[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 17 (Tuesday, January 30, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H276]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    LIFE AND LEGACY OF CECIL O'BRATE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Mann) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of 
Cecil O'Brate, who passed away on January 20 at the age of 95.
  Cecil was born in 1928 at the beginning of the Great Depression. 
Throughout his childhood, he worked countless jobs to help support his 
family, eventually moving from Oklahoma to Kansas to farm 3,000 acres 
of rented Kansas farmland with his grandparents when he was 18. There, 
he met the love of his life, Frances Cole, with whom he celebrated 76 
years of marriage together last year.
  By 1966, Cecil had invested in agricultural equipment manufacturing 
and, by 1984, he had become an oil and gas producer in Kansas.
  At the end of his life, Cecil was the largest independent oil and gas 
producer in the entire State of Kansas, and he owned those original 
3,000 acres that he rented in 1948, along with farmland across Kansas 
and Colorado--the fruits of a lifetime of tireless work and ingenuity.
  Cecil was a jack-of-all-trades. In addition to farming, equipment 
manufacturing, and oil and gas production, Cecil was a community bank 
owner, an ethanol producer, and a real estate developer.
  In 2013, Cecil and Frances established the O'Brate Foundation, which 
has provided nearly $7 million in college scholarships to students, 
many of whom grew up in poverty and in the foster care system. Cecil 
was also a major benefactor to his beloved Oklahoma State University, 
making transformational investments in the university's athletics 
programs.
  Cecil lived by his motto, ``Make it Happen.'' He once said, I have 
found no substitute for an honest day's work, an inquisitive mind, and 
a desire to always do more.
  In all that he did, Cecil lived out the Kansas conservative values of 
faith, family, hard work, personal responsibility, and love for your 
neighbor.
  Cecil was a loving father and a devoted husband who was blessed to 
live long enough to meet his great-great-granddaughter. His legacy of 
generosity and leadership will be missed dearly.
  To Cecil's wife, Frances; his 4 sons, Patrick, Michael, Steve, and 
Mark, along with their wives; and his 8 grandchildren, 12 great-
grandchildren, and his great-great-granddaughter, as well as his 
business partners and the entire American Warrior family, my thoughts 
and prayers are with you as you remember Cecil's legacy of love.

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