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“IN HONOR OF BRUCE WOOLPERT” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Commerce was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1362-E1363 on July 31, 2012.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
IN HONOR OF BRUCE WOOLPERT
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HON. SAM FARR
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of myself and my colleagues, Representatives Eshoo, Lofgren, and Honda, to honor the life of Bruce Woolpert, a remarkable businessman, a noted philanthropist, and a stalwart of the Monterey Bay and San Francisco Bay Area communities. As the leader of the Granite Rock Company, Bruce will be remembered for his integrity and his generosity, not only to his employees, but to the community where he was raised and in which Graniterock was based.
Bruce Wilson Woolpert was born on May 30, 1951 to Mary Elizabeth
``Betsy'' Wilson Woolpert and Bruce Gideon Woolpert. Betsy's father, Arthur Roberts Wilson incorporated Granite Rock Company in 1900 after seeing an opportunity with a small granite quarry located in Aromas, California. Bruce was a native to Watsonville, California, the beacon of the Pajaro Valley. He attended MacQuiddy Elementary School, E.A. Hall Junior High School, and graduated from Watsonville High School in 1970. He went on to study economics and mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating summa cum laude. He obtained a Master's Degree in Business Administration from Stanford University in 1976, graduating first in his class, and going on to work for Hewlett Packard. By 1986, he returned to Graniterock to serve as President and CEO.
It was at Graniterock that Bruce sought to make a company where its workers were delighted to come to work every day. He was a gifted leader and renewed the company's core values of safety, dedication to excellence in customer service, the growth and development of Graniterock people, honesty and integrity, continuous improvement, and lifelong learning. As a result, the company was awarded the United States Department of Commerce's Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award in 1992, the first winner of the California State Quality Award, the Construction Innovation Forum's NOVA Award in 1994, and consistently ranked in the top 25 of Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Places to Work.
Among other charitable pursuits, Bruce maintained a special interest in supporting education in the Pajaro Valley, where he was instrumental in the creation of the Committee for Good School Governance. He realized that his role as a leader to his employees expanded far beyond the asphalt of the company's driveway and went through the streets of the city, seeking to make a better life for all.
Mr. Speaker, I know that I speak on behalf of the entire House, when I offer the nation's deepest sympathies to Bruce's wife, Rose Ann, his daughter Marianne, his son Arthur, his brother Stephen, and his extended Graniterock family. He was a hero and a leader that sought to change the world one rock at a time.
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