MEMORIAL RESOLUTION FOR BOARD MEETING OF OCTOBER 7, 2010
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MEMORIAL RESOLUTION sponsored by the Board of Commissioners extending sympathy and condolences to the family of Dan Rostenkowski
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WHEREAS, Dan Rostenkowski was called to eternal rest on August 11, 2010; and
WHEREAS, Daniel David “Dan” Rostenkowski was born on January 2, 1928 to Joseph P. and Priscilla (Dombrowski) Rostenkowski, and raised in a blue collar neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side; and
WHEREAS, as a child, Dan was immersed in politics at an early age, often witnessing meetings for precinct captains in the home he shared with his parents and sisters Marcie and Gladys; and
WHEREAS, the young Rostenskowski attended high school at St. Johns Military School in Delafield Wisconsin where he earned 14 letters in baseball, football, basketball and track and was voted “Most Athletic”, “Most Popular” and runner-up for “Most Conceited”; and
WHEREAS, Dan joined the United States Army after completing high school, serving as a private with the Seventh Infantry Division in Korea; and
WHEREAS, in 1949, Dan was pursuing a career in professional baseball with the Philadelphia Athletics when his father convinced him to come home in order to spend more time with his mother who was battling cancer; and
WHEREAS, shortly after his return Chicago, Dan matriculated at Loyola University, Chicago and soon after met his wife of nearly sixty years on a blind date; and
WHEREAS, while still a student at Loyola University, Dan won his first major election and secured a position in the Illinois House of Representatives in Springfield, Illinois as its youngest member, and just two years later was elected to the Illinois State Senate; and
WHEREAS, only six years after entering the world of politics, Dan Rostenkowski was elected to the United States House of Representatives, a seat he would occupy for thirty six years; and
WHEREAS, as a member of the United States House of Representatives and long-time Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Dan Rostenskowski delivered federal funds for the benefit of Chicago and the State of Illinois for innumerable projects, large and small, including but not limited to: securing $32 million for the Blue Line of the CTA, $450 million for the expansion of the Kennedy Expressway, $25 million to fix the “S” curve on Lake Shore Drive, $16.8 million for the State Street Mall renovation, $3.5 million for the construction of the Cook County Boot Camp for first time youthful offenders, $150 million bond authority for the construction of US Cellular Field, $75 million in tax-free bonds for the remodeling of Navy Pier, $2.2 million for the Chicago Shoreline Protection Project and he was instrumental in securing large sums of federal funding for the $3.7 billion for the District’s award-winning and state of the art Deep Tunnel Project (“TARP”); and
WHEREAS, Dan Rostenkowski was described in the book Chicago and the American Century as the 6th most significant politician to come from Chicago in the Twentieth Century; Time Magazine described Mr. Rostenkowski in an 1981 article as “…likable, earnest, cautious, and absolutely trustworthy” and “Among the show horses of Congress, he is a workhorse…”, and the National Journal in 1989 said of Congressman Rostenkowski: “The chairman is a man of actions, not words; a doer, not a rhetorician, one who thrives at the negotiation table, not the speaker’s lectern….he has nourished an image as a legislative strategist that is perhaps unsurpassed on Capitol Hill. He wants to make laws and as a lobbyist put it, ‘he doesn’t like people throwing a lot of dust in the gears’.”; and
WHEREAS, it is uncontroverted that Dan Rostenskowski loved the City of Chicago and it was evident in his work with six mayors of Chicago in each mayor’s tenure, Richard, J. Daley, Michael Bilandic, Jane Byrne, Harold Washington, Eugene Sawyer and Richard M. Daley: and
WHEREAS, countless people, including his wife LaVerne and his daughters Dawn, Gayle and Kristie mourn the passing of this energetic and involved man who lived a full life, committed to the residents of Chicago and the State of Illinois and dedicated to a life of public service; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the Board of Commissioners of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, on behalf of ourselves and staff, extend our sympathy and condolences to the family of Daniel Rostenkowski; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this Resolution be spread upon the permanent Record of Proceedings of the Board of Commissioners of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and that a copy of same, suitably engrossed, be presented to the family of Daniel Rostenkowski.
Dated: October 7, 2010
Approved: TERRENCE J. O’BRIEN, President; KATHLEEN THERESE MEANY, Vice-President; GLORIA ALITTO MAJEWSKI, Chairman, Committee on Finance; FRANK AVILA; PATRICIA HORTON; BARBARA J. MCGOWAN; CYNTHIA M. SANTOS; DEBRA SHORE; MARIYANA T. SPYROPOULOS Commissioners of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago