[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 85 (Tuesday, June 11, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1056-E1057]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HONORING THE JACKSON COUNTY RESCUE SQUAD

                                 ______


                            HON. BART GORDON

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 11, 1996

  Mr. GORDON. Mr. Speaker, I am taking this opportunity to applaud the 
invaluable services provided by the Jackson County Rescue Squad. These 
brave, civic-minded people give freely of their time so that should 
disaster strike, we know that our friends and neighbors are there to 
help.
  Few realize the depth of training and hard work that goes into being 
a member of the rescue squad. Rescue squad members undergo a training 
series over a 4- to 6-month period which includes instruction in 
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation [CPR], vehicle extrication, emergency 
driving, and rescue orientation. In addition to this training, rescue 
squad members also meet monthly to address business concerns as well as 
hear guest speakers.
  Rescue squad members are volunteers. They receive no pay for what 
they do. What also makes their services especially outstanding is that 
the organizations themselves receive no funding. They receive no 
funding from the city, the county, or the Federal Government.
  Rescue squads are funded in the same spirit of community volunteerism 
which moves them to serve. Family, friends, and neighbors pitch in at 
bake sales, road blocks, and fish frys to help those who sacrifice 
their time for the benefit of the whole community.
  Committing such an amount of spare time and energy to a job so 
emotionally and physically taxing requires a sense of devotion and duty 
for which we are all grateful.

[[Page E1057]]



  HONORING MARY JEAN O'REILLY MILLER, MAHTOMEDI'S 1995 TEACHER OF THE 
                        YEAR, ON HER RETIREMENT

                                 ______


                          HON. CHRISTOPHER COX

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 11, 1996

  Mr. COX of California. Mr. Speaker, the people of Minnesota have on 
several occasions recognized the enormous contributions of Mary Jean 
O'Reilly Miller to the education and cultural betterment of that State, 
and it is appropriate that the U.S. Congress now do so as well. This 
week, after 43 years as a teacher, Mary Miller will retire from a 
distinguished career that will shine as an enduring model for years to 
come.
  Perhaps it is true that teachers are made, not born, but Mary Jean 
O'Reilly came from a family of educators. Her grandfather served on the 
school board. Her aunt and uncle were teachers. Her brothers, sisters, 
nephews, and nieces are teachers and school administrators. As a child 
in Goodhue, MN, she grew up playing teacher in a make-believe school 
with her playmates, and she has dedicated her life to that passion ever 
since.
  Mary's own education reflects a lifelong commitment to scholarship 
and the improvement of her professional skills. She is thoroughly a 
product of Minnesota schools, and an alumna in whom all of her 
graduating institutions now take especial pride. Following her 
graduation from Goodhue High School, she earned advanced degrees at no 
fewer than three institutions of higher learning: Winona State College, 
the University of Minnesota, and St. Thomas College--which awarded her 
a master of arts in education. But her education did not stop there, 
and it has never stopped to this day. She has pursued continuing 
studies at the University of Minnesota, St. Thomas, Mankato State 
College, Southwest State College, and Hamline University. Among her 
many other professional qualifications, she holds a lifetime 
certificate in elementary education.
  Teaching is a delicate art. Far more than knowledge, it requires 
understanding--and above all, understanding of people, their concerns, 
their lives, and their community. Mary Miller took her first teaching 
position almost half a century ago in the town of Mahtomedi. In 1996, 
she was a teacher there still, 43 years after that first commitment. No 
one better understands and cares for her community, her neighbors, and 
her students than Mary.
  Whether leading school activities or student bus tours, contributing 
her time to community projects, or helping a local family in time of 
need, Mary has shown by her living example that we all need teachers, 
and that education does not end but rather begins at the schoolhouse 
walls. Three generations of Minnesotans have grown and prospered with 
her help. Many of former students, now adults, still come to her 
classroom to see her. It would be difficult to write Mahtomedi's 
history and that of its citizens in the four decades since World War II 
without in the process taking full stock of her significant 
contributions.
  Long before Federal and State laws made provision for special 
education, Mary Miller was a leader in the field. She earned 
professional degrees in special education, and has taught children with 
special needs throughout her career. As she looks back on her own 
achievements, it is this contribution above all others that stands our 
as most meaningful.
  The Mahtomedi School District honored her as Teacher of the Year in 
1995, and again as Teacher of Distinction in 1996. Last year, she was 
among only 10 honorees selected statewide as finalists for the 
Minnesota Teacher of the Year. Today, it is appropriate that we 
recognize her here, in the U.S. Congress, for her lifetime of 
achievement for our country.
  Many of us who are not teachers by profession understand, 
nonetheless, the responsibilities that teaching entails, because we are 
spouses and parents. The same individual care and concern that we hope 
a good teacher will show for our children is the measure of our success 
at home as mothers and fathers, husbands and wives. Not surprisingly, 
Mary Miller's four uninterrupted decades of commitment and success as a 
teacher are matched by her steadfast devotion as mother and wife. Later 
this year, she and her husband, Frederick P. ``Bud'' Miller, will 
celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.
  Mary and Bud have raised three grown sons, Michael, Patrick, and 
Kevin--who served with distinction in Operation Desert Storm--and are 
now deservingly proud grandparents. As she retires from the 
responsibilities of teaching that she loves so well, can anyone doubt 
that Mary will redouble her devotions and attentions to these young 
children--or that they will not inherit her love of learning?
  In this way, and in her exploration of the many new frontiers that 
now await her, Mary Miller will continue to improve the lives of 
everyone around her. Her retirement from teaching, like a graduation 
ceremony, is more accurately called a commencement: It is the beginning 
of a new chapter in a most remarkable life.
  Plato observed that ``the direction in which education starts a man 
will determine his future life.'' Mr. Speaker, Mary Miller has been a 
positive influence not only in the lives of her family and friends, but 
of thousands of boys and girls, men and women, whose lives she has 
turned in a positive direction by her energy and effort. For her 
contributions to her native Minnesota and to our Nation, I know that 
all of my colleagues will wish to join me in extending the 
congratulations and best wishes of the House of Representatives to Mary 
Jean O'Reilly Miller on the occasion of her retirement.

                          ____________________