[Pages S4364-S4365]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

REMEMBERING FRANCIS VOIGT

Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, it is with a mixture of pride and sadness
that I recognize the life of a friend, Francis ``Fran'' Voigt, the
cofounder of the New England Culinary Institute of Montpelier, VT. Fran
passed away in May, leaving a strong legacy and many family and
friends.
Fran Voigt was an innovator, who originally came to Vermont to teach
at Goddard College. In 1969, he came to Vermont with his wife, poet
Ellen Bryant Voigt, who would later serve as Vermont's poet laureate.
He was part of a faculty and staff at Goddard that changed the culture
of central Vermont. While at Goddard, Fran developed programs in many
fields, including social ecology and art therapy. Fran believed in
hands-on education, both at Goddard and later at the New England
Culinary Institute, known locally as NECI, which he cofounded in 1980.
The New England Culinary Institute, which began in the basement of
Montpelier's Capitol Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, grew quickly
and garnered national attention. Fran and NECI were soon at the
forefront of our

[[Page S4365]]

country's progressive culinary education movement and were recognized
by President Bill Clinton as first runner-up for the Nation's small
business of the year in 1994. In 2000, Fran was named Vermont Citizen
of the Year by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.
Vermont's culinary landscape was forever changed by the New England
Culinary Institute, as its students opened and worked at restaurants
throughout the State.
In memory of Fran Voigt, I ask unanimous consent that the article by
Stephen Mills in the May 22 edition of the Barre Montpelier Times
Argus, ``NECI founder revered for student model,'' be printed in the
Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:

[From the Barre Montpelier Times Argus, May 22, 2018]

NECI Founder Revered for Student Model

(By Stephen Mills)

Montpelier.--The Capital City reacted to news of the death
of Fran Voigt, co-founder of the New England Culinary
Institute, who died at his Cabot home Monday. He was 78.
Voigt and co-founder John Dranow, and their wives, Ellen
Bryant Voigt and Louise Gluck, respectively met at Goddard
College and started the legendary cooking school with seven
students in the basement of the Capitol Plaza Hotel &
Conference Center on State Street in 1980.
At the height of its success, the business was honored in
1994 by former President Bill Clinton as first runner-up for
the nation's small business of the year. It boasted a high of
800 students, and a number of academic offerings and outlets
that still include the flagship NECI on Main restaurant and
La Brioche bakery and cafe, and food service at National Life
and the cafeteria at Vermont College of Fine Arts, all in
Montpelier. Other operations, included a second campus in
Essex and NECI Commons, a restaurant on Church Street in
Burlington, which were discontinued. More recent contracts
included a $200,000 contract to train cooks for the U.S.
Coast Guard and a three-year contract to design and deliver a
training program for culinary staff at Sandals resorts in the
Caribbean. But NECI also was at the center of a protracted
legal dispute in 1999 that landed in the Vermont Supreme
Court after Voigt and the wives had a falling out with Dranow
who was ousted, and sued but finally settled. NECI is now run
by Milan Milasinovic, who is also president of Virginia Marti
College of Art and Design in Ohio and merged the two schools
last June after Voigt stepped down as president in January
2017. It has about 200 students. Voigt's daughter, Dudley,
said there would be no public service, but the family hoped
to hold a memorial service later.
``We would just say that he died at home after a long
illness,'' she said.
``We feel that we're very proud of NECI,'' Dudley Voigt
said. ``We watched him build it, and it was a unique
coalescing of all of his talents and gifts and curiosities.''
According to an obituary provided by the family to be
published in The Times Argus, Francis George Wilheim Voigt
was born in in Oskaloosa, Iowa, March 27, 1940, after his
parents emigrated from Germany. He graduated from Wesleyan
University in 1962 and earned a graduate degree in political
theory from the University of Iowa where he met his wife,
Ellen Bryant Voigt. The couple came to central Vermont as
educational idealists in 1969. Fran Voigt accepted a teaching
position at Goddard College and developed some of the skills
he used to build the hands-on education that became the model
for NECI where students started in the kitchen in the
classroom and the student-teacher ratio was 7-1. The NECI
motto was: ``Learning by doing.''
In addition to his lifelong work at NECI, Voigt was also an
active member of the Vermont Business Roundtable, Rotary
International, the Cabot School and the Vermont Chamber of
Commerce, which named him Vermont Citizen of the Year in
2000. He was also recognized in the community for his
signature bow ties and antique Citroens.
Milan Milasinovic credited Voigt with visionary leadership
and commitment to the NECI model of culinary arts and being a
mentor to all at the school.
``He became a dear friend of mine in the last couple of
years of his life,'' he said. ``It's a huge loss. He was our
founding father and he made NECI very innovative and a force
as a culinary school in the United States. It's all because
of his entrepreneurial spirit. I'm sure the people at NECI
will miss him greatly. We loved this man a lot.''
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy credited Voigt with being ``at the
forefront of the progressive culinary education movement
nationally,'' and said the Vermont food scene would not be
what it is today without Voigt's contribution and leadership.
``His vision, hard work and dedication in founding and
continually reinventing NECI leaves a lasting legacy that
extends well beyond Vermont,'' Leahy said. ``He helped give
expression to Vermont's tradition of quality, taste and
excellence. Vermont's culinary landscape owes a significant
debt to his vision, and so do the communities that were
nourished, enriched and enlivened by those trained under his
leadership.''
Montpelier Mayor Anne Watson added: ``Fran Voigt made
substantial cultural contributions to Montpelier, and I'm
certainly saddened to have lost him. We send our condolences
to his family.''
The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations
be made in Voigt's name to the NECI scholarship fund or to
the Vermont Foodbank.

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