[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1808-E1809]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

REMEMBERING LEONARD B. ``BUD'' DOGGETT, JR.

______

HON. FRANK R. WOLF

of virginia

in the house of representatives

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, on August 13, when the Congress was in
recess, the Washington, DC, region lost one of its great civic leaders
when Leonard B. ``Bud'' Doggett, Jr.,

[[Page E1809]]

passed away at the age of 87. Bud will be remembered by all for his
steadfast dedication to community, especially through ``Heroes,'' the
non-profit organization he founded to support the families of law
enforcement officers and firefighters killed on the job. His legacy of
civic involvement should be an inspiration to all of us. I ask that an
editorial in the Washington Post about Bud's life, as well as the
obituary about him from the same paper, be inserted in the Record. We
offer our sympathies to his family.

L.B. Doggett Jr.; Parking Tycoon, Civic Leader

(By Adam Bernstein)

L.B. ``Bud'' Doggett Jr., 87, a publicity-averse D.C.
commercial parking magnate who emerged in the 1960s as a
major civic leader and a central backstage figure in politics
and community development, died Aug. 13 at his home in
Washington after a heart attack.
Mr. Doggett was president and chief executive of Doggett
Enterprises, the parent corporation of Doggett's Parking,
which was founded by his parents in 1926.
It was the city's first private parking company, and the
younger Mr. Doggett guided it quietly to greater prominence
after taking over in the 1950s. For decades, he was a force
in preventing the District from building municipally owned
parking garages and challenging private firms, a rarity for a
large U.S. city.
Mr. Doggett, who also amassed a large portfolio of real
estate interests, was a dominant business figure in the city
under the old federally appointed District Commissioners
system and during the emergence of elected leaders in the
mid-1970s.
He liked to joke privately that he was ``Shanty Irish,''
but he was an effective fundraiser for politicians on Capitol
Hill and in what was then known as the District Building as
well as a trusted power broker between the political elite in
the city and the federal government.
His support was considered crucial to the completion of
large ventures, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts and the old Washington Convention Center,
heralded as the country's fourth largest after it was built
in 1982. It was demolished in 2005.
A key legacy was Mr. Doggett's belief in keeping business
in the, city despite the devastating riots of 1968 and later
tax increases. He held high offices with what is now the
Greater Washington Board of Trade--he served a term as
president in 1967--and led many efforts to rejuvenate
downtown.
While leading the board, he helped donate thousands of
dollars' worth of equipment for training courses in typing
and hairdressing as well as sports uniforms and toys for
residents of the Valley Green housing complex in Southeast.
Longtime broadcasting executive Andy Ockershausen said Mr.
Doggett was ``a good negotiator and believed in downtown
Washington. He always felt if downtown was thriving, the
whole metropolitan area would thrive. He kept his business
here, refused to move it out of city.''
Leonard Brent Doggett Jr. was born Aug. 25, 1920, in the
District and attended Georgetown Preparatory School.
He entered World War II as an Army Air Forces pilot, then
transferred to the Army infantry after he was reprimanded for
flying under a bridge during training in Texas.
As an infantryman, he received decorations for heroism.
They included the Bronze Star for organizing a defense unit
as others evacuated wounded soldiers from a besieged French
village.
He took over his family's parking business in the 1950s and
began a large push into real estate. He bought old rowhouses,
which he rented as rooming houses before razing them for
parking lots.
He also won federal parking concessions, including lots for
the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.
He later focused on major hotel chains, such as Sheraton and
Hilton.
With other parking barons, such as Dominic F. Antonelli Jr.
of Parking Management, he forged important business ties to
Capitol Hill. They made campaign donations to legislators
including Rep. John L. McMillan (D-S.C.), the longtime
chairman of the House District Committee, to prevent the
creation of a municipal parking authority.
He also was board chairman of several Washington banks and
a director of Pepsi-Cola Bottling.
Ockershausen said Mr. Doggett prohibited publicity for his
extensive charitable work.
In 1964, Mr. Doggett founded a nonprofit organization,
Heroes, that dispenses financial aid to families of law
enforcement officers and firefighters killed in the line of
duty.
John Tydings, a former Board of Trade president who is
involved with Heroes, said Mr. Doggett gave millions of
dollars out of his pocket to help 225 law enforcement
families in the Washington area.
``He set the bar high for civic leaders,'' Tydings said.
His wife of 57 years, Gladys Denton Doggett, died in 1999.
A son from that marriage, Leonard Doggett Ill, died last
year.
Survivors include his wife of eight years, Cherrie Wanner
Doggett of Washington; a daughter from his first marriage,
Frances Foster of Boca Raton, Fla.; a stepdaughter, Kristine
Harrington of Arlington County; a sister, Rose Marie Melby of
Gaithersburg; and three grandchildren.
____

[From the Washington Post, Aug. 16, 2008]

Bud Doggett

Leonard B. ``Bud'' Doggett Jr., the parking lot tycoon and
D.C. power broker who always had the best interests of the
city at heart, probably wouldn't have liked us writing about
him in this space--he shunned publicity. But Mr. Doggett, who
died Wednesday at the age of 87, exerted a powerful, mostly
unseen and highly beneficial influence on the District during
more than half a century. When he became president of what is
now the Greater Washington Board of Trade in 1967, most
businesses discriminated against minorities; Mr. Doggett
urged his colleagues to accept diversity. He spearheaded
projects that helped rejuvenate the city's downtown slums.
City leaders advancing a worthy cause knew that they could
count on Mr. Doggett. He would ask, ``Are you sure that's all
you need?'' and end the conversation by saying, ``The check
is in the mail.'' Most recently, Mr. Doggett was a driving
force behind the District's impressive Hurricane Katrina
relief efforts.
Mr. Doggett's friends say that his concern for the city
stemmed from his humble roots. He was born in 1920 and grew
up in an Irish tenement in an area near Union Station that
immigrants affectionately called ``Swamppoodle.'' After
serving in World War II, he went to work for his parents, who
owned a small number of parking lots downtown. Mr. Doggett
started out working as a valet, often babysitting jalopies
filled with children while their parents took in a show. He
eventually took over the parking lot business from his father
and expanded aggressively, amassing a lucrative portfolio of
real estate.
But Mr. Doggett's most lasting legacy will undoubtedly be
Heroes, a nonprofit organization he founded in 1964 that
supports families of law enforcement officers and
firefighters killed on the job. ``As a police officer with
four kids of my own, I can't even put into words how
important this program is,'' Patrick Burke, D.C. assistant
police chief, told us. Heroes has given millions of dollars
to the families of slain public servants and has helped put
hundreds of children through college. Not bad, for a self-
described shanty Irishman from Swamppoodle.

____________________