SLS 17RS-1165 ORIGINAL
2017 Regular Session
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 89
BY SENATORS CLAITOR AND RISER AND REPRESENTATIVE BROADWATER
CONDOLENCES. Expresses condolences upon the death of Curt Eysink.
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2 To express the sincere condolences of the Legislature of Louisiana upon the death of Curt
3 Eysink, former executive director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
4 WHEREAS, the members of the Louisiana Legislature, especially those who worked
5 closely with him, were deeply saddened to hear of the death of Curt Eysink on April 28,
6 2017, at the age of fifty-three; and
7 WHEREAS, born in South Africa, Curt Eysink lived with his family in the
8 Netherlands, Venezuela, Scotland, and Australia, as his father pursued a career in the
9 petroleum industry; and
10 WHEREAS, Mr. Eysink, at fifteen, moved with his family to New Orleans,
11 Louisiana, when his father accepted a position in the Crescent City; he attended Louisiana
12 State University and graduated in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in journalism; and
13 WHEREAS, Curt Eysink went to work at The Advocate as a reporter proving himself
14 in jobs with increasing responsibility and being named city editor in 2002; and
15 WHEREAS, Mr. Eysink's colleagues at the newspaper found him to be a leader who
16 never gave up regardless of the difficulties in obtaining the story, and he was credited with
17 leading the coverage of the shocking number of unsolved murders of young women in Baton
18 Rouge in a single ten-year period; and
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SLS 17RS-1165 ORIGINAL
1 WHEREAS, in 2004, Curt Eysink left the newspaper to become a marketing
2 executive with the Louisiana Healthcare Review; he moved to the Louisiana Workforce
3 Commission in 2008 as communications director; and
4 WHEREAS, the executive director of the commission at the beginning of the
5 administration, Tim Barfield, tapped Eysink to be his chief of staff and Barfield
6 complimented Eysink saying that he "Had a lot of vision, an incredible capacity for learning,
7 and quickly became my number two on the management team"; and
8 WHEREAS, the governor and legislature had called for a new approach for the
9 re-named Department of Labor, focusing directly upon creating a qualified workforce ready
10 to fill the jobs available in the twenty-first century; and
11 WHEREAS, Mr. Barfield also stated that Eysink "became one of the chief architects
12 of the workforce development redesign", an ambitious task that the new administration
13 foresaw as a necessity for the workforce commission to fulfill its mission and its
14 commitment to the citizens of the great state of Louisiana; and
15 WHEREAS, Curt Eysink was appointed executive director of the Louisiana
16 Workforce Commission in 2009, when Tim Barfield moved to the governor's staff as general
17 counsel, and Mr. Eysink served until 2016 when a new governor was elected; and
18 WHEREAS, Senator Neil Riser served as chairman of the Senate Committee on
19 Labor and Industrial Relations during much of Eysink's tenure at the commission and he
20 recalled that "Curt was a man of impeccable character, a pleasure to work with, and I was
21 proud to call him a friend"; and
22 WHEREAS, while leading the commission, Mr. Eysink spearheaded the
23 implementation of the HIRE system, where those who come to sign up for unemployment
24 are now required to register for work, not a requirement in many states; and
25 WHEREAS, while heading the Louisiana Workforce Commission, Eysink was also
26 active in the National Association of State Workforce Agencies and served as president of
27 the organization; and
28 WHEREAS, after his work at the workforce commission, Curt Eysink oversaw
29 workforce policy for the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, an endeavor
30 of which he was very proud; and
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1 WHEREAS, Curt Eysink leaves to cherish their memories of him and his impact on
2 all of their lives, his wife, Dianne; his children, Samantha, Maxwell, and Adelaide; his
3 parents Ute and Billy Eysink; and other family members and friends; and
4 WHEREAS, it is likely that, beyond his love for his family and his faith, Mr.
5 Eysink's greatest legacies of his public life were to help change the culture at the Louisiana
6 Workforce Commission, from one simply focused on work for the unemployed to one that
7 focused on outcomes, putting the unemployed in jobs where they could be successful, while
8 filling a need of the new employer and his work in education through the community and
9 technical colleges in the state.
10 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
11 express sincere condolences upon the death of Curt Eysink, former executive director of the
12 Louisiana Workforce Commission.
13 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
14 Dianne Eysink.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Mary Dozier O'Brien.
DIGEST
SCR 89 Original 2017 Regular Session Claitor
Expresses condolences of the Legislature of Louisiana upon the death of Curt Eysink.
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