[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 18945-18946]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

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                          TRIBUTE TO TOM OWEN

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, respected public servant and renowned 
historian Tom Owen has announced that he will be retiring from the 
Louisville Metro Council after next year. Tom is a friend of mine, and 
I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for his many 
years of public service. His deep knowledge of Louisville's past and 
his great passion to shape our city's future will be greatly missed and 
impossible to replace.
  Tom is one of the original members of the metro council, having 
served since that body's inception in 2002. In 2010 he served as metro 
council president. Tom previously served on the old Louisville Board of 
Aldermen from 1990 to 1998.
  Tom represents district 8, which includes most of the Highlands 
neighborhood. I should mention here that Tom is not only my friend but 
also my councilman. He is currently the chair of the committee on 
sustainability and a member of the committees on public works, bridges 
and transportation and planning, and zoning and land design.
  Tom is also a full professor at the University of Louisville; and he 
has served as a history instructor, an archivist, and a community 
relations associate at the University of Louisville since 1968. His 
knowledge of the city of Louisville is vast, and he frequently speaks 
on local television and radio about Louisville history. He also leads 
walking tours of historic Louisville and famous city landmarks and 
makes videos of these walking tours available to the public.
  Tom earned his Ph.D. in American history from the University of 
Kentucky, a master's in history from the University of Louisville, a 
bachelor of divinity from Methodist Theological School in Ohio, and a 
bachelor's degree from Kentucky Wesleyan. He is an elder at Highland 
Presbyterian Church, and of his many hobbies, I know he enjoys 
bicycling and commuting by bicycle, as he has championed bicycle 
commuting as one his causes on the metro council.
  Tom has been awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the 
Louisville Historical League, the Outstanding University of Louisville 
Employee Award, an honorary membership in the Kentucky Chapter of the 
America Institute of Architects, and a Patron Service Award at the 
University of Louisville libraries. As all these awards make clear, Tom 
is widely respected as Louisville's unofficial historian, and his 
absence from city government will be felt deeply.
  Tom and I don't always see eye to eye on every issue, but I have 
great respect for Tom as a legislator, as an advocate for the citizens 
of the 8th district, and as someone who set out to make a difference 
for all the citizens of Louisville. Our shared hometown is better off 
thanks to Tom's many years of service. I wish him well in retirement, 
and I am sure his wife, Phyllis, and his children and grandchildren 
will be glad to spend more time with him. I wish my friend, Tom, all 
the best in whatever exciting endeavors await him after his time in 
office draws to a close.
  The Louisville Courier-Journal published an article detailing Tom's 
career and decision to retire. I ask unanimous consent that the article 
be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                 [From the Louisville Courier-Journal,
                             Nov. 25, 2015]

                 Highlands Councilman Tom Owen Retiring

                         (By Phillip M. Bailey)

       Longtime Metro Councilman Tom Owen announced Wednesday he 
     will not seek re-election next year, opening up a possible 
     avalanche of candidates who will run for his seat 
     representing much of the Highlands neighborhood.
       Owen, 76, who is an archivist at the University of 
     Louisville, has served on the council since 2003 and was a 
     member of the old Board

[[Page 18946]]

     of Aldermen before that. He told The Courier-Journal last 
     week he was still deliberating on retirement, but said after 
     careful and lengthy consideration that now is the time to 
     step away.
       ``I had been mulling on this decision for a good two months 
     and that's why there had been rumors out there,'' Owen, D-8th 
     District, said. ``Once I got closer to pushing the send 
     button the more hesitant I became.''
       Owen, a former council president, was first elected to the 
     old board in 1989 when he defeated incumbent Alderwoman Linda 
     Solley in the Democratic primary. In that campaign, Owen ran 
     on his credentials as a local historian, saying at the time 
     he was the ``only candidate who knows the city of Louisville 
     edge to edge and has a vision of the whole city's history and 
     needs.''
       Among those needs in 1989, Owen said, was a trolley service 
     for the Bardstown Road corridor, safer pedestrian traffic and 
     a citywide paper recycling program. He was the only 
     challenger to beat an incumbent in the nine board primary 
     races that year.
       ``I love being involved and I'm honored as a historian to 
     think I have shaped the destiny of Louisville even one 
     percent,'' Owen said Wednesday.
       In a statement, Mayor Greg Fischer said, Owen ``has long 
     been the city's unofficial city historian, quite literally a 
     walking encyclopedia of Louisville history.''
       Former Councilwoman Tina Ward-Pugh, who also served with 
     Owen on the Board of Aldermen for four years, said the two 
     were political soulmates on a number of issues such as the 
     environment, transportation and gay rights. She said Owen's 
     departure will create a ``vast cavern of institutional 
     knowledge'' for the council.
       ``Tom and I were virtually joined at the hip on many 
     progressive and social justice issues over the years,'' Ward-
     Pugh said. ``I probably pushed him a little more than he was 
     comfortable and he held my hand when I was headed out a 
     little too far, so we balanced each other.''
       Owen ran for mayor in the 1998 Democratic primary where he 
     came just shy of beating Dave Armstrong, who went on to be 
     the last mayor of the old city.
       The newspaper archives show Owen was one of the early 
     supporters of a Fairness law when the city was first debating 
     adopting an anti-discrimination legislation to protect gay, 
     lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals in housing 
     and other public accommodations. Today, Owen is most 
     associated with his push for better public transportation and 
     bicycle advocacy, and he has championed the city adding more 
     bike lanes to major thoroughfares.
       As a UofL professor of libraries since 1975, colleagues say 
     Owen was always able to put the council's current actions in 
     a historical context.
       ``Tom's a person I always go to for that information, so I 
     hope he keeps his same phone number,'' Councilman David 
     James, D-6th, said.
       ``Tom has institutional knowledge, he has brains, he is 
     thoughtful and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with him,'' 
     said Councilman Kelly Downard, R-16th, who is also retiring 
     after this year. ``The council is going to miss him heavily, 
     and boy, there's going to be a hole.''
       Only half of the Metro Council's 26 members are from the 
     original class who were elected when city and county 
     governments merged in 2002.
       Owen said he doesn't want to look back on his career just 
     yet and has a lot more he'd like to accomplish in his last 
     year, but he said there are plenty of talented people who can 
     represent the district.
       William Corey Nett, a member of the Tyler Park Neighborhood 
     Association, filed as a Democratic candidate this month. It 
     is expected that several more contenders will jump in the 
     race to represent the district, which encompasses most of the 
     Highlands neighborhood.
       The deadline for candidates to run for Metro Council is 
     Jan. 26.
  

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