[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 67 (Wednesday, May 25, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                              RAY JOHNSEN

  Mr. SIMON. Madam President, we are all heavily dependent on our 
staffs and the support people around here. We are dependent on the 
pages and the people who take down our words and the people who tell us 
what is pending, the people who guard this establishment and the 
elevator operators and many others. Each of us who is a Member of the 
Senate, we are heavily dependent on our staff. We may get the 
publicity, but we know who has done the work.
  I have been fortunate in having a superb staff, really dedicated 
people. One of the people I have had with me for a long time, with whom 
I have worked, is Ray Johnsen.
  I went to college with Ray Johnsen, a small liberal arts college in 
Nebraska, a very fine school, Dana College, in Blair, NE. After I left 
the school, I got into the newspaper business and asked Ray Johnsen to 
join me there. He did. Then when I got into government he joined me in 
my government work. He has just been a superb public servant. He has 
not received the attention that we receive as Members of the Senate, 
but he has been a public servant just as much as those of us who serve 
in the Senate.
  A friend of mine who worked for me at one point, who later became 
chief of staff for Senator Alan Dixon and is now Assistant Baseball 
Commissioner, Gene Callaghan, said he has never known anyone as good as 
Ray Johnsen on moving on things quickly. He has been great that way.
  He has handled all the books in our office, and he is someone I trust 
completely. The people of Illinois and the people of the Nation can 
trust him completely. I have never had any question about what he is 
doing and whether things are going well.
  He is retiring at the end of this month, and that is a loss for me 
personally. It is a loss for my office. It is a loss for the Senate. He 
is as fine an individual as I have ever known. I hate to lose him. But 
I wish him well. He deserves the very best in his retirement. And, 
again, it is not just that he has served and worked with Paul Simon--
that is tough enough, to work with Paul Simon all these years--but he 
has served the people of our State and of our Nation well, and I am 
very proud of Ray Johnsen, as I am of the other members of my staff.

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