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HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 213 city through a period of tremendous social change, growth and revitalization; and Whereas as mayor, championed the Whereas Vera Katz was born on August 3, 1933, arts and education, fought discrimination and cele- in Dusseldorf, Germany, to Lazar and Raissa Pistrak; brated diversity; and and Whereas Vera Katz, a TriMet user herself, was Whereas the Pistrak family left Germany for a tireless advocate for public transportation in Port- France when Vera was just two months old, and in land, leading the way to many lasting improvements, 1940 they fled invading German armies for Spain on including the Portland Streetcar; and foot over the Pyrenees Mountains, a journey that Whereas Vera Katz’s legacy as mayor can be ultimately led them to ; and seen all over Portland’s urban landscape, from the Whereas Vera Katz attended College, Pearl District to South Waterfront to the Eastbank where she studied dance under the legendary Esplanade that was named in her honor; and Martha Graham and received a degree in sociology; Whereas Vera Katz was a fierce protector of the and city she dearly loved, and she personally manned Whereas Vera Katz and her husband, Mel Katz, Portland’s sandbag brigade when the swelled above flood stage in 1996; and moved to Portland, Oregon, in the early 1960s, where Whereas after leaving City Hall in 2005, Vera they raised their young son, Jesse; and Katz remained very active in civic life, selflessly Whereas Vera Katz first became involved in volunteering in the community and working for politics as a volunteer in Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 Gallatin Public Affairs; and presidential campaign; and Whereas in the words of , Vera Whereas Vera Katz was elected in 1972 to the Katz “reshaped Portlanders’ and Oregonians’ notions Oregon House of Representatives, where she repres- of what their city and state could look like”; and ented the people of her Multnomah County district Whereas Vera Katz faced life’s many obstacles, for two decades; and including her three battles with cancer, with Whereas Vera Katz joined with two other leg- unstinting determination, courage and dignity; and endary Oregon politicians, and Betty Whereas when an eighth-grade Vera Katz was Roberts, to form the Legislative Assembly’s first-ever asked for a school assignment what words she Women’s Caucus; and wanted to have put on her tombstone, her response Whereas in 1977, Vera Katz became the first was, “She made a difference.”; and woman in Oregon history to serve as chair of the Whereas Vera Katz died peacefully at home on Ways and Means Committee; and December 11, 2017; and Whereas Vera Katz was Speaker of the House Whereas Vera Katz will be forever remembered of Representatives from 1985 to 1990, becoming as a pioneering and visionary leader whose career Oregon’s first female Speaker and just the second of dedicated public service touched the lives of so woman nationwide to serve in that capacity; and many and left an indelible imprint on the State of Whereas during Vera Katz’s exceptional and Oregon and the City of Portland; now, therefore, historic career in the Legislative Assembly, she was Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of instrumental in the passage of many pieces of major the State of Oregon: legislation, including measures related to school re- That we, the members of the Seventy-ninth Leg- form, gun violence prevention, public records, gender islative Assembly, honor and celebrate the remark- equality and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender able life and accomplishments of Vera Katz and rights; and express our gratitude for her contributions to the people of this state; and be it further Whereas Vera Katz was elected mayor of Port- Resolved, That a copy of this resolution shall be land in 1992 and served three full terms in office; presented to the family of Vera Katz as an ex- and pression of our sympathy and condolences. Whereas Vera Katz’s dozen years as mayor were Filed in the office of Secretary of State March 5, 2018 a defining era in Portland’s history, as she led the

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