[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 158 (Thursday, September 29, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5528-S5529]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         REMEMBERING JOHN ROWE

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I want to take a moment to remember a 
visionary business and civic leader who passed away on Saturday. John 
Rowe once said ``there are two ways to become a CEO: Succeed your 
boss--or find a company that's in a lot of trouble.''
  John--never afraid of a challenge--took the harder of those two 
routes. He came to Chicago in 1998, arriving as CEO of Unicom 
Corporation, owner of Commonwealth Edison. Com Ed was in sorry shape 
back then. Things got so bad that the city was considering a move to 
buy its own electrical system. Over the next 14 years, John transformed 
Unicom into Exelon, the largest electric parent company America.
  He was a Republican who believed in the science behind climate change 
and staked his company's future on his belief that money could be made 
through ``clean, reliable and affordable energy.'' He was among the 
first CEOs in the industry to focus on climate change, first testifying 
before Congress on the potential effects of carbon emissions in 1992. 
Under his leadership, Exelon became the first utility to join the U.S. 
Climate Action Partnership, a group of businesses advocating for 
Federal legislation that required significant reductions of greenhouse 
gas emissions.
  He believed that truly successful leaders should be active beyond 
their businesses. So he invested his time and personal wealth back into 
the community. Along with his wife Jeanne and their son Bill, he 
established the Rowe Family Charitable Trust. He and Jeanne also 
cofounded two public charter schools in Chicago--and visited them 
frequently. He worked with universities, especially the University of 
Wisconsin, his alma mater, and supported museums, including the Chicago 
History Museum and the Illinois Holocaust Museum.
  I especially admired John for his strong support of Dreamers and 
immigrants. He was conservative, but he was mystified by the opposition 
of many of his fellow conservatives to creating a pathway to 
citizenship for immigrants. ``When did it become conservative to say 
people can't work and can't pay taxes?'' he asked.
  He cofounded the American Business Immigration Council, a coalition 
of business leaders supporting comprehensive immigration reform. He 
said that creating a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who want to 
work and contribute to this country: ``economically important, 
politically smart, and morally right.''
  When he mentored young immigrants, he found it difficult to explain 
why they should go to college in a country where they will not be able 
to work legally. So he supported the Dream Act. He also supported DACA, 
the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that has granted 
work permits and protection from deportation to more than 800,000 
immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
  In a speech he gave shortly after he stepped down as Exelon's CEO in 
2012, John said there are just a few attributes of successful 
leadership, among them were an unflagging commitment to continuous 
learning, an ability to act despite uncertainty, and ``leading 
somewhere worth going.''
  From helping to show the way to a future of cleaner American energy, 
to fixing our immigration system so that

[[Page S5529]]

it supports our economy and honors our heritage, John Rowe spent his 
life leading. He was a visionary leader, and I am proud to have called 
him a friend.
  Loretta and I send our deepest condolences to John's wife Jeanne, 
their son Bill, and to the countless people whose lives he made better. 
He will be missed.

                          ____________________