THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE RESOLUTION

INTRODUCED BY PETRARCA, ADOLPH, BAKER, BARRAR, BELFANTI, BENNINGHOFF, BEYER, BOYD, BRIGGS, BUXTON, CALTAGIRONE, CIVERA, CLYMER, COHEN, CONKLIN, D. COSTA, DAY, DeLUCA, DERMODY, DiGIROLAMO, DONATUCCI, J. EVANS, EVERETT, FAIRCHILD, FLECK, FRANKEL, GEIST, GIBBONS, GODSHALL, GOODMAN, GRELL, GRUCELA, HALUSKA, HARHAI, HARKINS, HARPER, HARRIS, HELM, HENNESSEY, HESS, HICKERNELL, HORNAMAN, HUTCHINSON, W. KELLER, KILLION, KORTZ, KOTIK, KRIEGER, KULA, LONGIETTI, MAHONEY, MAJOR, MANN, MARKOSEK, MARSHALL, MARSICO, MELIO, MICOZZIE, MILLARD, MILLER, MOUL, MURT, MUSTIO, M. O'BRIEN, O'NEILL, PALLONE, PAYNE, PHILLIPS, PICKETT, PYLE, QUINN, READSHAW, REED, REESE, ROSS, SAINATO, SANTONI, SCAVELLO, SEIP, SIPTROTH, SOLOBAY, SONNEY, STABACK, STERN, STEVENSON, STURLA, TALLMAN, THOMAS, TRUE, VEREB, VULAKOVICH, WALKO AND WATSON, DECEMBER 4, 2009

INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35, DECEMBER 4, 2009  

A RESOLUTION

Honoring Latrobe, Pennsylvania, resident Arnold Palmer on his

80th birthday and congratulating him on the many

accomplishments of his life.

WHEREAS, Arnold Palmer was born on September 10, 1929, in

Latrobe, a city that he still calls home; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Palmer began swinging his first set of golf

clubs when he was four years old and soon was playing well

enough to beat the older caddies at the Latrobe Country Club;

and 

WHEREAS, Mr. Palmer won his first of five West Penn Amateur

Championships at 17 years of age, competed successfully in

national junior events and went to Wake Forest College, where he

became the number one man on the golf team and one of the

leading collegiate players of that time; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Palmer represents many things to many people,

including a world famous golf immortal and sportsman, a highly

successful business executive, a prominent advertising

spokesman, a skilled aviator, a talented golf course designer

and consultant and a devoted husband, father and grandfather;

and

WHEREAS, Mr. Palmer amassed 92 championships in professional

competition of national or international stature by the end of

1993, and 61 of his victories came on the United States PGA

Tour, starting with the 1955 Canadian Open; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Palmer won the Masters Tournament in 1958, 1960,

1962 and 1964, the United States Open in 1960 at Cherry Hills

Country Club in Denver, Colorado, and the British Open in 1961

and 1962; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Palmer is president of Arnold Palmer

Enterprises, a multidivision structure encompassing much of his

global commercial activity; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Palmer has been involved in automobile and

aviation service firms in Charlotte, North Carolina, and

elsewhere around this nation for many years; and 

WHEREAS, Since the mid-1960s, Mr. Palmer has put his stamp on

some 200 new golf courses throughout the nation and world; and 

WHEREAS, Mr. Palmer has received virtually every national

award in golf, and after his great 1960 season he earned both

the Hickok Athlete of the Year and Sports Illustrated's 

Sportsman of the Year trophies; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Palmer is a charter member of the World Golf

Hall of Fame and a member of the American Golf Hall of Fame at

Foxburg and the PGA Hall of Fame in Florida, and he is chairman

of the USGA Members Program and served as Honorary National

Chairman of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation for 20

years; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Palmer played a major role in the fundraising

drive that led to the creation of the Arnold Palmer Hospital for

Children and Women in Orlando, Florida, in the 1980s and as a

longtime member of the Board of Directors of Latrobe Area

Hospital, he established a major annual fundraising golf event

for that institution in 1992; and

WHEREAS, President Barack Obama personally awarded Arnold

Palmer the Congressional Gold Medal at a White House ceremony on

September 29, 2009; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Palmer was just the second professional golfer

to receive the medal, which is awarded by an act of Congress.

The medals are Congress' highest expression of national

appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions;

therefore be it

RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives honor Arnold

Palmer on the occasion of his 80th birthday and congratulate him

on the many accomplishments of his life.