Robert J. Mrazek

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–

(

June

2019

)

(

)

Bob Mrazek

Mrazek,

1990

Member of the

from

district

In office

January 3, 1983 – January 3, 1993

Preceded by

Succeeded by

Personal details

Born

Robert Jan Mrazek

November 6, 1945

(age 80)

, U.S.

Spouses

Catherine Gurick

(

1971; died 2004)

Carolyn Allen

(

2005)

Children

Education

(

)

Robert Jan Mrazek

(born November 6, 1945) is an American author, filmmaker,

and former politician. He served as a

member of the

, representing

for most of the 1980s.

Since leaving Congress, Mrazek has

authored fourteen books, earning the

from the American Library Association, the Michael Shaara

award for Civil War fiction,

and Best Book (American History) from the

Washington Post

He also wrote and co-directed the 2016 feature film

The

Congressman

, which received the

Biography

[

]

Mrazek was born in

to Harold Richard Mrazek (1919-2008) and Blanche

Rose (

Slezak

, 1915-2007), both of

descent.

Blanche's maternal

grandmother Anna Svašková (1862-1946) was born in

Robert grew

up in

He graduated from

in 1967

with a major in political science,

then attended the London Film School in

1968.

He joined the

in 1967

to serve in the

, but

was disabled by a training injury at

in Newport.

After a period of hospitalization with wounded Marines, he turned against the

war.

After his 1968 discharge, he was an aide to

(1969–1971).

In 1993, he became the founding chairman of the Alaska Wilderness League, an

organization dedicated to protecting Alaska's wild lands. He still serves as

Honorary Chair with former President Jimmy Carter.

In the mid-1990s he was one of the co-founders of the

(UBL) which was a planned third

In July 2024, he co-founded Compass Rose Publishing, a small independent book

publishing house that is committed to reinvigorating the traditional

relationship between book publishers and independent booksellers.

He currently serves as Publisher and

Chair.

[

]

Politics

[

]

Elected service

[

]

He was elected to the

Legislature, 1975–1982 and became its

He was a delegate to the

in 1980, 1988, and 1992.

Democrat Mrazek was first

to the

, defeating

a one-

term

Congressman in the

. (The

to reflect the

Mrazek served in the

from 1983 until he retired in 1993. Freshman members

usually do not sit on the

, but Mrazek persuaded

to make an exception for him.

After being elected to his fifth term in Congress, Mrazek announced that

he would not stand for re-election, choosing instead to explore a run for the United States Senate in 1992. He

abandoned this race after being implicated in the

Legislation

[

]

Mrazek wrote laws to preserve 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km

) of

in Alaska's Tongass National Forest

and to protect the Manassas Civil War battlefield in Virginia. In international affairs, he wrote a law to hamper the

U.S. Government's ability to intervene in Nicaragua; he also wrote the Amerasian Homecoming Act, which brought the

children of American military personnel from Vietnam home to the USA. His National Film Preservation Act established

the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress.

Edwards Substitute Amendment

to Title II, HR 5052 regarding Nicaragua was passed in June 1986; it limited the

Reagan Administration's use of $100,000,000 Congress had approved for military assistance to Contras seeking to

overthrow the Sandinista National Liberation Front. Four amendments were proposed to put restrictions on the aid; in

offering his, Mrazek raised concern that a Gulf of Tonkin type of incident could be exploited by the Reagan

Administration to widen the course of the war, since the Contra camps were located along the border between Honduras

and Nicaragua, and firefights between the Contras and the Sandanistas erupted regularly along the border. Mrazek argued

that if American troops were killed in one of the camps, the Reagan Administration might send American forces into

Nicaragua itself. Eventual declassification of secret White House memoranda revealed Mrazek's concerns were justified.

Of the four amendments being considered in the House of Representatives to put restrictions on the aid, the only one

to win passage was the Mrazek amendment, which banned all U.S. personnel involved in training Contras from coming

within 20 miles (32 km) of the Nicaraguan border.

Amerasian Homecoming Act

became law in December 1987. In the wake of its passage, approximately 25,000 children

fathered by American servicemen during the Vietnam War were brought to the United States. Called

bui doi

("children of

the dust") by the Vietnamese because their faces and skin color were painful reminders of the war, they faced terrible

discrimination in their homeland; often they were even prevented from going to school.

By the mid-1980s, thousands

were living in the streets. The United States at first refused to take responsibility for them, but in 1987, at the

behest of high school students in his Congressional District who wrote a diplomatically worded letter to the

Vietnamese mission in NYC, Mrazek went to Vietnam and brought out an American-Vietnamese child named Le Van Minh, who

was a beggar in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).

While in Vietnam, he met dozens of other Amerasian children, many of

whom begged to "go to the land of my father." As a result, Mrazek authored the bill, which became law. Since its

passage, many of the Amerasians brought to the United States by the bill have found success after graduation from

college, as teachers, entrepreneurs, and business people.

Manassas Battlefield Protection Act

: With Representative Michael Andrews (D-TX), Mrazek led the fight in the House

of Representatives to prevent the Civil War battlefield at Manassas, Virginia, from being turned into a shopping mall.

In April, 1988, he inserted an amendment into an appropriations bill that prohibited federal funds from being used to

plan and design a needed interchange near the 542-acre (2.19 km

) tract of land.

He and Andrews then introduced

H.R. 4526, which authorized the federal government to acquire the land and add it to the battlefield park. In the

contentious battle over the legislation, Donald Hodel, President Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, launched

personal attacks on Mrazek and Andrews, accusing them of "playing politics" with the battlefield.

Nevertheless, the

bill drafted by Mrazek was signed into law by President

in November, 1988.

: In 1988, as classic films like

and

were being colorized and

other early films were being "time-compressed" by television broadcasters to allow the insertion of more commercials,

Mrazek introduced a proposal to protect classic American films from significant alteration without the permission of

the films' creators. While the proposal was being considered, the "Mrazek Amendment" generated an intense lobbying

campaign against its passage, led on behalf of the major film studios by

, President of the

At one point, Valenti said the proposal "...puts a spike in the eye of normal House

procedure and creates a group which is something out of 1984."

The legislation was backed by many members of

Hollywood's creative community, including actors

and

, directors

and

, all of whom wanted to see the integrity of their work preserved without alteration.

Ultimately the

"moral rights" of the Mrazek amendment prevailed in Congress;

its final provisions included the establishment of

the National Film Registry, in which 25 films per year deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"

are protected by the

The law also set up the

to explore new

approaches to saving endangered work. It was signed into law by President

on September 27, 1988.

The Tongass Timber Reform Act

, which affected logging operations in the nation's largest national forest, was

signed into law by President

in 1990. First introduced by Mrazek in 1986, the proposed law was the

subject of several years of contentious debate between its author and members of the Alaska Congressional delegation,

including Representative

(R-AK). After being defeated in a House vote on a Mrazek amendment in 1990, Young

allegedly "went berserk," tracked Mrazek down in a House corridor and threatened him with a knife.

Mrazek's

landmark conservation law revoked the artificially high timber cutting targets, protecting over 2,000,000 acres

(8,100 km

) of Tongass's old-growth forest and watershed acreage, and mandated broad buffers for all salmon and

resident fishing streams.

Awards

[

]

For his conservation and preservation work, the Directors Guild of America awarded Mrazek its first Legislative

Achievement Award in 1987. In 1988, Mrazek, along with Andrews, was named a Conservationist of the Year by the NPCA,

the National Parks Conservation Association, for their efforts to protect Manassas National Battlefield from adjacent

land development.

The Governor of New York gave Mrazek the Commissioner's Preservationist Award in 1990.

In 2017, Mrazek was named one of the Four Legends of Civil War Battlefield Preservation by the American Battlefield

Trust.

Author

[

]

Since retiring from Congress, Mrazek has published fourteen books, including nine novels, and five works of non-

fiction; he also wrote the screenplay for the 2016 feature film,

Stonewall's Gold

was published by St. Martin's Press in 1999. It won the 1999

Unholy Fire

, Mrazek's second Civil War novel, was published by St. Martin's Press in 2003.

The Deadly Embrace

was Mrazek's third novel, a World War II murder/mystery published by Viking Press in 2006. In

2007,

The Deadly Embrace

earned the

from the American

Library Association as the best military fiction of 2006.

A Dawn Like Thunder: The True Story of Torpedo Squadron Eight

, Mrazek's first non-fiction work, was published by

Little, Brown & Co., in 2008.

A Dawn Like Thunder

was named as a "Best Book of 2009 (American History)" by the

Washington Post

The Art Pottery of Joseph Mrazek: A Collector's Guide

, was published by Wingspan Press in 2009, and tells the story

of Mrazek's grandfather, the noted painter, inventor, and maker of hand-painted Czech pottery between the two world

wars.

To Kingdom Come: An Epic Saga of Survival in the Air War Over Germany

, published by NAL-Penguin in 2011, is an

account of the ill-fated bombing mission of the American Air Force "Flying Fortress" team sent to raid Stuttgart in

September, 1943. It was chosen as a main selection of the Military and History Book Club.

Valhalla,

a contemporary thriller involving the discovery of an ancient Viking ship and its crew beneath the

Greenland Ice Cap, was published by Penguin/Random House in 2014.

The Bone Hunters

, the sequel to

Valhalla

, also published by Penguin/Random House in 2014, tells the story of the

search for the legendary fossil, Peking Man, which disappeared during the Japanese occupation of Peking in

December, 1941, and has never been found.

And the Sparrow Fell

, published by Cornell University Press in 2017, is a coming-of-age tale set against the

backdrop of the Vietnam War.

Dead Man's Bridge: A Jake Cantrell Mystery

, published by Crooked Lane Books on August 8, 2017, is the first

installment of the Jake Cantrell mystery series.

The Indomitable Florence Finch: The Untold Story of a War Widow Turned Resistance Fighter and Savior of American

POWs,

published by Hachette Books on July 21, 2020, tells the story of an unsung World War II heroine who saved

countless American lives in the Philippines.

The Dark Circle

, published by Crooked Lane Books on August 12, 2022, is the second installment in the highly

praised Jake Cantrell mystery series.

The Harvard Murders

, published by Compass Rose Publishing in February 2025, a murder/mystery involving young JFK

during his sophomore year at Harvard. (

)

For This is Forever: The Extraordinary Life of William Robinson Evans, Jr.

, to be published by Compass Rose

Publishing in June 2026.

Filmmaking

[

]

Mrazek, who attended the London Film School in 1968, wrote and co-directed his first feature film,

which premiered in Washington, D.C., in April 2016.

The film stars

, and

Publications

[

]

Robert J., Mrazek (2015).

. Signet.

Mrazek, Robert J. (2014).

(1st ed.).

Mrazek, Robert J. (2008).

A Dawn Like Thunder: The True Story of Torpedo Squadron Eight

(1st ed.).

Mrazek, Robert J. (2006).

Mrazek, Robert J. (2003).

(1st ed.).

Mrazek, Robert J. (1999).

. maps by Martie Holmer (1st ed.).

Adapted for

(six cassettes), read by Jeff Woodman,

, 1999.

References

[

]

. Archived from

on 21 July 2011

. Retrieved

9 August

2011

The Washington Post

AARP Press Room for AARP The Magazine and

AARP the Bulletin

. January 4, 2017.

Mrazek (2008).

FamilySearch

www.portafontium.eu

. Retrieved

2020-03-22

Hachette Book Group

. 2009. Archived

from

on January 9, 2010.

. Archived from

on 7 July 2011

. Retrieved

23 August

2009

. May 29, 2008

. Retrieved

23 August

2009

Guthrie, Benjamin J. (1983).

(PDF)

. p. 27

. Retrieved

2009-08-23

Hymel, Gary;

(January 23, 1994).

. Archived from

on November 17, 2010

. Retrieved

2011-12-30

And Tip went out of his way to help the Democrat in that area, Bob

Mrazek, who was then elected. As a matter of fact, Mrazek told a story about how he went in to see Tip for a committee

assignment. He was a freshman; I don't think Tip had ever met him. So he goes in and he says, "I want to be on Appropriations."

Tip says, "No. No freshman will get on Appropriations this year. There will be none. So what else do you want?" Mrazek says, "I'm

the guy who beat Leboutillier." Tip says, "Have you thought about majority leader?" The Hymel reference is to a humorous speech

Mrazek delivered as a freshman congressman to the Washington Correspondent's Dinner in December 1982, in which Mrazek spoke about

how he won a coveted spot on Appropriations.

Congress.gov

. Library of Congress. 25 June 1986

. Retrieved

14 March

2020

Lamb, David (June 2009).

Smithsonian Magazine

. Smithsonian Institution

. Retrieved

14 March

2020

Asia Magazine

. September 20, 1987.

{{

}}

Missing or empty

|title=

(

)

Nguyen, Giang (June 2, 2010).

CNN

. Cable News Network.

. September 11, 1988.

Los Angeles Times

. July 8, 1988.

Zenzen, Joan M. (1997).

Pennsylvania State University Press. p. Appendix IV.

. Archived from

on October 27, 2007.

Public Law 100-647, 100th Congress, 2d Session, Title X—Manassas National Battlefield Park.... Approved November 10, 1988.

Schwartz, Erik J. (January 1989).

(PDF)

Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A

(2).

138–

159.

"Jimmy Stewart goes to Washington".

New York Times

. June 16, 1988.

Basics

. The

. Archived from

on April 22, 2001.

Kosova, Weston (November 1995).

Outside Magazine

. Archived from

on 29 August 2004.

. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. Archived from

on 19 June 2010.

1990 Tongass Timber

Reform Act (TTRA): Signed into law by President George H. Bush, this landmark conservation law revoked the artificially high

timber target, repealed the automatic $40 million annual appropriation, protected over one million acres of wild Tongass

watersheds with vital community-use values, and mandated minimum 100-foot buffer strips on all salmon and resident fish streams.

This bill did not terminate the two long-term pulp contracts but modified them in order to better protect the national interest.

National Parks Conservation Association

. April 4, 2019

. Retrieved

March 15,

2020

Hallowed Ground: A quarterly publication of the Civil War Trust. Summer 2017, Vol. 18, No.2

. Ala.org. 2013-12-01

. Retrieved

2014-07-29

History Book Club

. Bookspan. 2012.

Orr, Christopher (13 April 2016).

. Retrieved

14 April

2016

External links

[

]

United States Congress.

Preceded by

Member of the

from

1983–1993

Succeeded by

(ceremonial)

Preceded by

as Former U.S. Representative

Succeeded by

as Former U.S. Representative

's delegation(s) to the 98th–102nd

(ordered by seniority)

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