Hank Marx died peacefully early Sunday morning, October 21, 2007.

As Hank's wife Sue noted, Hank was "the most gentle, kindest and delicious
man". All of those who spoke at Hank's funeral on October 22 echoed this
sentiment and every person in chapel nodded and smiled when yet another
example of Hank's caring, love for life, sense of humor and passion for peace
was shared. Another word I would use to describe Hank was that he was
generousŠwith his time, his commitment, his resources, and his tremendous
capacity for caring.

Hank was a huge fan of people and their potential for greatness. One of the gifts that Hank had was his ability to be fully engaged with whomever he was talking. When you talked to Hank, you felt acknowledged and recognized; he saw in you the amazing person that you are and you come to recognizeand believe that about yourself. You were inspired. I think that is one of the reasons that Hank was much sought after as a mediator, because he recognized each person fully in that moment.  Another reason was that Hank honors the connections that we have to one another; that it is together we succeed.

While Hank is no longer with us in body, his spirit will live on in the lecture series that was set up by his family and supported by the University. This series will continue to honor Hank's passion for enhancing people's relationships to one another, for dealing constructively with conflict and to provide another means by which people's hearts and minds could be engaged in thinking and being ourselves into greatness.

 
  

 

 

The Stanley “Hank” Marx Annual Lecture Series in Dispute Resolution  

 

 

September 15^th, 2006, then President Irvin D. Reid welcomed and introduced the Honorable John D. Dingell, U.S. House of Representatives, to share his “Reflections on 50 Years of Dispute Resolution in Congress”. In his talk, Congressman Dingell discussed why he thought there had been a breakdown of civil discourse on Capitol Hill.

 

He identified three main contributors to the erosion of discourse.. First, televising debate on the House floor was distracting the members from “the benefit of good, quality legislation” and creating a place to “air grievances” rather than resolve conflicts. Second, there has been an increase in the division between the Democratic and Republican parties which he attributed to changes that occurred in the way Member business was conducted. The third factor was the “win-at –all costs mentality” without room for compromise, where the “the rules of engagement and positive dialogue have been dismissed.”

 

Congressman Dingell concluded with five essential solutions for peaceful and constructive conflict resolution in Congress:

 

 

1.  Get the facts, then work the politics to fit the facts.

2.  Listen to those involved and try to understand what the parties in dispute need to be whole .

3.  Never put friends and allies in a position in which they endanger themselves.

4.  Negotiators must generate trust and to do that, you have to keep your word.

5.  Whenever possible, you want the parties in dispute to come to their own solutions.