The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“REMEMBERING ISIDORE B. TORRES” mentioning Gary C. Peters was published in the Senate section on pages S6108-S6109 on Aug. 9.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
REMEMBERING ISIDORE B. TORRES
Mr. PETERS. Madam President, I rise today to honor the memory and legacy of a trailblazer, the Honorable Isidore B. Torres, one of the first Hispanic judges in the State of Michigan and a prominent figure within the Michigan Latino community, who passed earlier this year.
Born in 1947 in Texas to Chicano migrant workers, Judge Torres began his life traveling between Texas and Michigan, following whatever work was available, until later in his childhood when his parents settled in Bay City, MI, so their children could receive an education. Once settled, Judge Torres and his siblings were still expected to contribute to the family's well-being and would come home from school to help their mother work in sugar beet fields outside of Bay City.
Upon graduation from Bay City Central High School in 1966, a guidance counselor advised Judge Torres not to pursue a legal education and instead suggested other careers, particularly those that were attached to Hispanic stereotypes and influenced by prejudice. Ignoring other's doubts and racial biases, Judge Torres graduated with his bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Michigan State University in 1973 and later earned his law degree from Wayne State University in 1976.
Beginning his career with Neighborhood Legal Services in Detroit, in 1978, Judge Torres was hired by the city of Detroit as senior assistant corporation counsel and later cofounded the law firm of Torres & Horvath. In 1983, he was appointed by Governor Blanchard to the 36th District Court, where he became the first Hispanic magistrate and later judge in the Wayne County court system.
Eventually, Judge Torres rose to the Wayne County Circuit Court and handled first criminal and then civil cases until he retired in 2010. He was also appointed to serve on numerous commissions including the Michigan Supreme Court Racial/Ethnic Task Force, Michigan Sentencing Guidelines Commission and State Bar of Michigan Open Justice Commission.
Throughout his successful career and during his well-earned retirement, Judge Torres remained humble and spent a large amount of time within the community helping people navigate whatever legal troubles they had. He stayed strongly tied to and felt passionately about his Chicano roots and never lost sight of what was most important to him: working to ensure equal access to justice for all.
I ask you and my fellow colleagues to join me in celebrating the life of the Honorable Isidore B. Torres. As we remember Judge Torres' life, I hope his family--including spouse Goharik Karian Torres, children Felipe Torres, Laura Torres, Marissa Savitskie, and five grandchildren--finds comfort in the precious moments and memories they shared with him, in the lessons he taught them, and in the love he showed them.
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