Post by Jesse Jackson on Dec 31, 2010 16:09:50 GMT -6
www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/baseball/rangers/stories/123110dnspovandegriff.65d23faa.html
Tom Vandergriff, man who brought MLB's Rangers to Texas, dies
11:51 PM CST on Thursday, December 30, 2010
By JOE SIMNACHER and ELIZABETH ZAVALA / The Dallas Morning News
Tom Vandergriff – synonymous with nearly everything that is Arlington – died Thursday at Texas Health Harris Methodist Fort Worth hospital. He was 84.
Tom Vandergriff The former longtime mayor played a leading role in transforming the town he loved from a community of 8,000 people to a city that's home to the Texas Rangers, a General Motors assembly plant, the University of Texas at Arlington and a thriving tourism industry.
His son, Victor Vandergriff, the chairman of the North Texas Tollway Authority, said his father was a special man, "a unique individual who bore no grudges, carried no axes, and always wanted to do the best for the people he served."
He said his father would always credit the people of Arlington for its success, instead of taking credit for its accomplishments himself.
"The greatness of him is that he would say Arlington is what it is today because of the can-do spirit. He'd say, 'I was privileged to lead it.' "
Victor Vandergriff said his father had a number of physical problems and "just wore out."
His father's last public appearance was Oct. 22 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, when the Texas Rangers beat the New York Yankees to win the team's first American League championship. Mr. Vandergriff watched the game from the city of Arlington suite at the ballpark and "it thrilled him," his son said.
But after Mr. Vandergriff got home, he fell and fractured his hip and had to have surgery to repair it.
But his son said his father thoroughly enjoyed that last ballgame.
"I can't think of a more fitting last public appearance than the Rangers winning the pennant," Victor Vandergriff said. "And beating the Yankees was an extra treat."
Although Mr. Vandergriff was most closely associated with Arlington, his legacy reached beyond the city limits.
He pushed for construction of Lake Arlington, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the Tarrant County College district and Interstate 30. He was the first president of the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
He was also instrumental in creating the predecessor agency of the North Texas Tollway Authority, said Victor Vandergriff.
He was Arlington mayor for more than 25 years, served one term as a U.S. representative and was Tarrant County judge from 1991 to 2007.
"No one has had the impact any more than Tom," said former Arlington Mayor Richard Greene. "Every good thing that has happened in Arlington during past 60 years began with him being elected mayor in 1951.
"Sixty years later, we look back, and everything about the quality of life and reason to celebrate life in Arlington is connected to Tom. It's a fact – not an overstatement – to say so," he said. "The momentum he created in 26 years he served as mayor will continue to carry us into the future."
Tom Vandergriff, man who brought MLB's Rangers to Texas, dies
11:51 PM CST on Thursday, December 30, 2010
By JOE SIMNACHER and ELIZABETH ZAVALA / The Dallas Morning News
Tom Vandergriff – synonymous with nearly everything that is Arlington – died Thursday at Texas Health Harris Methodist Fort Worth hospital. He was 84.
Tom Vandergriff The former longtime mayor played a leading role in transforming the town he loved from a community of 8,000 people to a city that's home to the Texas Rangers, a General Motors assembly plant, the University of Texas at Arlington and a thriving tourism industry.
His son, Victor Vandergriff, the chairman of the North Texas Tollway Authority, said his father was a special man, "a unique individual who bore no grudges, carried no axes, and always wanted to do the best for the people he served."
He said his father would always credit the people of Arlington for its success, instead of taking credit for its accomplishments himself.
"The greatness of him is that he would say Arlington is what it is today because of the can-do spirit. He'd say, 'I was privileged to lead it.' "
Victor Vandergriff said his father had a number of physical problems and "just wore out."
His father's last public appearance was Oct. 22 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, when the Texas Rangers beat the New York Yankees to win the team's first American League championship. Mr. Vandergriff watched the game from the city of Arlington suite at the ballpark and "it thrilled him," his son said.
But after Mr. Vandergriff got home, he fell and fractured his hip and had to have surgery to repair it.
But his son said his father thoroughly enjoyed that last ballgame.
"I can't think of a more fitting last public appearance than the Rangers winning the pennant," Victor Vandergriff said. "And beating the Yankees was an extra treat."
Although Mr. Vandergriff was most closely associated with Arlington, his legacy reached beyond the city limits.
He pushed for construction of Lake Arlington, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the Tarrant County College district and Interstate 30. He was the first president of the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
He was also instrumental in creating the predecessor agency of the North Texas Tollway Authority, said Victor Vandergriff.
He was Arlington mayor for more than 25 years, served one term as a U.S. representative and was Tarrant County judge from 1991 to 2007.
"No one has had the impact any more than Tom," said former Arlington Mayor Richard Greene. "Every good thing that has happened in Arlington during past 60 years began with him being elected mayor in 1951.
"Sixty years later, we look back, and everything about the quality of life and reason to celebrate life in Arlington is connected to Tom. It's a fact – not an overstatement – to say so," he said. "The momentum he created in 26 years he served as mayor will continue to carry us into the future."
