[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 134 (Wednesday, September 25, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11217-S11218]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO DR. JOHN N. LEIN

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today, along with my senior 
colleague from the State of Washington, to honor a very special 
individual from our home State. I want to take a few minutes today to 
honor Jack Lein, not only for his decades of service to Washington 
State, but for his tireless dedication and commitment to this Nation's 
health and education.
  Mr. President, Jack Lein was born and raised near former House 
Speaker Tom Foley in Spokane, WA. He served his country bravely during 
World War II as a medical corpsman atop the mountains of Idaho. Though 
Jack would tell us he saw very limited military conflict above 
America's prized potato fields, he did begin a career of medical 
service that has now spanned generations.
  After receiving his medical degree in 1955 and spending some time in 
private practice, he joined the faculty and administration of the 
University of Washington where he has remained for over 32 years. Being 
myself a proud alumnus of Washington State University, it is, indeed, 
difficult to salute a man so entrenched in the success of our rival, 
the University of Washington. But I am proud to say, Dr. Lein's tenure 
at the university has helped to produce one of this Nation's premier 
research and health science facilities.
  Dr. Lein's career at the University of Washington has encompassed 
most aspects of modern medicine, medical and health sciences education, 
university administration and Federal relations. He founded the 
University of Washington School of Medicine continuing medical 
education program and was its director for 19 years. He was also 
assistant dean and then associate dean of the school of medicine. He 
pioneered regionalized medical education and served as the university's 
vice president for health sciences, the highest academic administrative 
position ever achieved by a UW graduate.
  Dr. Lein's work will be seen by generations to come through his 
perseverance and foresight which has produced and will continue to 
produce thousands of America's health professionals. His leadership has 
been noted by both his peers and the press. In 1993, Dr. Lein was 
honored with the Recognition Award by the Society for Teachers of 
Family Medicine. For the third consecutive year, the University of 
Washington School of Medicine was ranked the best primary care medical 
school in the Nation. Among medical teaching disciplines, the UW ranked 
first in family and rural medicine, third in women's health care and 
fifth in pediatrics.
  Although it may be appropriate to call the university's last three 
decades the ``Lein'' years, that description would be far from 
accurate. As the director of Federal relations, Dr. Lein

[[Page S11218]]

has transformed the university into one of the Nation's leading 
research universities. The University of Washington has been ranked in 
the top five in receipt of Federal grant and contract dollars, which 
account for 80 percent of the university's grant funding.
  If anyone could document the history of Washington State's 
congressional delegation over the last 50 years, it would be Jack. His 
wit is legendary around Washington State circles, and he can quickly 
recount a story about Scoop or Dan Evans. Jack will tell you that 
Maggie thought ``foreign policy was anything outside Washington 
State.'' He was always there with either the right information or the 
right resource to find the answer.

  Dr. Lein will step down from his position at the university at the 
end of this year. His absence will be felt by U.S. Senators, 
congressional staff, college faculty, and students for many years to 
come.
  Mr. President, on behalf of the citizens of Washington State, I 
salute Dr. Jack Lein and his wife, Claire, for a lifetime of dedicated 
service to his alma mater, his State and his Nation.
  Jack, we will miss you, but we will always know that you are close 
by.
  Mr. President, I yield the remainder of my time to the senior Senator 
from the State of Washington.
  Mr. GORTON addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, for the two of us who represent the State 
of Washington in the U.S. Senate, this is a day that is both joyous and 
sad. It is sad because on December 31 of this year, we will miss the 
company of Dr. Jack Lein who, for decades, has represented the 
University of Washington before this body and with particularly, of 
course, the Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate who 
represent the State of Washington.
  It is a happy occasion, of course, because it gives us an opportunity 
to crown his career with at least a tiny share of the praise that it 
deserves.
  I can say, Mr. President, after a relatively long career in the U.S. 
Senate and an even longer one in the Government of the State of 
Washington, that no person, no individual representing an institution 
has matched Jack Lein in the quality of his knowledge about the issues 
that he brings to us, in his dedication to the university that he 
represents, or in the personal qualities which cause all of us to 
welcome him into our office, to go out of our way to seek his company 
and to learn from him.
  He has been nonpartisan or bipartisan in the highest sense of that 
term, with an ability to tell wonderful and always affirmative stories 
about the people he has met along the way, but with the overwhelming 
ability to cause us, who obviously believe in our university and want 
to help our university, to go even further than we would otherwise do 
simply because it is so important to please him and to help him.
  He will be not just difficult to follow in that respect, he will be 
impossible to follow in that respect. So from the point of view of this 
Senator--and I know that my sentiments are shared, as they have already 
been expressed, by my junior colleague--we are not just simply missing 
someone who represents a vital institution to us here in this body, we 
are going to miss a very close friend, a good and delightful companion, 
a wonderful servant of this institution and his State and his medical 
profession in Dr. Jack Lein. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. If the Senator would withhold that request for 
just a moment.

                          ____________________