HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 40
(By Delegates Manchin, Caputo, Prunty and Coleman)
[Introduced February 21, 2002; referred to the
Committee on Rules.]
Requesting the Division of Highways to name the bridge that
traverses the West Fork River in Marion County, located .12
miles west of County Route 27/2, the "Father Everett Francis
Briggs Bridge."
Whereas, Father Everett Francis Briggs, ninety-five years of
age, has enjoyed a distinguished career as a noted Jesuit priest
who was ordained as such in 1933 to be initially assigned, pursuant
to his priestly activities, to Japan where he mastered the Japanese
language and served as a missionary and teacher until the outbreak
of World War II; and
Whereas, During World War II he was interned in various
concentration camps in Japan until his repatriation in 1942 when he
returned and studied at Columbia, Rutgers and Fordham Universities;
and
Whereas, In 1943 he joined the Holy Cross Faculty as a
professor of the Japanese language in the Navy's V-12 training program where his Jesuit colleagues remembered him with enthusiasm
and affection for his affability, zeal and adaptability; and
Whereas, After the war Father Briggs became assistant Pastor of
a Japanese Catholic Church in Los Angeles and then, in 1961, in the
city of Monongah, West Virginia, he founded St. Barbara's Memorial
Nursing Home while also subsequently serving as a member of the
Nursing Home Administrators Advisory Council for a long and
distinguished tenure; and
Whereas, Father Briggs is also a noted author who has published
many works including works of music and accounts of his experiences
in Japan, one of which was published by General Douglas MacArthur;
therefore, be it
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Legislature hereby requests the West Virginia
Division of Highways to name the bridge which
traverses the West
Fork River in Marion County, located .12 miles west of county route
27/2, the "Father Everett Francis Briggs Bridge
"; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Division of Highways cause an
appropriate sign to be placed at either end of this bridge which
designates the bridge as the "Father Everett Francis Briggs
Bridge"; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Clerk of the House is hereby
directed to forward a copy of this concurrent resolution to the
Secretary of Transportation, the Commissioner of the Division of
Highways, the West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office and
the Marion County Commission.