[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 87 (Friday, July 1, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 1, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         HONORING MELVIN GRELL

  Mr. DURENBERGER. Every life has passages which our parents used to 
call phases as they adjusted to our growth. As I reflect on mine, each 
passage has a person to whom my successful passage can be attributed. 
It is my God who gives me power, but he always uses another to achieve 
his end.
  Today, Mr. President, I rise to honor a guiding force in my life, 
Melvin Grell, upon his retirement this month after 37 years of service 
with American Family Insurance.
  Some young 4-H'er asked me the other day when I had first wanted to 
be a Senator. And I recall that it was sometime after I was sworn in. 
Almost the same thing is true of my going to law school back in 1956.
  I really didn't want to go to law school or to be a lawyer, but a 
friend in the Army encouraged me to take an entrance exam, which I did, 
and I was accepted at the University of Minnesota Law School and 
graduated there in 1959.
  But I doubt I would have been successful in my profession and in what 
it has led me to without the help of a friend, roommate and at times, a 
soulmate and playmate.
  Mel Grell was born to be an important part of my life in Pierz, MN. 
He went to school there, and we met first when he earned his degree at 
St. John's University near my home. We met again at the University of 
Minnesota from 1957 to 1959 while we resided at the Gamma Eta Gamma law 
fraternity at 914 Fourth Street SE. in Minneapolis, MN. Together we 
rebuilt the house, the fraternity and to some degree, our ambitions.
  Mel had gone to law school just before I did and it was he and his 
friends who helped me provide some leadership to rebuilding the 
fraternity and the fraternity house. He was able to keep my nose in the 
books and my head in the right place while we enjoyed the friends of 
one's graduate years and the joy of having a good time.
  It was at this period of time that Mel was building a career for 
himself and for the law department at American Family Insurance, 
although he didn't necessarily look at the latter as his purpose in 
life.
  But what I will always remember about Mel Grell is his commitment to 
love his God, his family and others as he would love himself. His 
commitment to God was also a commitment to his Catholic Church. He knew 
the powers and the hierarchy in Rome in particular and talked 
humorously about the political powers that ran the Church. But his 
personal faith was even deeper than his roots in Catholic country in 
Morrison County.
  His roots in Pierz and his family were deep. His mother was his life. 
Every weekend was spent at their home in Pierz with her and with other 
family members. Everybody in what is today an enlarging rural family 
speaks lovingly of ``Uncle Melvin''.
  I suspect it is the same at American Family Insurance and I regret 
that I am unable to celebrate with them the graduation of their friend 
and mine, Melvin Grell, into the retirement phase of his life. The love 
we all have for a man who gives never to receive, knows no bounds. So, 
Mr. President, we celebrate the life of a special Minnesotan and we 
wish him Godspeed, good health and long life.

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