SR0662 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0662 LRB102 21989 MST 31117 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to learn of the death of former Illinois State Senator and United States Congressman Harris Walter Fawell, who passed away on November 11, 2021; and

WHEREAS, Congressman Fawell was born in West Chicago; his father, Walter Fawell, served at one time as West Chicago's mayor; he grew up on a horse farm and graduated from West Chicago Community High School; he then earned a bachelor's degree from North Central College in Naperville in 1949; and

WHEREAS, Congressman Fawell was a gifted baseball player and earned a brief stint during college with a Detroit Tigers minor league affiliate in Greenville, South Carolina; while he was in high school, he and two of his brothers were members of the 1946 Fox Valley League championship baseball team from West Chicago, coached by their father; and

WHEREAS, Congressman Fawell earned a law degree from the Kent College of Law in 1952; his first professional jobs were as an assistant state's attorney in DuPage County and then in private legal practice; he then served from 1963 until 1977 as a Republican in the Illinois Senate, where he became known as a champion of local parks and sponsored legislation providing parks for special needs children and adults throughout the State; and

WHEREAS, Congressman Fawell was known for his fiscal conservatism, which included leading a bipartisan "Porkbusters' Coalition" in Congress that decried excessive government spending on legislators' pet projects; he prepared and worked tirelessly for every vote; he was very patriotic about his country and was willing to diverge from his party when he saw the need; he was opposed to wasteful spending and was willing to meet any opponent to represent the taxpayers, which would occasionally antagonize people in his own party; and

WHEREAS, Congressman Fawell led the initiative to require developers to donate parkland in communities, which did not become law but resulted in Naperville's City Council enacting a law requiring developers to donate land or cash to the city's park district; he was one of only two Republican state senators to help support fair housing legislation in the 1960s and also is credited with having rewritten much of Illinois' property tax code while a state senator in the late 1960s; and

WHEREAS, At the time of his passing, Congressman Fawell had been married to his wife Ruth for 69 years and had been a resident of Naperville for more than 50 years; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of former Illinois State Senator and United States Congressman Harris Walter Fawell and extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Congressman Fawell as an expression of our deepest sympathy.