Volume 154, No. 147 covering the 2nd Session of the 110th Congress (2007 - 2008) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“REMEMBERING LEONARD B. ``BUD'' DOGGETT, JR.” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1808-E1809 on Sept. 16, 2008.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
REMEMBERING LEONARD B. ``BUD'' DOGGETT, JR.
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HON. FRANK R. WOLF
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, on August 13, when the Congress was in recess, the Washington, DC, region lost one of its great civic leaders when Leonard B. ``Bud'' Doggett, Jr., passed away at the age of 87. Bud will be remembered by all for his steadfast dedication to community, especially through ``Heroes,'' the non-profit organization he founded to support the families of law enforcement officers and firefighters killed on the job. His legacy of civic involvement should be an inspiration to all of us. I ask that an editorial in the Washington Post about Bud's life, as well as the obituary about him from the same paper, be inserted in the Record. We offer our sympathies to his family.
L.B. Doggett Jr.; Parking Tycoon, Civic Leader
(By Adam Bernstein)
L.B. ``Bud'' Doggett Jr., 87, a publicity-averse D.C. commercial parking magnate who emerged in the 1960s as a major civic leader and a central backstage figure in politics and community development, died Aug. 13 at his home in Washington after a heart attack.
Mr. Doggett was president and chief executive of Doggett Enterprises, the parent corporation of Doggett's Parking, which was founded by his parents in 1926.
It was the city's first private parking company, and the younger Mr. Doggett guided it quietly to greater prominence after taking over in the 1950s. For decades, he was a force in preventing the District from building municipally owned parking garages and challenging private firms, a rarity for a large U.S. city.
Mr. Doggett, who also amassed a large portfolio of real estate interests, was a dominant business figure in the city under the old federally appointed District Commissioners system and during the emergence of elected leaders in the mid-1970s.
He liked to joke privately that he was ``Shanty Irish,'' but he was an effective fundraiser for politicians on Capitol Hill and in what was then known as the District Building as well as a trusted power broker between the political elite in the city and the federal government.
His support was considered crucial to the completion of large ventures, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the old Washington Convention Center, heralded as the country's fourth largest after it was built in 1982. It was demolished in 2005.
A key legacy was Mr. Doggett's belief in keeping business in the, city despite the devastating riots of 1968 and later tax increases. He held high offices with what is now the Greater Washington Board of Trade--he served a term as president in 1967--and led many efforts to rejuvenate downtown.
While leading the board, he helped donate thousands of dollars' worth of equipment for training courses in typing and hairdressing as well as sports uniforms and toys for residents of the Valley Green housing complex in Southeast.
Longtime broadcasting executive Andy Ockershausen said Mr. Doggett was ``a good negotiator and believed in downtown Washington. He always felt if downtown was thriving, the whole metropolitan area would thrive. He kept his business here, refused to move it out of city.''
Leonard Brent Doggett Jr. was born Aug. 25, 1920, in the District and attended Georgetown Preparatory School.
He entered World War II as an Army Air Forces pilot, then transferred to the Army infantry after he was reprimanded for flying under a bridge during training in Texas.
As an infantryman, he received decorations for heroism. They included the Bronze Star for organizing a defense unit as others evacuated wounded soldiers from a besieged French village.
He took over his family's parking business in the 1950s and began a large push into real estate. He bought old rowhouses, which he rented as rooming houses before razing them for parking lots.
He also won federal parking concessions, including lots for the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. He later focused on major hotel chains, such as Sheraton and Hilton.
With other parking barons, such as Dominic F. Antonelli Jr. of Parking Management, he forged important business ties to Capitol Hill. They made campaign donations to legislators including Rep. John L. McMillan (D-S.C.), the longtime chairman of the House District Committee, to prevent the creation of a municipal parking authority.
He also was board chairman of several Washington banks and a director of Pepsi-Cola Bottling.
Ockershausen said Mr. Doggett prohibited publicity for his extensive charitable work.
In 1964, Mr. Doggett founded a nonprofit organization, Heroes, that dispenses financial aid to families of law enforcement officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty.
John Tydings, a former Board of Trade president who is involved with Heroes, said Mr. Doggett gave millions of dollars out of his pocket to help 225 law enforcement families in the Washington area.
``He set the bar high for civic leaders,'' Tydings said.
His wife of 57 years, Gladys Denton Doggett, died in 1999. A son from that marriage, Leonard Doggett Ill, died last year.
Survivors include his wife of eight years, Cherrie Wanner Doggett of Washington; a daughter from his first marriage, Frances Foster of Boca Raton, Fla.; a stepdaughter, Kristine Harrington of Arlington County; a sister, Rose Marie Melby of Gaithersburg; and three grandchildren.
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Bud Doggett
Leonard B. ``Bud'' Doggett Jr., the parking lot tycoon and D.C. power broker who always had the best interests of the city at heart, probably wouldn't have liked us writing about him in this space--he shunned publicity. But Mr. Doggett, who died Wednesday at the age of 87, exerted a powerful, mostly unseen and highly beneficial influence on the District during more than half a century. When he became president of what is now the Greater Washington Board of Trade in 1967, most businesses discriminated against minorities; Mr. Doggett urged his colleagues to accept diversity. He spearheaded projects that helped rejuvenate the city's downtown slums. City leaders advancing a worthy cause knew that they could count on Mr. Doggett. He would ask, ``Are you sure that's all you need?'' and end the conversation by saying, ``The check is in the mail.'' Most recently, Mr. Doggett was a driving force behind the District's impressive Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
Mr. Doggett's friends say that his concern for the city stemmed from his humble roots. He was born in 1920 and grew up in an Irish tenement in an area near Union Station that immigrants affectionately called ``Swamppoodle.'' After serving in World War II, he went to work for his parents, who owned a small number of parking lots downtown. Mr. Doggett started out working as a valet, often babysitting jalopies filled with children while their parents took in a show. He eventually took over the parking lot business from his father and expanded aggressively, amassing a lucrative portfolio of real estate.
But Mr. Doggett's most lasting legacy will undoubtedly be Heroes, a nonprofit organization he founded in 1964 that supports families of law enforcement officers and firefighters killed on the job. ``As a police officer with four kids of my own, I can't even put into words how important this program is,'' Patrick Burke, D.C. assistant police chief, told us. Heroes has given millions of dollars to the families of slain public servants and has helped put hundreds of children through college. Not bad, for a self-described shanty Irishman from Swamppoodle.
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