[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 105 (Wednesday, July 17, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S8059]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                      A TRIBUTE TO JOHN CHANCELLOR

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, as the Senate knows, John 
Chancellor died last Friday at age 68. He was so much a part of our 
lives for over 40 years as an NBC news commentator and anchor. We are 
diminished by his death, and yet, as Tom Brokaw suggested, enhanced by 
the realization of just how great a legacy he leaves. A legacy, Mr. 
Brokaw stated, that ``will always be secure.''
  He was in some measure Irish; at least he once told me of a 
grandmother who had taught him to hate Oliver Cromwell. Which he must 
have done, and in so doing, evidently used up all the hate he had in 
him. For there was nothing else but love: for the life he lived, and 
the people he lived it with. Most especially, of course, his wife 
Barbara and their three children. Yeats once wrote of a man who was 
blessed and had the power to bless. Such a man was John Chancellor.
  He was a friend of 30 years and more. From first to last, one sensed 
in him a deep confidence that American democracy would prove itself in 
whatever crisis it faced; just as he would do. He faced many; always 
with grace and afterward, grand ``rollicking'' recollections, as Tom 
Brokaw put it. David Broder captures that quality in his column this 
morning.

       Many of us in print journalism lost a great friend last 
     week in John Chancellor. He hung out with the political 
     reporters who had nowhere near his celebrity because he 
     always thought of himself as a reporter and he wanted to be 
     with people who were more interested in the stories they were 
     covering than in stroking their own reputations. He was 
     modest and funny and generous in his praise. No journalist of 
     his era enjoyed greater trust and affection from his 
     colleagues--or the people he covered. And none deserved it 
     more.

  The Senate honors his memory and salutes his legacy.

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