[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 117 (Friday, August 2, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9464-S9465]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       MOLLIE BEATTIE REMEMBERED

  Mr. LEAHY. I will be very brief, Mr. President. A few weeks ago, one 
of Vermont's most noted and valued citizens, Mollie Beattie, died. Much 
was said on the floor of the Senate about her. Much was said in Vermont 
at her memorial service and again at the Department of Interior when 
the Secretary of Interior, as well as the Vice President, her husband 
and others spoke. Much also was written in Vermont.
  I noted a commentary by Jim Wilkinson in one of our Vermont 
newspapers about Mollie Beattie. Jim Wilkinson is one of those 
quintessential Vermonters who represents the best values of our State. 
I have known him for decades, both in his role as the commissioner of 
Vermont Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation, and more recently 
as the consulting forester for the tree farm my wife and I have in 
Middlesex, VT. He is a man of great depth, great honesty, and, frankly, 
great wisdom.
  I ask unanimous consent that what he had to say about Mollie Beattie, 
reported in the Rutland Daily Herald, be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From the Rutland Daily Herald, July 23, 1996]

                       Mollie Beattie Remembered

                           (By Jim Wilkinson)

       Webster defines ``memoir'' as ``a report on an event of 
     significance.'' This memoir is a personal observation on the 
     life of Mollie Beattie, an event of great significance.
       Mollie has been proclaimed as a scholar, a forester, a 
     writer, a philosopher--all that and more. She was known as a 
     friend, a public servant, a leader. In all of these roles 
     Mollie's time with us was lived to the fullest, with 
     vitality, commitment, and serenity.
       Others have written or spoken of her career in public 
     service to Vermont and to the

[[Page S9465]]

     nation. Her political savvy and integrity brought 
     professional respect, as well as outstanding accomplishment. 
     The great courage of her final year has been cited as she 
     fought and at last accepted death with confidence, peace and 
     encouragement for others. Not only at death's door was 
     courage so evident. Her professional standards and personal 
     values demanded courage and confidence and determination in 
     reaching the goals she set for herself.
       Mollie recognized the importance of maintaining a strong, 
     healthy persona--physically, mentally and spiritually--not a 
     selfish concern for her ego, but the pragmatic acceptance 
     that thus only could she give the most of her life. Carlyle 
     wrote that ``Life is a little gleam of time between two 
     eternities.'' Mollie's life was a great burst of light in 
     that time allotted to her. We have been blessed by it.
       She had one unusual and wonderful attribute--that of an 
     unconscious but strong sense of personal presence, not one of 
     power or command, but a presence that, of itself, demanded 
     attention and got it. Hard to describe, but easy to recognize 
     when you were exposed to it. Yet there were occasions when, 
     while looking directly at you, she would leave you dreaming 
     or thinking of some secret, transmundane reality, some mystic 
     other world that only she could know and could not share. 
     Then with a glance and a grin she would return her attention 
     to you.
       At the end Mollie could have assured us, ``I own only my 
     name. I've only borrowed this dust.'' Mollie's dust has 
     returned to the earth from which it evolved. But her name 
     will live long in our memories. May those memories serve to 
     guide, strengthen and encourage us in our lives of service.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. I thank the Chair.

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