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2005 SESSION


HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 961
Commending Walter L. Mess.

 

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 25, 2005
Agreed to by the Senate, February 26, 2005

 

WHEREAS, Walter L. Mess, the longest-serving public official in Northern Virginia, who has overseen the area's regional park authority as chairman for 30 years, retired in December 2004; and

WHEREAS, Walter Mess stepped down at the age of 90, having devoted more than 46 years of his life to preserving land in the area; and

WHEREAS, under the leadership of Walter Mess, the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority preserved more than 10,000 acres while operating 19 regional parks in the Cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, and Falls Church and in Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun Counties; and

WHEREAS, Walter Mess built the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority into a billion-dollar corporation and spearheaded efforts to develop the 45-mile Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park trail and acquire the 5,000-acre Occoquan Reservoir shoreline; and

WHEREAS, Walter Mess interrupted his quest for a law degree in 1939 to sign on with the United States government in a covert operations unit and was sent to Europe, where he traveled behind German lines, actions that earned him an honorary Green Beret more than half a century later; and

WHEREAS, Walter Mess returned to the United States in 1940, completed his degree, married and started a family, and after enlisting in the Quartermaster Corps was stationed in San Diego for a month, where he got a chance to see the area's regional system of parks, golf courses, and swimming pools, available to the public at no cost; and

WHEREAS, Walter Mess came home in 1946 to embark on a decades-long journey to create a similar regional park system for Northern Virginia; and

WHEREAS, in 1959 Walter Mess was Falls Church's first appointee to the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority Board and since then, the park authority has spent $120 million on land, including parcels along the Occoquan Reservoir and Potomac River and on the environmentally fragile Mason Neck; and

WHEREAS, in 1975 Walter Mess became the second chairman of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority and in 1999 the park authority honored his 40 years of service by naming its headquarters in Fairfax Station for him; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend Walter L. Mess on the completion of an exemplary career of service to Northern Virginia and the Commonwealth; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to Walter L. Mess as an expression of the General Assembly's deep appreciation for his many accomplishments as chairman of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority.