[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2426-E2427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     THANK YOU FOR THE GIFT FROM PETER NICHOLAS TO DUKE UNIVERSITY

                                 ______


                         HON. DAVID FUNDERBURK

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 20, 1995

  Mr. FUNDERBURK. Mr. Speaker, my district is proud to be the home of 
Duke University, one of our Nation's finest institutions of higher 
education. On December 7, that university happily announced a gift of 
$20 million from the family of Peter M. Nicholas, a Massachusetts 
business executive and trustee of the university as well as the founder 
and president of Boston Scientific, a leading manufacturer of medical 
devices. His family's gift will support Duke University's School of the 
Environment, which the university has renamed in honor of the Nicholas 
family.
  The Nicholas School of the Environment is unique among university 
programs dedicated to environmental research and education, in that it 
bases its bases its approach to complex environmental problems in an 
interdisciplinary perspective. As a former academic myself, I know that 
a broad focus grounded in the insight and understanding of different 
scientific disciplines provides a powerful way of unraveling the most 
complicated problems. Other institutions tend to approach problems of 
the environment from either a scientific or public policy perspective, 
and advances in understanding our environment have certainly come from 
this traditional approach. But my constituents at Duke are excited 
about the potential that is offered by looking at environmental 
problems from an interdisciplinary perspective including natural 
sciences, public policy, economics, and management. I too share their 
optimism, and look forward to hearing of significant advances made at 
the Nicholas School of the Environment.
  At the university's news conference announcing the gift, there were 
many comments made about the importance of the school's programs of 
research and education, and about the importance to all life on earth 
of understanding our environment better. However, when asked the 
reasons why his family had chosen to make this generous gift to support 
environmental research and education at Duke, Peter Nicholas stressed 
an important theme that echoes something many of us in public service 
have been saying.
  ``Government * * *  can't do everything. What the government is 
trying to do is come to terms with what its role is with respect to the 
priorities of the country,'' Mr. Nicholas said.
  Mr. Nicholas went on to note his belief that educational institutions 
have a responsibility to help understand issues, set priorities, ``and 
then galvanize the resource that exists 

[[Page E2427]]
throughout society--industrial, academic, government and others--to in 
fact make a difference.''
  ``I think we shouldn't misinterpret what our government is saying,'' 
Mr. Nicholas continued. ``[I]t is clear that the government has a 
leadership role in terms of being sure that we understand what our 
priorities are, what the urgencies are, as it relates to the 
environment,'' he said. ``It is also important that the ground rules 
and the incentives are in place at the federal level to ensure that 
behavior by all elements of our society is consistent with what 
everyone's goals are. But it is not clear that it is a central 
government role to fund the environment objectives that we have.''
  Mr. Nicholas' comments at Duke, and, more important, his family's 
gift of $20 million for the university's school of the environment, 
constitute a welcome signal that some leaders of the private sector 
understand and appreciate the value of the partnership by government, 
academia, and industry in problem solving. His words, and his family's 
personal investment in that effort, are thus worthy of note by this 
body, and I commend them to my colleagues in the House.

                          ____________________