[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5564-5565]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           SENATOR JOHN HEINZ

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, 10 years ago today a tragic accident 
occurred in the Philadelphia suburbs claiming the life of a very 
distinguished United States Senator. In addition, two 6-year-old girls 
were killed at the Marion Elementary School, as well as four pilots who 
were in charge of two aircraft which collided in suburban 
Philadelphia--a small charter plane carrying Senator Heinz from 
Williamsport, PA, with the destination of Philadelphia, and two pilots 
on a Sun Oil helicopter which had attempted to observe the landing gear 
of the small private plane, which, according to the dashboard, were not 
in place.
  Those two planes collided in midair resulting in the deaths, as I 
say, of the four pilots and wounding many on the ground, including one 
young man who had 68 percent of his body covered with burns, and the 
deaths of two 6-year-old girls, and it was a fatal accident for Senator 
Heinz.
  Senator Heinz had an illustrious career in the Congress of the United 
States. I first met him in 1971 when he was running for the seat of 
former Congressman Robert Corbin, who had died. And Elsie Hillman, the 
matriarch of Pennsylvania politics, and a leading figure nationally, 
had asked me to come be a speaker for a John Heinz fundraiser in her 
home.
  I was then the district attorney of Philadelphia. I recall very well 
meeting this good-looking young man who was 32 years old, soon to be 
elected to the House of Representatives, and saw him in one of his 
maiden speeches charm the crowd and move on to the House of 
Representatives.
  My next extensive contact with John Heinz was in the 1976 primary 
election where we squared off in what was a traditional Pennsylvania 
battle of east versus west. I was no longer the district attorney but 
had a significant following within the metropolitan area in eastern 
Pennsylvania, and John Heinz was the ``Zion'' of the west. It looked 
promising for a while when Philadelphia came in 10 to 1 in my favor and 
then United Press International declared me the winner at 1:30. But 
Allegheny County and some of the western counties came in as much as 15 
to 1. This was a very close vote by 2.6 percent. With 26,000 votes out 
of a million cast, John Heinz became the U.S. Senator following the 
1976 election at the age of 38.
  He was a very distinguished Senator, as the record shows. He had a 
place on the Finance Committee. He had a place on the Banking 
Committee. He was chairman of the Aging Committee. It was rumored that 
he intended to run for Governor of Pennsylvania in 1994, and that he 
had aspirations for the White House. Of course, those potentialities 
were snuffed out by his untimely death.
  John Heinz had unlimited political potential and was really one of 
the rising stars on the American political scene. His death left an 
enormous void in Pennsylvania politics, in American politics, and in 
the Senate.
  I had seen him just the day before when we were in Altoona, PA, 
together. We were speaking at a lunch for the hospital association and 
had become very good friends after our tough primary battle which had 
occurred some 15 years before. Senator Hugh Scott and his 
administrative assistant, Bob Kunsic, had counseled John and me when he 
was elected to the Senate in 1980, that together we wouldn't be twice 
as strong but we would be four times as strong.
  I used to drive John Heinz home. We both lived in Georgetown--he in a 
mansion and I in a condominium. In the early 1980s, Senator Baker used 
to work us very late, as did Senator Dole, and then Senator Byrd and 
then Senator Mitchell, our majority leaders. I would drive him home in 
the wee hours of the morning. And sometimes after 1 a.m., after one of 
those 20-hour days, we would sit and talk in his back alley before he 
entered his home, and we called it an end to the day.
  The day before he died, I had Joan with me. I called her Blondie, 
which I do from time to time, and he was surprised. The last words I 
heard John Heinz say was, ``Does she call you Dagwood?'' I said, ``No, 
she doesn't, John.''
  But in memory of John Heinz there have been many posthumous 
recognitions. The most important of all are the Heinz Awards, 
established by his then-widow Teresa Heinz, with very substantial 
endowments in five categories which were of greatest importance to John 
Heinz. They were: First, arts and humanities; second, environment; 
third, human condition; fourth, public policy; and, fifth, technology, 
the economy, and employment.
  John Heinz left behind three extraordinary sons, Henry John IV, 
Andre, and Christopher. Hardly a day goes by that I don't think of John 
Heinz and the great contributions he made to the United States Senate.
  I am advised that once a Member has been gone for 10 years, the 
Member is then eligible to have a stamp named after him. I am sure 
there will be many awards given to John Heinz. Already the numbers are 
significant, with the John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center; 
the H. John Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment; 
the H. John Heinz, III School

[[Page 5565]]

of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University; the John 
Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum; and the H.J. Heinz 
Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

                          ____________________