[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 21220-21221]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO DR. KENNETH GEIGEL

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. FRANK PALLONE, JR.

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 21, 2002

  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to call the attention of my 
colleagues to Dr. Kenneth Geigel from New Jersey, who is being honored 
by the Latino American Committee of Monmouth County.
  Born in 1938, in the South Bronx, Dr. Geigel attended St. John 
Chrysotom's Elementary School. He had a short-lived career as a TV 
repairman before going to work at the Bank of America on Wall Street. 
Upon graduation, he returned to the Bronx and started to work for 
Casita Maria, a settlement house in the Hunts Point section of the 
Bronx. It was at Casita Maria that he met his wife Carmen. Eager to 
continue his education, Dr. Geigel, enrolled at New York University and 
received a Master of Arts in Human Relations. It was during the

[[Page 21221]]

same time that he became involved with a small group of Hispanic 
Leaders in Manhattan and was instrumental in the founding of ASPIRA. 
Dr. Antonio Pantoja, the first Director of ASPIRA, hired him as the 
fund-raiser for the newly formed organization. Dr. Geigel left in 1967 
and went to work for the New York City Board of Education as a Field 
Project Administrator. In 1968, he became a Special Administrative 
Assistant to the Board Members working on decentralization. After 
decentralization was passed in 1969, he was appointed by Mayor Lindsey 
to the Commission of Human Rights, the Hispanic Affairs Division. He 
resigned after one year and took another challenging opportunity as the 
Associate Director of the Higher Education Program at NYU.
  Dr. Geigel and his family moved to Freehold, New Jersey. The commute 
into the city became hectic for him as well as unbearable for his wife 
who was still working at Casita Maria. He was offered the position of 
Registrar at Livingston College, a newly formed College of Rutgers, The 
State University of New Jersey. He was the first Hispanic to hold such 
a position at a major University within the State of New Jersey.
  While working at Rutgers, he earned his Doctorate Degree in Education 
and became a founding father of the Hispanic Association of Higher 
Education of New Jersey. As a resident of Freehold Township, he became 
involved with the large Hispanic population in the borough. Working 
with the Catholic Church of St. Rose of Lima and the Bishop, they were 
able to locate a vacant building and transform it into what is now the 
St. Rose of Lima Hispanic Parish Center, a multi-service center for the 
community. Presently, Dr. Geigel serves as a council member of the 
Freehold Township Human Rights in the consulting firm of Johnson, 
Geigel and Yucht Associates, specializing in teaching and mentoring 
life skills to low-income groups.
  Mr. Speaker, it is my sincere hope that my colleagues will join me in 
honoring and recognizing Dr. Kenneth F. Geigel as the Latino American 
Committee of Monmouth County honors him for his unfaltering dedication 
to the Latino community.

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