[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 54 (Thursday, March 23, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E675]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF JIM GRANT

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                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 23, 1995
  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, this week I was privileged to participate in 
a very special event to mark the life of Jim Grant, one of the most 
extraordinary public servants the world has ever seen, who died earlier 
this year at the age of 77.
  Memorial services are often held at which the passing of a noted 
public figure is lamented. But, for those who gathered in the Russell 
caucus room to remember Jim Grant, it was in celebration of a life that 
was devoted with energy, enthusiasm, endless persistence and, yes, joy, 
to saving and improving the lives of children in the world's poorest 
countries.
  Those who offered remembrances of Jim Grant included Congressmen 
David Obey and Tony Hall; Warren Unna, John Sewell, president of the 
Overseas Development Council; Dr. Richard Jolly of UNICEF; Mrs. 
Margaret Catley-Carlson of the Population Council, and two of Jim's 
sons, John and James D. Musical interludes were provided by the World 
Children's Choir.
  One of Jim's greatest gifts was his ability to imbue others with that 
same sense of demanding dedication that motivated his own life, and 
that was how the speakers recalled him.
  Jim Grant was one of the most remarkable men it has ever been my 
privilege and my pleasure to know and to work with.
  Never elected to public office, he nonetheless was one of the most 
effective politicians and diplomats I can recall, particularly when it 
came to working the Halls of Congress.
  His special constituents were the children in the world's poorest 
countries. He worked tirelessly to improve their conditions.
  Jim used his role as executive director of UNICEF as a bully pulpit 
to prod, pull, and pummel the international community into facing the 
awful realities of malnourishment and disease that annually claims the 
lives of millions of children.
  Jim Grant placed special emphasis on adapting new findings in the 
drug and health industries--immunization, breastfeeding, oral 
rehydration therapy--to low-cost applications that parents could use at 
home to care for their children.
  He was relentless in pursuit of resources to support programs to save 
and improve the lives of children. Jim's motto was, the difficult gets 
done immediately, the impossible takes a little longer.
  Jim was a leader who went out to see for himself. No project was too 
remote to escape his interest. Traveling with Jim in Africa meant 
bouncing around in Land Rovers and Jeeps to check on village health 
programs in the remote bush.
  His flair for promotion and publicity enabled him to attract as 
celebrity spokesmen for UNICEF leading figures of the entertainment 
world such as Danny Kaye, Peter Ustinov, Harry Belafonte and Audrey 
Hepburn, to name just a few.
  Shakespeare's Marc Antony lamented in his funeral oration for Julius 
Caesar that the ``good that men do is oft interred with their bones.'' 
In Jim Grant's case the good he has done lives on.
  During his tenure as the executive director of UNICEF, immunization 
levels in developing countries increased from 20 percent in 1980 to 
nearly 80 percent today the number of polio victims fell from 500,000 a 
year to fewer than 100,000. More than a million lives are saved each 
year thanks to the oral rehydration therapy works makes Jim strongly 
advocated.
  Jim Grant was an American hero and a world treasure. His presence is 
greatly missed, but his spirit and his good works continue as a legacy 
of his persistence, his energy and his humanity. We shall all miss him.


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