78S40391 CCK-D

By:  Stick                                                      H.C.R. No. 14 



CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
	WHEREAS, John Goodwin Tower served Texas and the nation 
capably for approximately two dozen years in the United States 
Senate, and his election to that office was largely responsible for 
a transition of this state's politics to two-party competitiveness; 
and
	WHEREAS, Born in Houston on September 29, 1925, the son of a 
Methodist minister, Tower spent his youth in various East Texas 
communities and graduated from Beaumont High School in 1942; and
	WHEREAS, After freshman studies at Southwestern University 
in Georgetown, he enlisted in June 1943 in the U.S. Navy and spent 
three years in the western Pacific on an amphibious gunboat; and
	WHEREAS, The young veteran returned to Texas to continue 
college at Southwestern and earned a B.A. degree in political 
science in 1948, supporting himself both then and following 
graduation as a radio announcer on KTAE in Taylor; and
	WHEREAS, In 1949 John Tower enrolled in graduate classes at 
Southern Methodist University and finished his course work in 1951; 
shortly thereafter, he was hired as an assistant professor of 
political science at Midwestern University in Wichita Falls; and
	WHEREAS, Continuing his education at the London School of 
Economics in 1952 and 1953, he completed a master's thesis on the 
British Conservative Party and received his M.A. from Southern 
Methodist University; and
	WHEREAS, A Republican since 1948, John Tower entered politics 
in 1954 and won his first election when he secured a U.S. Senate 
seat in a 1961 special election following Senator Lyndon Johnson's 
succession to the vice presidency, becoming the first Republican 
senator from Texas, or from the South, since Reconstruction; and
	WHEREAS, Reelected three times, Senator Tower distinguished 
himself as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he 
served from 1965 to 1985, including three years as committee chair 
in the period immediately leading up to his congressional 
retirement; and
	WHEREAS, His U.S. Senate career is best summarized by a 
passage from The Handbook of Texas:

		
He worked to strengthen and modernize the 
nation's defenses . . . .  He worked to 
stimulate economic growth, improve 
opportunities for small business, improve 
transportation systems, and encourage 
strong financial institutions and systems.  
He was also concerned with promoting 
prosperity in agriculture, the energy 
industry, the fishing and maritime 
industries, and other areas of commerce 
particularly important to Texas;

and                                                                           
	WHEREAS, In the late 1980s, during the presidency of Ronald 
Reagan, Tower spent 15 months as the chief U.S. negotiator at 
strategic arms reduction talks in Geneva, Switzerland, and another 
three months as chair of a special review board on the Iran-Contra 
affair; and
	WHEREAS, He long continued his affiliation with Southwestern 
University, receiving an honorary doctorate from that institution 
and serving on its board of trustees from 1968 until his untimely 
death in a commuter plane accident near New Brunswick, Georgia, on 
April 5, 1991; and
	WHEREAS, Section 2165.005, Government Code, establishes a 
procedure for the naming of state office buildings, requiring a 
combination of Texas Building and Procurement Commission 
submission and legislative authorization and approval; and
	WHEREAS, Members of the Texas House of Representatives and 
Texas Senate find John Goodwin Tower to have been a significant 
individual in the state's history, befitting lasting commemoration 
of his life by the renaming of an office building in the Capitol 
Complex; now, therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the 78th Legislature of the State of Texas, 
4th Called Session, contingent on submission of a name change 
proposal by the Texas Building and Procurement Commission, hereby 
approve and authorize a renaming of the State Insurance Building, 
located on the northwest corner of 11th and San Jacinto, as the John 
G. Tower State Office Building; and, be it further
	RESOLVED, That the secretary of state forward an official 
copy of this resolution to the chair of the Texas Building and 
Procurement Commission.