[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 5287]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    IN RECOGNITION OF RICK LAUBSCHER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 19, 2012

  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Rick Laubscher who today is 
receiving the 2011 Silver Spur Award from San Francisco Planning and 
Urban Research (SPUR). This award recognizes a lifetime of civic 
achievement of a San Franciscan.
  Cable cars and streetcars are quintessential symbols of San 
Francisco. If you have ridden in one of the historic cars of the famous 
F-Market & Wharves streetcar lines on Market Street and the 
Embarcadero, you owe a big thanks to Rick Laubscher, President of 
Market Street Railway, a volunteer, non-profit organization founded in 
1976 by three transit preservationists who wanted to save a vintage 
Municipal Railway trolley bus that was about to be scrapped.
  Today Market Street Railway has 1,200 members from San Francisco, the 
Bay Area, and throughout the world. The organization has helped Muni 
acquire 20 historic transit vehicles, including streetcars, cable cars, 
trolley coaches, and motor coaches and the volunteers have actively 
restored fifteen of them. Mr. Laubscher's passion for historic 
treasures and his advocacy have transformed the city's public 
transportation system.
  Mr. Laubscher's roots run deep in San Francisco. His family has lived 
here for four generations. Mr. Laubscher fell in love with streetcars 
as a little boy when they were not historic. He was washing dishes and 
helping his father in the delicatessen on Market Street that his 
grandfather had opened. He calls Market Street a true urban main 
street.
  When the streetcars were planned to be dismantled in the early 80's, 
he set out on a quest to preserve them. He was not the first to think 
of the idea, but he was the first to do it; he put history to work and 
preserved our urban fabric, as he likes to say. Today thousands of 
people each day ride the historic cars.
  Mr. Laubscher also served as founding board chair of The City Club of 
San Francisco, a landmark of world renowned art and architecture and a 
promoter of active engagement and influence in civic, social and 
business areas. He also served on SPUR's board and transportation 
committee. He is currently a board member of the San Francisco Chamber 
of Commerce.
  Accompanying his love of San Francisco and history, Mr. Laubscher has 
a passion for communication. He runs Messagesmith, a strategic 
communications consulting company specializing in such areas as 
environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility.
  Mr. Laubscher holds an M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate 
School of Journalism and worked as a radio and television news reporter 
for many years.
  He lives in Woodside with his wife of sixteen years, Nicole. They are 
the proud parents of three daughters. Mr. Speaker, I ask this body to 
rise with me to acknowledge the outstanding achievements and lasting 
contributions of Rick Laubscher to San Francisco and the rest of the 
world.

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