. It is his advice I turned to over and over, 
especially in my early years in Congress, as I set my own course and 
picked my own battles. So, above all, Bill's family and friends will 
miss him dearly.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.