[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 19]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 26279]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBRANCE OF WALT CROWLEY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JIM McDERMOTT

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 2, 2007

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, Seattle recently lost a prominent and 
much loved citizen, Walt Crowley. I would like to insert in the Record 
a statement on his passing from HistoryLink, an impressive organization 
Walt helped to found.

                            Remembering Walt

       Walt Crowley, visionary cofounder of HistoryLink.org, 
     passed away on September 21, 2007. Looking back at the rich 
     tapestry of his life and work, one sees that it would take an 
     encyclopedia to document how much of an effect he had upon 
     the city of Seattle and on the state of Washington. 
     Fortunately--and thanks to his efforts--we can do that here 
     at HistoryLink.org, the Online Encyclopedia of Washington 
     State History.
       Walt moved to Seattle at the age of 14, when Boeing hired 
     his father. Many of the friends and colleagues who knew him 
     the longest probably met him during his days at the Helix, 
     Seattle's first underground newspaper, for which Walt wrote, 
     cartooned, edited, and even sold copies of out on the street. 
     Whether it was at a social gathering, during a street march, 
     on the campaign trail, or even in the midst of riots, Walt 
     touched the lives of many people, and made numerous 
     friendships that lasted for decades.
       Walt's passion for civic activism led to a career in city 
     politics. During a sit-in protest at Seattle City Hall, Mayor 
     Wes Uhlman was so impressed with the young man's wit and 
     political savvy that he hired him. Over the next few years, 
     Walt worked in various city departments, most notably as 
     deputy director of the Office of Policy and Planning, where 
     he often advocated for historic preservation. His love for 
     Seattle grew, based on his awareness of its past.


                            The Write Stuff

       His skills as a writer opened up new vistas in his career 
     when he formed Crowley Associates Inc. along with Marie 
     McCaffrey, whom he would later marry. The two collaborated on 
     books about the Seattle Aquarium and Pioneer Square, and 
     provided writing and advertising services to numerous 
     political campaigns, voter initiatives, and labor unions. 
     Walt also wrote articles for the Seattle Weekly and was 
     brought further into the public eye when he was hired to 
     conduct biweekly ``Point-Counterpoint'' debates with 
     conservative activist John Carlson on KIRO-TV News.
       But it was the history muse that inspired Walt's greatest 
     creative output. His introduction to historical research came 
     when he was hired to write a history of the Rainier Club. He 
     followed this with books about Seattle University, Metro 
     Transit, and Group Health Cooperative, as well as 2 of his 
     proudest accomplishments, Rites of Passage: A Memoir of the 
     Sixties in Seattle and The National Trust Guide: Seattle.
       In 1997, he and local historian Paul Dorpat, a dear friend 
     and colleague from their days together at the Helix, tossed 
     around the idea of publishing an encyclopedia of King County 
     history. A book of this size and scope had not been published 
     since Clarence Bagley's tome, written more than 70 years 
     before. Worried that such a venture might prove to be too 
     unwieldy, Walt's wife, Marie, suggested that an online 
     encyclopedia would be a more suitable way to keep and 
     maintain the historical record. Work soon began, and the rest 
     is history . . . or shall we say, HistoryLink.


                             Making History

       When HistoryLink launched in 1998, it was the first 
     encyclopedia of community history created expressly for the 
     Internet--an accomplishment that made Walt exceedingly proud. 
     But being the first meant blazing trails where no historians 
     had gone before, not only in designing and organizing the 
     online encyclopedia, but also in competing for funding in a 
     dot-com world. Walt always referred to our efforts as 
     ``venture socialism.''
       Helped along by a hand-picked staff--many of whom still 
     write, edit, and contribute to the site--as well as by a 
     topnotch board of trustees, HistoryLink.org grew to become a 
     success, and in 2003 expanded its coverage statewide. Today 
     it receives more than four million hits a month. It is read 
     by students, teachers, journalists, genealogists, history 
     buffs, and anybody who wants to know more about the people 
     and events that shaped Washington's growth and development.
       Besides penning some of HistoryLink's books, Walt wrote a 
     large number of essays and editorials on topics that appealed 
     to his interests, including state politics, political shifts, 
     mayoral transitions, municipal ownership, civil violence, 
     Seattle's neighborhoods, streetcars, monorails, aviation, the 
     Space Needle, and even flying saucers. With such a wealth of 
     Walt's words and knowledge and insight contained in our site, 
     we here at HistoryLink.org take comfort in the fact that as 
     we continue to grow and expand our content, we will never 
     lose his voice--even though we have lost a colleague, a 
     mentor, and most of all, our friend.

                          ____________________