[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 46 (Friday, March 29, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3212-S3213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            DR. VERNE CHANEY

  Mr. PELL. Mr. President, before entering the Senate I was closely 
associated with the International Rescue Committee [IRC], serving as a 
vice president in charge of IRC's Washington office. During my time 
with IRC, I had the privilege of knowing the legendary Dr. Tom Dooley, 
who helped to found Medical International Cooperation [MEDICO] as a 
division of the IRC with the goal of providing medical assistance to 
the underserved in Southeast Asia.
  In 4 short years with MEDICO, Dr. Dooley established 17 medical 
programs in 14 countries and raised millions of dollars for their 
support. Dr. Tom Dooley truly became a legend in his own time.
  Tragically, Dr. Dooley died of cancer in January 1961, one day after 
his 34th birthday. However, Mr. President, Dr. Dooley's magnificent 
work did not cease with his death. A dedicated colleague, Verne Chaney, 
M.D., gave up a lucrative private practice of thoracic surgery in 
Monterey, CA, to establish the Dooley Foundation. This year marks the 
35th anniversary of the Dooley Foundation and Dr. Chaney has served as 
its president throughout the 35 year of its existence.

[[Page S3213]]

  I want to take the occasion of this anniversary to recognize and pay 
personal tribute to the outstanding contribution which Verne Chaney has 
made in fighting disease, ignorance, and suffering in so many 
underserved areas of the world.
  Dr. Chaney, a native of Kansas City, MO, and an honor graduate of the 
Virginia Military Institute, developed an interest in medical 
assistance work very early in his career. Even before graduating from 
the Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1948, he spent two summers in 
Newfoundland and Labrador as a volunteer assisting local doctors in 
small cottage hospitals. One day after the Korean war broke out on June 
25, 1950, Dr. Chaney resigned his position as resident in surgery at 
the Johns Hopkins Hospital to volunteer with the Army Medical Corps.
  He was assigned to a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital [MASH] in Korea. 
He then volunteered for assignment to a battalion aid station with the 
23d Regiment of the 2d Infantry Division where he served for 13 months. 
Captain Chaney was highly decorated, receiving the Silver Star, Bronze 
Star (V), Purple Heart, and the French Croix de Guerre.

  After an honorable discharge, he continued his residency in thoracic 
surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the University of North 
Carolina. Soon after completing his residency, Dr. Chaney volunteered 
to work at the Hospital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti as chief of surgery. 
After 15 months, Dr. Chaney returned from Haiti and entered into the 
private practice of thoracic surgery in Monterey, CA.
  A defining moment in Dr. Chaney's life occurred in the summer of 
1960, when he met Dr. Tom Dooley. Dr. Dooley was recruiting for MEDICO 
and asked Dr. Chaney to volunteer for 3 months in Cambodia and Vietnam 
to perform surgical procedures and to train host country health 
personnel. Dr. Chaney quickly agreed and was assigned to work in a 
hospital in Kratie, Cambodia, and at a tuberculosis hospital in Quang 
Ngai, South Vietnam. He was also asked to provide clinical services at 
the An-Lac Orphanage in Saigon.
  After finishing his first assignment with MEDICO, Dr. Chaney returned 
to private practice in Monterey, CA. On the night of Tom Dooley's death 
he was asked by Tom's brother, Malcolm, to accept the position of 
medical director for MEDICO's projects in Asia. Taking a leave of 
absence from his practice, Verne Chaney spent the next year overseeing 
medical programs in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Laos, Malaysia, 
and Vietnam.
  In the fall of 1961, MEDICO had a severe financial problem; and was 
forced to cut back its overseas projects, later becoming a division of 
CARE. However, Dr. Chaney was determined to continue independently the 
overseas projects started by Tom Dooley and in September 1961, he 
established the Dooley Foundation in San Francisco, CA. Under the aegis 
of the Dooley Foundation, medical assistance projects were continued in 
Cambodia, Hong Kong, Laos, Vietnam, and with Tibetan refugees in 
northern India. In spite of his heavy responsibilities with the Dooley 
Foundation, Dr. Chaney, in 1965, volunteered to work for several months 
with Dr. Albert Schweitzer in Lambarene, Gabon, to provide medical and 
surgical services.
  With the end of the Indochina war in December 1975, and the takeover 
by the Communists, the Dooley Foundation was forced to leave the 
region. However, the foundation found new opportunities for service.
  Over the years, project activities have included the training of 
nurses and physical therapists in Nepal; assistance to refugees from 
Laos and Cambodia in Thailand; medical and educational assistance to 
Tibetan refugee children in India; medical assistance to a clinic for 
nomads in Niger; and medical assistance to refugees and internally 
displaced persons in El Salvador, Honduras--partially financed by a 
contract with USAID--Nicaragua and Afghan refugees in Pakistan. New 
medical assistance projects are pending in Laos, Cambodia, and 
Mongolia.
  Mr. President, as Dr. Chaney looks back on his 35 years of service 
with the Dooley Foundation, he can indeed take great satisfaction in 
the accomplishments of the foundation. However, it is also appropriate 
to note that the need to serve the world's underprivileged continues. 
So long as there are children and villagers in the developing nations 
of the world who are without adequate nutrition, sanitation, and clean 
water; so long as immunizations against preventable diseases are 
lacking; so long as mothers are ignorant of proper hygiene and 
nutrition, there is need for the person-to-person humanitarian care 
which has been provided by the Dooley Foundation and for the inspiring 
leadership and service of physicians like Verne Chaney.
  In closing Mr. President I want to quote Dr. Chaney directly: ``but 
the task is never done--though battles are won--the war against hunger, 
disease, and ignorance is unending and must be fought by men and women 
united by a consciousness of the brotherhood of man.'' As Edmund Burke 
said, ``The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good 
men to do nothing.''
  Mr. President, our country has always been very proud of the American 
tradition of selfless humanitarian service to the less fortunate of the 
world--which dedicated Americans like Tom Dooley and Verne Chaney so 
beautifully exemplify. Their devotion to serving others is an 
inspiration for all of us.

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