[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 81 (Tuesday, May 16, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1045]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          TRIBUTE TO JIM GRANT

                                 ______


                          HON. SANDER M. LEVIN

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 16, 1995
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, on May 17 the Overseas Development Council 
will honor James P. Grant. It will do so at a dinner in Washington to 
commemorate its 25th anniversary and will present awards to several who 
have chaired ODC. Jim Grant will be honored in memoriam.
  If any word could characterize Jim Grant's distinguished career, and 
none adequately can, it might be dedication. Jim cared passionately 
about all the world's people and devoted his life to his dream of 
everyone on Earth having a real chance to enjoy its bounty.
  Whether one knew Jim Grant during his early years in beginning to 
help others, his work in the U.S. Government trying to develop American 
assistance that would really matter to people in Third World nations, 
his days providing leadership as head of the ODC, or his glorious 
tenure as executive director of UNICEF, the conclusion was the same for 
so, so many of us. There was no one else quite like Jim--in his 
combination of imagination, enthusiasm, drive, perseverance, 
intelligence, and interpersonal skills.
  He simply would never give up.
  Jim Grant would understand the impetus in our Nation to focus on 
improving the opportunity for the millions of our citizens who have 
seen their standard of living stagnate over the last decade, and in 
many cases decline. At the same time he would not believe that, in 
doing so, our Nation would want to turn its back on the plight of 
millions elsewhere. He believed too much in the basic decency of the 
people of this country, and in this sense he was in all of his bones 
and in his fundamental attitude very much an archetypical American.
  Literally, there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of 
children alive today because Jim Grant lived. Could anyone ask for more 
of his or her life?
  Jim met more of the people he cared about than do most, but most of 
them he never met. But he could envisage them vividly, as if part of 
his own family, to whom he was so close and from whom sprang much of 
his humanity.
  I had the privilege of working with Jim, also of seeing him preside 
over many a meeting. There was no one who could better stimulate a 
diverse group to work, sometimes struggle to a constructive 
conclusion--not infrequently the very one he had in mind from the very 
beginning. As the ODC notes his untimely death by commemorating his 
life, many who know him well join in and innumerable others who did not 
know him directly but benefited from his work would do so, if they 
could.


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