Jim Matheson: “I first met Wayne Owens when I was 12 years old. He was running for Congress in 1972 in the State of Utah and he took…”

“I first met Wayne Owens when I was 12 years old. He was running for Congress in 1972 in the State of Utah and he took the State by storm. He walked over 700 miles during that campaign. And the walking was not just a gimmick. The walking was an indication of the fact that Wayne Owens genuinely, genuinely wanted to get to know the people of whom he was asking for a vote and the people who he was going to represent. I think throughout his life, with all of the great goals that Wayne tried to achieve and the big picture and the big items he pursued, he never lost that notion of relating to the individual person, to the common man. That is something we here in this House should remember as we look back on Wayne's life. I had the opportunity to be a campaign manager for Wayne Owens during one of his elections. It was an exceptional opportunity, a challenging opportunity, because Wayne, again, always liked to dream big and he would ask a lot of the people who worked for him. He pushed people beyond what they thought they could do. And as someone who was rather young at the time, I got to be a campaign manager, and that was something that was a significant development in my own life. So I considered Wayne a friend, a mentor, I considered him my Congressman, and I am pleased to occupy the Second Congressional District office that Wayne once represented so well.”