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1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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2 | | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of |
3 | | Representatives are saddened to learn of the
death of Illinois |
4 | | GOP mainstay Rich Williamson of Kenilworth, who passed away on |
5 | | December 8, 2013; and
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6 | | WHEREAS, Rich Williamson was born on May 9, 1949 in |
7 | | Evanston to Marian and
Donald Williamson; he attended New Trier |
8 | | High School and Princeton
University, where he played varsity |
9 | | football, was senior class president, and graduated
cum laude |
10 | | in 1971; he went on to receive his law degree from the |
11 | | University of
Virginia in 1974, where he was executive editor |
12 | | of the Virginia Journal of International
Law; during his time |
13 | | at Princeton, he met the love of his life, Jane Thatcher, on a |
14 | | plane
as he was returning home from Princeton and she was |
15 | | returning home from Wellesley; it
was love at first sight and |
16 | | they were married soon after; and |
17 | | WHEREAS, Rich Williamson had a long and successful career |
18 | | that stretched from being a top
foreign policy adviser to GOP |
19 | | presidential nominee Mitt Romney to taking on Carol
Moseley |
20 | | Braun; and |
21 | | WHEREAS, Rich Williamson served 3 presidents in high-level |
22 | | positions, serving as
Assistant Secretary of State for |
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1 | | International Affairs, Assistant to the President for
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2 | | Intergovernmental Affairs, Ambassador to the U.N. for Special |
3 | | Political Affairs, and
Ambassador to the U.N. Commission on |
4 | | Human Rights, as well as several other posts at
the United |
5 | | Nations; and |
6 | | WHEREAS, Rich Williamson tried his hand at electoral |
7 | | politics and ran for the U.S. Senate in
1992; he later served |
8 | | as Republican National Committeeman for Illinois
and chaired |
9 | | the Illinois Republican Party from 1999 to 2001; in 2007, |
10 | | former President George W. Bush tapped him to be a special
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11 | | envoy for Sudan to help stop killing in the Darfur region; at |
12 | | the time of his passing, he was working with former Secretary |
13 | | of
State Madeleine Albright on the prevention of future |
14 | | genocides; and |
15 | | WHEREAS, Rich Williamson also worked as a partner at the |
16 | | law firms of Winston & Strawn
and Mayer Brown, taught foreign |
17 | | policy at Northwestern University, and wrote books on
foreign |
18 | | policy; he authored 8 books, edited 3, and wrote more than
175 |
19 | | articles in professional and popular periodicals; and |
20 | | WHEREAS, Rich Williamson was known to not carry much on his |
21 | | travel, but he always had 10
pounds of books and a yellow legal |
22 | | pad that he preferred to a laptop; he lived in a home filled |
23 | | with thousands of books and mementos of
his travels, including |
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1 | | baskets, sculptures, and masks produced by refugees, and photos |
2 | | of his family in Dubai, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Croatia; and
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3 | | WHEREAS, Rich Williamson will be sorely missed by his |
4 | | family and by the people he served; he has left a lasting |
5 | | legacy, not only on Illinois and the United States,
but on the |
6 | | world as well; and
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7 | | WHEREAS, Rich Williamson is survived by his loving wife of |
8 | | 40 years, Jane Thatcher; his
children, Elisabeth (Ryan) Graham, |
9 | | Craig Salisbury, and Richard (Sara) Middleton; his |
10 | | granddaughter, Cora Jane; his brother, Bruce (Alice); his |
11 | | sister, Barb (Erv); and
his 10 nieces and nephews; therefore, |
12 | | be it
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13 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE |
14 | | NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that |
15 | | we mourn, along with his family, friends, and the citizens of |
16 | | Illinois, the passing of Rich Williamson; and be it further
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17 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be |
18 | | presented to the family of Rich
Williamson as a symbol of our |
19 | | deepest sympathy and respect.
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