[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 146 (Saturday, October 8, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


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

 
                 TRIBUTE TO REPRESENTATIVE ROY ROWLAND

                                 ______


                           HON. JACK KINGSTON

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 7, 1994

  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, those of us who live in south Georgia are 
pretty close knit. Regardless of where we live in that area, there are 
many common threads of heritage, history, and culture that bind us 
together as neighbors, regardless of our education, income, family 
status, religion or other personal or social characteristics. Citizens 
of that area identify themselves as being--not just from the State of 
Georgia--but being from south Georgia.
  It is a place--a region--a way of life that helps build quick 
relationships among friends, courtesy among strangers, and a warmth 
among neighbors. When someone moves from the area, we feel sorrow at 
their leaving--we feel sorry for them because they are going to live 
somewhere else and we feel sorry for ourselves at not having them 
nearby as a friend or as a confidant.
  This is what I feel like because of Dr. Roy Rowland's retirement from 
the House of Representatives of the Congressman from the Eighth 
Congressional District. In Georgia, Roy has been my immediate neighbor 
to the west, as the western counties of the First Congressional 
District form the longest common boundary with another Georgia 
congressional district. When you travel west from six of the First 
District's western counties, you enter six of the Eighth District' 
counties.
  Many of Roy's constituents work, play and shop within my district; 
likewise, many of my constituents cross county borders to do the same. 
Furthermore, in the 1992 election cycle, Roy's former constituents in 
five counties were redistricted into the First District from the Eighth 
District.
  In Washington, I have come to know Roy so well that I feel he is more 
than just a neighbor. With the common constituent concerns we share, I 
have come to seek his advice and trust his judgment on many legislative 
matters. Our staffs have worked together on mutual legislative and 
constituent issues. Even though our political party identifications are 
different, that has not kept us from working closely in a coordinated 
manner to help with problems and concerns which our constituencies have 
in common.
  My other delegation colleagues will touch on the specifics of Roy's 
background. It was his variety of experience--which included military 
service as a decorated infantryman in Europe in World War II and 28 
years as a practicing physician in Dublin, GA--that helped to give him 
the practical background to make such his significant contribution in 
his committee assignments on the Veterans' Affairs Committee and the 
Energy and Commerce Committee. Through his membership on these two 
committees, Roy helped to gain legislative successes with issues 
dealing with rural health care, highway aid, Superfund, clean water, 
clean air, medicare reform, and veterans' health matters.
  He became a recognized leader in crafting solutions to the problems 
faced by the Veterans' Affairs Hospital system and its health care 
delivery to our former military personnel. The culmination of his real-
life experiences came this year in his working with Representative 
Michael Bilirakis to draft the Rowland-Bilirakis Health Reform 
Consensus Act, a bill that many felt could well end up becoming the 
common-ground approach to legislated changes in the Nation's health 
care delivery system.
  Circumstances ended up that no one version of the numerous health 
care reform proposals was debated or voted on by the House during the 
103d Congress; but, Roy Rowland will leave behind a significant 
contribution by the hard work that he and his staff put into developing 
a consensus approach that many Members felt they would eventually end 
up supporting, if the concepts or another reform bill they initially 
supported did not advance.
  Mr. Speaker, when Roy returns to his home town, I am sure one of his 
first priorities will be to take advantage of the opportunity to spend 
more personal time with his wife Luella, his two daughters, his son, 
his five grandsons, and his new born great-granddaughter. He will have 
the time to focus on noncongressional activities because he will not be 
scheduled to attend week-end events throughout the 32 counties of the 
8th District; and, he will not be rushing to catch a plane back to 
Washington for late Monday or early Tuesday votes. Roy will have time 
to relax, spend time with friends and get back into synch with the day-
to-day pace of living in south Georgia.
  However, I do not think it will be too long before Roy is applying 
his tremendous energies and abilities to promoting health care reform 
and to addressing other social and economic issues in the city of 
Dublin, in Laurens County, in Atlanta with the State of Georgia 
government, and on the national level back here in Washington. It would 
indeed be a shame if decision makers and policy shapers on the local, 
State and national level did not have the advantage of Roy Rowland's 
experiences and his views on political, social, economic and cultural 
issues.
  I would like to close my remarks with a special note of thanks and 
tribute to his talented and dedicated staff in Washington and those who 
have served in his seven district offices. Both I and my staff members 
have worked especially closely with Barbara Schlein, his Staff Director 
who has helped coordinate many activities; with Cyndi Purkiss, a 
Legislative Assistant who has excelled in helping with the numerous 
demands created by the location of military bases in the District; and 
with Kathy Hennemuth, the Legislative Director who has done the 
principal staff work on the consensus health reform proposal.
  All of us in the Georgia Delegation and those who have been fortunate 
to work with him through the years will miss Roy's counsel, his loyalty 
and his friendship. Although he will not longer be our neighbor in the 
Delegation here in Washington, we do look forward to having him still 
with us down home in south Georgia.

                          ____________________