Full Text of HR0950 98th General Assembly
HR0950 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 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
| 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
| 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
| 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
| 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
| 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
| 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
| 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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