[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 118 (Friday, August 19, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
           JOSEPH S. DUSENBURY: EXCELLENCE IN PUBLIC SERVICE

 Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, Joe Dusenbury is well known to 
many of our colleagues here in the Senate. As Commissioner of the South 
Carolina Department of Vocational Rehabilitation for the last 18 years, 
he has earned a reputation as the Nation's single most respected and 
authoritative expert in his field.
  Here in Washington, Joe Dusenbury is known by many Senators as a 
passionate advocate and innovative practitioner in the field of 
vocational rehabilitation. He is Mr. Vocational Rehabilitation.
  Back home in South Carolina, he has the same reputation. But, perhaps 
more importantly, Joe Dusenbury is universally respected as a man who 
makes government work--for the taxpayer, for people in need, and for 
the businesses of my State. Under Joe's leadership and vision, the 
South Carolina Department of Vocational Rehabilitation is recognized as 
the most innovative and cost-effective program of its kind in the 
country. Its cost per case is roughly half of the national average. 
Despite the fact that South Carolina is a relatively small State, the 
department placed a remarkable 8,392 clients in jobs last year.
  Joe Dusenbury obviously is a man of exceptional administrative 
talent. He brings out the best in his staff, and they in turn bring out 
the best in the clients they serve. Joe is an evangelist for new ideas 
and for an old-fashioned conviction: That ability must be emphasized 
over disability, and that work is essential to human dignity.
  Mr. President, Joe Dusenbury retired this summer after nearly three 
and a half decades with the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. As 
you might expect, he has received a slew of honors down through the 
years, from presidential awards to honorary doctorates. But the real 
testament to Joe's life work lies elsewhere. It lies in the tens of 
thousands of lives he has touched--lives he has transformed through 
rehabilitation, gainful employment, and self-sufficiency.
  Quite simply, Joe Dusenbury has been a public servant in the highest 
and finest sense of the word. I have enormous respect for the work he 
has done, both nationally and in South Carolina. And I know my 
colleagues share that sentiment. We all wish him the very best.

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