[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16633]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO FRANK VAN BUER

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a selfless 
public servant from my great State of Illinois, Mayor Frank Van Buer, 
of DeKalb, who passed away July 23, 2008, after a battle with 
pancreatic cancer.
  Mayor Van Buer was born in Savanna, IL, on the banks of the 
Mississippi River. While in high school, Frank worked as a union 
laborer and truck driver. He joined the U.S. Air Force and spent 4 
years in Germany and Libya. When he returned to the United States in 
1957, Van Buer moved to DeKalb to attend Northern Illinois University, 
NIU. He earned a B.S. in social science in 1960 and completed a 
master's degree in economics in 1964. In 1968, Mayor Van Buer earned a 
Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois. He was tenured on 
the faculty of the Department of Economics at NIU in 1970, and taught 
there until 1995.
  While on the NIU faculty, Mayor Van Buer gave generously of his 
skills in administration and budgeting. He directed NIU's Office of 
Budget and Planning, responsible for the administration of annual 
operating budgets in excess of $100 million. And he traveled around the 
world, working in developing nations in Africa and Asia to provide 
technical assistance in planning and budgeting.
  Mayor Van Buer was a man of integrity who strongly believed in open 
government. Mayor Van Buer was first elected by his community to the 
DeKalb County Board in 2002, and he was re-elected in 2004. He was 
elected mayor of DeKalb in 2005. During his tenure as mayor, he made it 
a priority to revitalize DeKalb's urban core.
  In addition to his service at NIU and with the city of DeKalb, Mayor 
Van Buer was active in leadership with the Ben Gordon Mental Health 
Center and the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
  My thoughts and prayers are with the mayor's family and friends, 
especially his wife of over 50 years, Mary Beth, their three children, 
and five grandchildren.

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