[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 2] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 2124-2125] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]REMEMBERING JACK HERRITY OF FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA ______ HON. FRANK R. WOLF of virginia in the house of representatives Thursday, February 16, 2006 Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor for Mr. Tom Davis of Virginia and I to remember the Honorable John F. ``Jack'' Herrity, former chairman of the Fairfax County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors, who passed away on February 1. If anyone is worthy of the title ``Mr. Fairfax,'' Jack Herrity is that person. A driven leader during his time with the Fairfax County Board, Jack was the guiding force in setting the firm foundation for a growing and developing Fairfax County. His leadership brought us the Fairfax County Parkway, Interstate 66 inside the Beltway and the Dulles Access Road. The Virginia General Assembly aptly named the Fairfax County Parkway in his honor in 1995. After attending Georgetown University as an undergraduate and as a law student, Jack formed Jack Herrity and Associates, a pension planning and insurance business. But public service was Jack's forte. He quickly became engaged in northern Virginia politics, serving on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors from 1971 to 1987. He was elected chairman of the board in 1975 and served three terms. He recognized the potential of Fairfax County to become the largest jurisdiction in the Washington area and helped develop the once sleepy rural crossroads, Tysons Corner, into the thriving commercial district it is today. Jack Herrity carved a place which is now and will forever be unmatched in Fairfax County history. We honor and remember Jack for his countless accomplishments and unwavering dedication to the people of Fairfax County. We insert for the Record a Washington Post obituary from February 2. Jack will be deeply missed by the people of Fairfax County, and at home by his family. [From the Washington Post, Feb. 2, 2006] (By Lisa Rein and Peter Baker) John F. ``Jack'' Herrity, the former chairman of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors who ushered in a development boom that transformed the county from sleepy bedroom community to suburban colossus, died yesterday of heart failure. He was 74. Herrity, whose scrappy battle with a weak heart first endeared him to Fairfax voters in the 1970s, succumbed to an aortic aneurysm at Inova Fairfax Hospital, where he was admitted two weeks ago with chest pain. He had a heart transplant 12 years ago. In his heyday, Herrity dominated Northern Virginia politics as few others have, commanding attention with his pugnacious style and unabashedly pro-growth policies. His was a classic rise-and-fall political story--from his landslide victories as the Fairfax economy soared to unprecedented heights to his crushing defeat in 1987 when the onslaught of new cars finally overwhelmed county roads and voter patience. Herrity was engaged in county affairs until the end. From his hospital bed last week, he was asking former aides to help run his likely campaign for board chairman next year, a race he lost in 2003 in a Republican primary. He was busy fighting plans to extend Metrorail to Dulles International Airport, saying the expense could not be justified. And, in an about-face some local politicians saw as cynical, he had joined in recent months with grass-roots activists--and the woman who defeated him, slow-growth Democrat Audrey Moore--to fight dense development planned for the county's last slivers of open space. He was at meetings almost every night. ``To Jack's credit, if he had a difference of opinion [with the county's leadership], he never sat on his hands,'' Eric Lundberg, the Fairfax GOP chairman, said. ``He was willing to engage in the battle.'' Herrity could be seen most mornings in a floppy wide- brimmed hat walking his black Labrador retriever, Raven, on the W & OD trail near his Vienna home, where he lived with his wife, JoAnn Spevacek-Herrity. They married in November. ``He's a piece of our history,'' said Board Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D), who ordered county flags flown at half-staff yesterday. ``He was a political adversary, but he would do it more often than not with a certain twinkle in his eye. It was more the love of the fight than the substance of the moment.'' Herrity was the fourth person to serve as countywide chairman but the first to hold the job for a full term, let alone three. He defined the role as a quasi-mayoral position even though it has no real executive power. He played a major role in building what was commonly referred to as the economic engine of Virginia. By fostering a superheated business environment, he helped lure Fortune 500 companies such as what was then known as the Mobil Corp. to Fairfax and convert a suburban crossroads called Tysons Corner into a commercial center larger than downtown Miami. ``Instead of jobs going out of the county,'' Herrity wanted jobs to stay in the county, Northern Virginia developer John T. ``Til'' Hazel said. During this period of growth under Herrity, more than 1,000 people moved into Fairfax every month. The county grew into the largest jurisdiction in the Washington area. From Herrity's first election as chairman in 1975 to his ouster in 1987, the county's population jumped by more than a third, from 554,500 to 746,600--surpassing most U.S. cities and even several states. Today, more than 1 million people live in Fairfax. He was an advocate for improving the county's road network and pushed to widen Interstate 66 inside the Capital Beltway. He first opposed, then campaigned hard for a major new road cutting through the county's midsection. The General Assembly named the Fairfax County Parkway in his honor in 1995. It was his quick-witted, never-say-die brand of politics that earned him a loyal following during a crucial transition period in Fairfax history. With his burly build, balding pate and ever-present U.S. flag lapel pin, Herrity became a familiar figure in political and civic circles. Known simply as Jack, he crisscrossed the 399-square-mile county almost every day in search of any gathering of two or more people, often driving so fast that he collected a glove compartment full of speeding tickets that became legendary. Throughout his tenure, Herrity was notorious for his penchant for the outrageous, shoot-from-the-hip statements. When county officials were thinking about building a major government center, he suggested that they instead ``build a circus tent and put the bureaucrats in it.'' He called Metro, which opened while he was in office, a ``Mighty Expensive Transportation Rip Off.'' His tart tongue extended to his rivals as well. In 1987, he derided Moore as a gadfly with so little support on the board that, if she made the motion, she ``couldn't get a second to go to the bathroom.'' Four years later, he dismissed Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Fairfax) as a ``left-wing liberal'' whose support from a taxpayers group was ``like the chicken endorsing the fox.'' His relationships with both had softened in recent years. Herrity saw no reason to apologize for his close alliance with the region's powerful developers, who he said had helped create a quality of life envied across the country--high- paying jobs, good schools, low crime. But his ties to the real estate industry became his political undoing. His 1986 conviction on a misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charge for failing to disclose a relationship with a builder only cemented Herrity's public image as a handmaiden of developers. By then, voter support for the breakneck pace of construction had dissolved amid maddening traffic gridlock. He suffered a major indignity in 1987 when he lost his prized office to Moore by more than 21 percentage points. He never fully accepted defeat. Years later, his address in his telephone book was still the county government headquarters. ``This was Jack's life,'' Davis recalled. ``When he was defeated he couldn't move on to something else. He was a doer. He could never sit still.'' The comeback Herrity methodically plotted collapsed in 1991 when he lost the GOP nomination for chairman to Davis, his one-time protege, who also handpicked a Republican to run against him in the 2003 primary for board chairman. Since his departure from elective politics, Herrity also failed at bids [[Page 2125]] for Virginia governor in 2001 and county GOP chairman in 2004. Born in Arlington, reared in Prince George's County and educated at St. Anthony's High School in the District (now All Saints High School), John Frances Herrity was the product of a working-class Irish Catholic family of elevator mechanics, union leaders and loyal Democrats. He spent much of his youth hustling on the basketball court. After high school and a tour in the Coast Guard, the rambunctious young Herrity settled down to his studies at Georgetown University, where he earned undergraduate and law degrees and met his first wife. After marrying in 1958, he eventually went into the insurance business, where he worked as a consultant after his return to the private sector. It did not take long for Herrity to jump into local civic affairs. He soon formed a homeowners association and became the local Democratic precinct captain. But like many Democrats in his era, he became alienated with his party's lurch to the left and switched to the GOP just in time for his first run for office--that of Springfield District supervisor in 1971. ____________________