[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 6] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page 8685] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]A TRIBUTE TO THE HONORABLE OLIVER OCASEK ______ HON. TOM SAWYER of ohio HON. RALPH REGULA of ohio in the house of representatives Wednesday, May 5, 1999 Mr. SAWYER. Mr. Speaker, my colleague, Mr. Regula, and I rise to honor Oliver Ocasek--one of Ohio's most distinguished citizens. On May 20, Oliver Ocasek will receive the YMCA of the USA's Volunteerism Award--the YMCA's highest honor. The YMCA is honoring Ocasek for his more than 50 years of service to youth organizations. We rise today, not only to recognize his deserved selection for this award, but to recognize a lifetime of service to the people of Ohio. Sen. Ocasek's devotion to education extends well beyond his volunteerism with the YMCA. He co-founded the Ohio Hi-Y Youth in Government Model Legislature program with Governor C. William O'Neill in 1952 and supervised it throughout his service on the Ohio-West Virginia Board of the YMCA. He has served on the greater Akron area boards of Goodwill Industries, Shelter Care, and the Salvation Army. He also has been a professional educator in a wide variety of capacities: a teacher, a principal, a school superintendent, and a professor at both the University of Akron and Kent State University. He was instrumental in bringing together our regional institutions of higher learning to create the Northeastern Ohio Universities' College of Medicine. He capped his educational service with three terms on Ohio's State Board of Education. This breadth of service to youth is impressive by itself. But alone, it does not capture Oliver Ocasek's contribution to the people of Ohio. Oliver Ocasek was one of the most influential legislators in the Statehouse, where he served in the Senate for 28 years from 1958 to 1986. In the 1970's, he became the first Senate President elected by his peers due to a change in the Ohio Constitution. Along with Republican Governor James Rhodes and Democratic House Speaker Vernal Riffe, Sen. Ocasek made many of the decisions to keep state government moving forward. He was an expert on Ohio's complex school funding system and used his knowledge, experience, and position to benefit local students. His enormous influence came from his savvy and from the hard, tedious work of studying, debating, refining, and reaching decisions on difficult and often contentious state issues. He is astute, well-steeped in history, a gifted orator and a man of heart-felt compassion. Oliver Ocasek's larger-than-life ambitions drove him hard in politics and in civic life in general, not in search of personal gain and glory, but in order to use his talents and positions to care for the least of his brothers and sisters. Last year in the Akron Beacon Journal, Sen. Ocasek expressed his philosophy: ``Nothing breaks my heart more than for a child to not have parents who care or to not have a chance for a good education. That's been my commitment-- my life--to provide a good education for all children.'' His leadership has inspired tens of thousands of young people touched by his commitment to education and to the YMCA youth programs over the last half-century. Today, many people disparage public service and doubt that one person can make a difference. Oliver Ocasek would profoundly disagree. And more importantly, his efforts and their recognition by the YMCA are the evidence to the contrary. His service to the people--and particularly the youth--of Ohio shows that, with hard work and commitment, one person can make a difference. And we are grateful for the difference that he has made. ____________________