[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 4710]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          ALPHONSE STROOBANTS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. SCOTT McINNIS

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 5, 2000

  Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, on April 1, 2000, Mr. Alphonse Stroobants 
received the Charles Sackett Heart Award from the American Heart 
Association, Centra Health and the Cardiology Associates of Central 
Virginia.
  The Coveted Charles Sackett award was named for Dr. Charles Sackett, 
whose drive and vision for cardiac services has made a long lasting 
impact on the Central Virginia Community.
  In his acceptance remarks Mr. Stroobants spoke of his former co-
workers at the medical community, and of his many friends through the 
years.
  The son of a coal miner, Alphonse Stroobants was raised in war 
ravaged Belgium. He fled the Nazi occupation on bicycle into France 
when he was nine years old in the early 1940's with his parents.
  He immigrated to the United States in 1956 and took his first job as 
an apprentice for a tool and die maker in New York state.
  Responding to an ad in the newspaper, he moved to Lynchburg in 1959. 
He eventually purchased the company where he was working and grew 
Belgium Tool and Die into a successful business with annual sales in 
excess of twenty five-million dollars. He sold the company and retired 
in 1990.
  Mr. Stroobants gift to Centra Health has further assisted the 
development of cardiac services for Central Virginians and the Heart 
Center is named in his honor.
  Long known for his generosity and competitive spirit, he has remained 
a loyal friend to Virginia. His love for the community is genuine, and 
his service and philanthropy exemplary.
  Mr. Speaker I am honored to know and have as a friend Alphonse 
Stroobants.

                          ____________________