[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 107 (Wednesday, June 28, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9235-S9236]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                       CHARLES ``CHICK'' REYNOLDS

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, it has been said that each man's death 
diminishes us all. Certainly all who knew him have felt a loss due to 
the recent passing of Charles ``Chick'' Reynolds.
  A reporter of outstanding experience and qualifications, ``Chick'' 
Reynolds began his career in stenotype reporting in 1949, when he was 
employed by the Department of Defense.
  In 1950, he went to work for the Alderson Reporting Co. here in 
Washington, where he continued until 1971, at which time he opened his 
own stenographic reporting firm. In 1974, he was 

[[Page S9236]]
appointed an official reporter with the Senate Official Reporters of 
Debates serving in that capacity until he became Chief Reporter in 
1988.
  When ``Chick'' Reynolds was a working stenotype reporter, he was 
considered one of the fastest and most accurate in the country. He 
reported on Federal agency hearings and on various committees in both 
the House and the Senate, including the Joseph McCarthy and Jimmy Hoffa 
hearings on Capitol Hill. He was assigned to cover the White House 
during the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations, and was in the 
Presidential motorcade on that tragic day when President Kennedy was 
assassinated in 1963.
  ``Chick'' Reynolds served the Senate and the Nation with distinction 
for 21 years, and only discontinued that service when ill-health forced 
him to do so earlier this year. His was an outstanding career, but, the 
recounting of one's career successes can never completely give the 
whole measure of a man.
  By all accounts, ``Chick'' Reynolds in both his private and 
professional lives was an eminently decent human being, with great 
affection for his wife, Lucille, and a fine sense of humor. He was fond 
of saying that he took Lucille everywhere he went so that he would 
never have to kiss her goodbye. He liked to tell a story about one 
sultry evening when he was stuck in traffic on route 95 with the 
windows rolled down because of a faulty air conditioner. His only 
passenger, his cat, suddenly decided that it was too hot in the car, 
and leaped out of the window. ``Chick'' pulled over immediately and 
spent some time frantically searching for the cat in the heat and 
congestion. He did not want to go home to Lucille without that cat.
  ``Chick'' Reynolds was a man to whom his fellow employees could 
continually look for counsel and instruction, always given with humor 
and genuine concern. Those who worked with him are indeed fortunate to 
have been so close to this very special life. ``Chick'' will not be 
forgotten by his colleagues in the Senate. The institution has been 
diminished by his passing. His great competence and his institutional 
memory and comprehension are not easily replaced in a world now more 
interested in speed than in considered contemplation and mature 
judgment. ``Chick'' Reynolds was surely sui generis, one of a kind, in 
a world often far too short on wisdom and experience.
  I extend my sincere regret and deep condolences to his family, and 
most especially to his beloved Lucille. He is gone. But, the lives 
``Chick'' Reynolds touched and the difference he made through his 
service here, and through the force of his warm and magnanimous 
personality will remain. The Senate and all who knew him are measurably 
better for the life and example of Charles ``Chick'' Reynolds.


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