[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 24 (Tuesday, March 8, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 8, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          HONORING JOHN RILEY

  Mr. DURENBERGER. Madam President, Sunday night at about 8:30, quite a 
number of us lost a very dear friend to cancer. He was my friend, and 
the friend of a great many of us in this Chamber.
  Last Thursday, in one of those poignant ironies of which life seems 
to have so many, I found myself riding Amtrak to what turned out to be 
my final visit to my dear friend--the very Amtrak that John Riley had 
done so much to rebuild.
  As I rode through the State of Maryland on the way to his 
Philadelphia hospital room, I thought about my very first meeting with 
John 16 years ago.
  John came up to me after my underdog speech to the Hennepin County 
Independent Republican Convention and said, ``I like what you said, and 
I'd like to help you get elected.''
  John celebrated his 47th birthday in January 1994. For the last 16 of 
those years he worked with me in campaigns and in Government--and he 
was a best friend as well.
  There was even a time in the early 1980's--he was serving as my 
second legislative director--when many people were convinced that I was 
working for him.
  Early in our friendship, John discovered that my grandfather Cebulla 
was a 50-year veteran with the Great Northern Railroad. John then 
launched both himself and me on an effort to save a small and 
dilapidated rail line in southern Minnesota--and John was the key to 
our success.
  That led us into an effort to save the Milwaukee Road mainline. The 
Milwaukee Road was the lifeline for dozens of rural communities in 
western Minnesota, and it was about to go under. Once again--John Riley 
to the rescue.
  Our next step was Japan and Europe, where we prospected for high-
speed rail service for the United States. John created the Senate rail 
caucus, a U.S. International High Speed Rail Congress, and rail 
compacts with France and Japan.
  In 1983, John moved on to serve as special assistant for rail policy 
to Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole. Later that year, he became 
Federal Railroad Administrator [FRA], serving with distinction until 
1989.
  His years as head of the FRA were a time of great achievement on 
John's part. He wrote--and managed through final passage--the Rail 
Safety Improvement Act of 1988. This was the most sweeping legislation 
in the history of the FRA.
  He was an effective spokesman on rail issues, and had earned the 
respect and goodwill of the entire Washington community when--in 1989--
his doctors told him he was suffering from cancer and had only a few 
months to live.
  After experimental treatment by the wonderful medical staff at Johns 
Hopkins in Baltimore, it looked like John was on the road to recovery. 
In January 1991, he was prevailed upon the become Minnesota's 
transportation commissioner. He had served only 8 months in that post 
when Governor Carlson promoted him to chief of staff.
  In 1992, doctors discovered a second tumor. After another operation, 
and returning to work part time for a few months in 1992, John resigned 
because he felt his course of medical treatment would keep him away 
from the Capitol too long--and thus impede his effectiveness as the 
Governor's chief of staff.
  Last year, Governor Carlson appointed him to the chairmanship of the 
regional transit board, which coordinates transportation policy on the 
Twin Cities.
  John left that job in December. And he left us on Sunday night.
  How can I sum up the life of this outstanding person? His will to 
live was evident in the titanic fight he waged in what proved to be his 
final years. The day after he left the FRA post, he was at Arlington 
Hospital with a brain tumor, of which--thanks to some miraculous 
positive bent that was purely his own--he was cured. But another one 
followed, and a third. It was the third that killed him, 5 years after 
the first was discovered.
  John was an incredible human being. Above all, he was an optimist. He 
was what most people would call a character--but if you were lucky 
enough to have a relationship with him, you knew that that relationship 
was a pearl of great price. It is so hard to find in the political 
life--indeed, in any walk of life--a friend whose character is of such 
a bright, lovable nature that you can look up to and emulate him, and 
pray that your children grow up to be like that person.
  Madam President, that is the person whom the world lost on Sunday 
night. I ask my colleagues to join me in extending our warmest 
condolences to John's family and friends as they gather for a memorial 
service at noon Friday, in Ardmore, PA.
  John Riley was a brief light that left us amazed. We will miss him 
deeply.

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