[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 36 (Monday, February 27, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S3147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      TRIBUTE TO LINDA WARD-THOMAS

  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a dedicated 
servant of the people of the United States. Linda Ward-Thomas, who has 
an outstanding record of public service, was tragically killed in an 
auto accident February 7, 1995, near the family home of Fishtail MT. 
She is survived by her husband, Burt, and her parents, Thomas and Ethel 
Ward of Hysham, MT. Burt Williams is currently with the Bureau of Land 
Management.
  According to the Billings Gazette,

       Linda was definitely an individual. She was born June 12, 
     1947, the daughter of Tom and Ethel Ward, and attended 
     schools in Hysham, Billings and Missoula in Montana, 
     culminating in a master's degree in anthropology at the 
     University of Colorado, working toward a Ph.D.
       Linda started professional life as an Old World 
     archaeologist and worked on projects in Israel and Western 
     Europe. She gave up the allure of the Old World and settled 
     into Western U.S. archaeology when she marred her husband in 
     1971.

  Linda as an archaeologist, started her career with the Bureau of Land 
Management in 1978. She moved to the Bureau of Reclamation in 1979. She 
began her work as a forest ranger for the U.S. Forest Service in 1987 
and was elevated to district ranger at the Beartooth Ranger District, 
Red Lodge, MT, in 1989.
  Federal land managers have the most challenging positions of all the 
public service jobs in the West. They are constantly being challenged 
by resource managers and users, special interest groups, and folks who 
know very little about natural resource management but think they do, 
especially the great renewable resources found on our Nation's national 
forests. She met those challenges with intelligence and judgment. I did 
not always agree with her but she gave the full measure of thought 
before every decision.
  The State of Montana has lost a friend, the Nation has lost a 
dedicated public servant. In the great tradition of those who are tied 
to the land in this country, there will be those who will follow in her 
footsteps with the same degree of dedication. That is how it should be 
and how she would have it.

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