Christopher “Chris” William Strobel
September23, 1963 ~ May 10, 2022
Christopher William Strobel was born in New Orleans on September 23, 1963 and died on May 10, 2022. He is survived by his mother, Shelly Strobel, sister Mimi Hagan and husband Bill, nieces Christi Hagan Gautreau, Rachel Hagan Taft, Mickie Hagan Jones and husband Gary, and Katie Hagan, and nephew Jonathan William Hagan, great niece Charlotte Jones, and great nephews Noah Gautreau, Jonah Taft, and Carter William Jones. He was preceded in death by his father, Don H. Strobel, maternal grandparents John William and Elouise Jones, fraternal grandparents George and Mary Lillian Strobel, and his friend and mentor, The Honorable Norman Y. Mineta.
Chris attended Live Oak High School and was a recipient of the LSU Alumni Federation’s scholarship for the top 100 entering freshmen. After a year at LSU, he enrolled at Harvard College, where he graduated in 1987 with a degree in government. He spent a year studying in Denmark and Switzerland. In 2003, he received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.
After graduation from Harvard, he was employed as the Legislative Director for Congressman Norman Y. Mineta (D-CA), U. S. House of Representatives, with a focus on civil rights issues. His major work during that time included legislation apologizing to Japanese Americans for their internment during World War II, the Americans with Disabilities Act, legislation granting American women equal rights in conferring US citizenship on their children born abroad, the reauthorization aimed at overturning the ban on gays and lesbians in the US Military, and legislation creating the National Japanese American Memorial in Washington, D.C. He organized the formation of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus in the Congress, for which he served as its first staff director, and as its liaison to the broader civil rights community. Along with four colleagues, he co-founded the Lesbian and Gay Congressional Staff Association in 1994.
From 1996 to 1998, he was a Manager for Business Operations at Lockheed Martin Corporation in Washington, D.C. From 1998 to 2000, he was the Director for Policy and Research at the U.S. Census Monitoring Board, a Congressional commission established to oversee the 2000 Census.
From July 2000 to January 21, 2001, President William J. Clinton appointed him to serve as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy for the U.S. Department of Commerce under the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Norman Y. Mineta. In 2001, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as an Assistant to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Under U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta. In that capacity, he was the Secretary’s representative to the crash investigation for United Airlines Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Also following September 11, he served as a member of the White House Policy Coordinating Committee on Racial Profiling and chaired the government-wide task force that recommended major changes to national maritime security policy. Those recommendations became the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2001.
After several years representing public sector clients, including transit systems, county and municipal government, hospital systems, universities, and the California State Senate, he returned to Capitol Hill in 2007 as Chief of Staff to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton.
In 2012, he returned home to Watson, and served as a member of the Harvard College Admissions Advisory Committee for Louisiana, with an emphasis on the Greater Baton Rouge Metropolitan Area. Throughout the rest of his life, he continued consulting and advising many of the aforementioned groups.
Services will be at Live Oak Methodist Church in Watson, Louisiana, conducted by the Rev. Ann Sutton on Saturday, May 28, 2022. Visitation will begin at 10:00 am and continue until funeral services at 11:30.
Chris was especially fond of Live Oak High School, and in lieu of flowers, contributions to their scholarship fund would be appreciated, mailing address is P.O. Box 590, Watson, LA 70786. The link for online payments can be found here:
Very special thanks to Stephen Hebert of Live Oak Methodist Church, the medical staff at the Emergency Room and Intensive Care Unit at Ochsner Medical Center on O’neal Lane for their professional and compassionate care.