[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 47 (Monday, April 15, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3251-S3253]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




IN TRIBUTE TO SECRETARY OF COMMERCE RONALD H. BROWN AND OTHER AMERICANS

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, today, the Senate returns to session for the 
first time since the tragic accident on April 3 that took the lives of 
Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown and 32 other Americans.
  The majority leader, with agreement of the Democratic leader, has 
requested that the first action of the Senate be the reading of a 
resolution honoring Secretary Brown and those lost in the accident.
  At this time, Mr. President, I send a resolution to the desk and ask 
that it be read for the information of the Senate.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                              S. Res. 241

       In tribute to Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown and 
     other Americans who lost their lives on April 3, 1996, while 
     in service to their country on a mission to Bosnia.
       Whereas, Ronald H. Brown served the United States of 
     America with patriotism and skill as a soldier, a civil 
     rights leader, and an attorney;
       Whereas, Ronald H. Brown served since January 22, 1993, as 
     the United States Secretary of Commerce;
       Whereas, Ronald H. Brown devoted his life to opening doors, 
     building bridges, and helping those in need;
       Whereas, Ronald H. Brown lost his life in a tragic airplane 
     accident on April 3, 1996, while in service to his country on 
     a mission in Bosnia; and
       Whereas, thirty-two other Americans from government and 
     industry who served the Nation with great courage, 
     achievement, and dedication also lost their lives in the 
     accident; now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate of the United States pays tribute 
     to the remarkable life and career of Ronald H. Brown, and it 
     extends condolences to his family.
       Sec. 2. The Senate also pays tribute to the contributions 
     of all those who perished, and extends condolences to the 
     families of: Staff

[[Page S3252]]

     Sergeant Gerald Aldrich, Duane Christian, Barry Conrad, Paul 
     Cushman III, Adam Darling, Captain Ashley James Davis, Gail 
     Dobert, Robert Donovan, Claudio Elia, Staff Sergeant Robert 
     Farrington, Jr., David Ford, Carol Hamilton, Kathryn Hoffman, 
     Lee Jackson, Steven Kaminski, Katheryn Kellogg, Technical 
     Sergeant Shelley Kelly, James Lewek, Frank Maier, Charles 
     Meissner, William Morton, Walter Murphy, Lawrence Payne, 
     Nathaniel Nash, Leonard Pieroni, Captain Timothy Schafer, 
     John Scoville, I. Donald Terner, P. Stuart Tholan, Technical 
     Sergeant Cheryl Ann Turnage, Naomi Warbasse, and Robert 
     Whittaker.
       Sec. 3. The Secretary of the Senate shall transmit a copy 
     of the resolution to each of the families.

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection to the immediate 
consideration of the resolution?
  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, it is the intention of the majority leader 
to bring the resolution up for final passage sometime after tomorrow's 
policy luncheons. That will allow those Members who desire to come to 
the floor and pay tribute to Secretary Brown and other public servants 
and industry leaders who lost their lives.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under a previous order, the Senator 
from Utah [Mr. Hatch] is recognized to speak for up to 40 minutes.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a consent 
request?
  Mr. HATCH. I am delighted to.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I requested through our leadership to be 
also included on the list. I ask unanimous consent to be recognized 
after Senator Hatch for 20 minutes.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection? Without 
objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. KENNEDY. I thank the Senator. I thank the Chair.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be given an 
additional 2 minutes so that I can personally pay my respects to Ron 
Brown and his family.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I will not say much here today except that 
I knew Ron Brown very well. I thought he was one of the finest people 
in this town. I knew him when he was a leader on the Judiciary 
Committee under Senator Kennedy, and we were friends ever since.
  Many times I have lamented that we did not have as competent and 
tremendous a leader in our party as then Chairman Brown was. We had 
good people. We can be proud of them. But Chairman Brown did one of the 
best jobs I have ever seen done in a national election.
  I also have traveled around the world and have seen some of the work 
that he has done with regard to the Commerce Department's work and 
opportunities, and he did a terrific job. He was well recognized all 
over the world as somebody who advanced America's business.
  I personally want to send a message to his family and to those who 
loved Ron Brown that I did, too, and I had cared for him. Had I not 
been in the Balkans during that time--we left the day after the 
accident--with the minority leader and Senator Reid, I would have been 
at his funeral to pay my respects to him and his family. Of course, I 
am very grieved and hurt by this tragic accident.
  I also want to extend my sympathy to all of the families of those who 
died in that tragic accident. Having traveled over there, I can see how 
that could occur. I can see how difficult that must have been for all 
of those families who lost loved ones as a result of that tragic crash.
  I could not speak more highly of a person than I am presently 
speaking of Ron Brown.
  I knew some of the others on the plane. I actually met with some of 
the people who were friends of the crew who flew the plane. We had a 
crew that flew us into Sarajevo and into Tuzla who basically had worked 
day in and day out with all of the members of that crew.
  I know that I speak for everybody in the Senate and across this 
country in extending our sympathy to all those folks who lost their 
lives. I hope Ron's wife, Alma, will be comforted, and I hope that the 
family will be comforted as well. He has my respect, and I am very 
happy to have had this time to pay my respects this morning.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the 
Senator from Massachusetts is recognized to speak for up to 20 minutes.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I would like to read into the Record a 
tribute to Ron Brown which I gave last Tuesday evening at the 
Metropolitan Baptist Church here in Washington. There were a number of 
speakers who reflected on Secretary Brown's very considerable life, 
from early beginnings to really an outstanding distinguished career, 
and spoke with great tenderness and sensitivity and thoughtfulness, not 
only about Ron but also about his family.
  I would like to take just a few moments of the Senate's time today to 
read those remarks into the Record:

       Alma, Tracey, Michael and Tami, Gloria Brown, friends and 
     fellow mourners:
       I speak this evening in tribute to Ron Brown, because I 
     knew him well and loved him dearly. But I join as well in 
     tribute to the thirty-four others we have lost, who have now 
     given the last full measure of devotion. Our hearts are 
     breaking now. Our minds can hardly conceive the loss, or 
     compose the words to express the depth of what we feel.
       The poet could have been thinking of Ron Brown when he 
     wrote of another who died too young, in words used about my 
     brothers too: ``What made us dream that he could comb gray 
     hair?''
       Ron and I were supposed to have lunch this Friday. It had 
     been too long. We wanted to catch up. The Senate would be in 
     recess, and Ron would be back from Bosnia.
       He said he wanted to show me the large fish tank in his 
     office. When he and Alma were at our home one evening, I had 
     shown them the modest tank we have. He winked at me and told 
     Vicki and our two children: ``Come on over to my office--and 
     bring Curran and Caroline too. I'll show you a real fish 
     tank. I'll even tell Ted where you can get one.'' That was 
     Ron--always the best in everything he did, and wanting it for 
     everyone else too.
       We also had a few items of business to discuss. Ron was 
     Chairman of the Senior Advisory Committee of the Institute of 
     Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. For 
     him, it was a long and lasting labor of love. As he had been 
     inspired in his youth, so he always found time for the next 
     generation. While he was busy electing a President in 1992, 
     he was never too busy for those whose election would come in 
     2012. He was there, year in and year out, for every meeting 
     at the Institute of Politics. He would stay overnight in 
     President Kennedy's room at Winthrop House and eat and talk 
     with the undergraduates. He inspired students as he inspired 
     CEOs. He was equally at home in the classroom and the 
     boardroom, in Harlem and at Harvard.
       So at lunch on Friday, we were to discuss the meeting in 
     Cambridge that was coming up later this month. The committee 
     had a couple of vacancies to fill. And now there is an 
     unfillable new vacancy.
       Ron was first in so many things--his career was so 
     brilliant and conspicuous--that he was almost certainly bound 
     to be a target for some as surely as he was a role model for 
     others. He was prepared to pay that price to advance his 
     country and his beliefs. And something now demands to be 
     said. This, my friends, was a man of great honor who proved 
     anew my brother's ideal that public service is a great and 
     honorable profession.
       I first came to know Ron almost half a lifetime ago during 
     his years at the Urban League. He was in the vanguard of the 
     new generation of civil rights leaders.
       He already had then what he would later bring to the 
     highest places of power--a rare quality of double vision in 
     public life, which enabled him to see the issues clearly and 
     see the politics just as clearly too. He knew how to steer by 
     the stars, not just by the fading signals of each passing 
     ship.
       He honored me by becoming part of my campaign for President 
     in 1980. He came on board as deputy campaign manager for 
     civil rights, and soon became deputy for everything else as 
     well. He was Will Rogers in reverse. I never met a person who 
     didn't like Ron Brown.
       In 1980, I lost the nomination. But in Ron, I gained 
     another brother.
       He was irrepressible and undefeatable. For him, ``no you 
     can't'' always became ``yes you can.'' You can integrate that 
     college fraternity. You can win the California primary. You 
     can rebuild the Democratic Party and elect a President in a 
     year when almost no one else thought it could happen. Then 
     you can reinvent government and invent a new commercial 
     diplomacy for a new post-Cold War world. You can make the 
     Commerce Department work--and if you'll pardon a partisan 
     note today, don't let anyone on Capitol Hill tell you you 
     can't.
       Ron believed in government and all of you and in public 
     service. He detested cynicism and the shameful politics of 
     running for office by trashing the institutions you seek to 
     lead. He helped to write history, and not a single word he 
     wrote was petty or mean.
       I have been through other moments like this, and I know how 
     tightly we grasp the memories in order to keep the man. We 
     recall what was only yesterday, and smile through our tears.

[[Page S3253]]

       I still see Ron, coming to play tennis on early mornings 
     before work. He'd arrive with three rackets, dressed to the 
     nines, looking like he was ready to play at Wimbledon. He 
     always won, and that's why I always made sure he was my 
     partner in doubles.
       He had a style and a soaring spirit. He had a host of 
     friends who were honored to serve with him--many of us 
     assembled here today--those who were with him on his last 
     journey--and one other I must mention who was with him on 
     that remarkable journey to victory at the DNC--his sidekick, 
     Paul Tully. Ron, of course, never had his tie out of place, 
     while Paul never had his shirt tucked in. What a marvelous 
     combination they were for their party and their country. Ron 
     saw and called on the best in Paul, and in all of us.
       The great physicist Lord Rutherford was once asked how he 
     always happened to be riding the crest of the wave, and he 
     replied, ``Well, I made the wave, didn't I?'' That's how I 
     felt about Ron Brown. He was one of those few who make the 
     waves that carry us to a better distant shore.
       For his nation, Ron was more than an ambassador of 
     commerce. His missions were pilgrimages of peace, of economic 
     hope and democracy's ideals.
       For his party and his President, he was close to the 
     indispensable man.
       For his friends, he was a Cape Cod day and a cloudless sky.
       For his family, he was everything--as they were for him. 
     Sometimes, I'd call during the day to see if he and Alma 
     could drop by that evening. He'd call back and ask for a rain 
     check. Michael and Tami were going out, and Ron and Alma were 
     babysitting for their twins. How he loved those two young 
     boys, Morgan and Ryan. His whole face would light up when he 
     talked about them.
       And how proud he was and how much he loved his children, 
     Michael and Tracey. Everyone who knew Ron knew how special 
     they were to him, how much pride he took in their 
     accomplishments, how close he was to them.
       And Alma, dear Alma, how he loved you. I remember vividly 
     one time when Vicki and I were talking to Ron and we saw Alma 
     across the room. I mentioned how beautiful she looked, how 
     extraordinary she was. Ron's face lit up with that sparkling 
     trademark smile, and he said, ``She's pretty spectacular, 
     isn't she?'' That said it all, and the word ``spectacular'' 
     was made for Ron Brown too.
       Now Ron's journey of grace has come to an incomprehensible 
     end. But for this generation and generations to come, he is 
     spectacular proof that America can be the land of opportunity 
     it was meant to be.
       We love you and we miss you Ron--and we always will.

                          ____________________