July 30, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 129 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1012]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            RECOGNIZING THE LIFE AND SERVICE OF KEN BEHRING

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. MARK DeSAULNIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 30, 2019

  Mr. DeSAULNIER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the life and 
service of longtime Danville resident, Mr. Ken Behring.
  Mr. Behring was born June 13, 1928 in Freeport, Illinois. He spent 
his youth on his family's farm during the Great Depression. By twenty-
one Ken had opened the doors to his first business, Behring Motors, a 
used car dealership in Monroe, Illinois. Six years later, Mr. Behring 
had grown his small dealership to have $1 million dollars in assets.
  After relocating to Florida, Ken began work developing communities. 
By the early 1970s having cemented himself as one of the nation's most 
successful developers, he moved to California and purchased a four-
thousand-acre tract of land near Danville. After donating almost half 
of the land to the Mount Diablo State Park, Ken molded the remaining 
2,500 acres into the nationally renowned Blackhawk housing development. 
Ken's design for Blackhawk helped establish the standard for upscale 
development design nationwide. Eventually, Ken created additional 
developments resulting in over seven thousand new homes and 
contributing to the growth of East Contra Costa County.
  In addition to Ken's housing development career, he was an active 
philanthropist. Millions of Mr. Behring's earnings have been donated to 
universities, museums and charities across the country, including the 
largest single donation ever to the Smithsonian Museums. In 2000, Mr. 
Behring founded The Wheelchair Foundation as a branch of the Behring 
Global Health and Education Foundation. In its first six years, the 
foundation provided wheelchairs to individuals in 144 countries and 
reached one million wheelchairs donated in 2015.
  Ken Behring was a cherished member of the Contra Costa Community and 
he will be missed.

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