[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 31 (Wednesday, March 12, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2203-S2204]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         DR. ERNEST S. GRIFFITH

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to the father 
of the Congressional Research Service, Dr. Ernest S. Griffith, who 
recently passed away at the age of 100.
  Dr. Griffith came to the Legislative Reference Service--now the 
Congressional Research Service--in 1940, at a time when the U.S. 
political landscape was dominated largely by the executive branch. 
Legislation was enacted based on information provided by the President, 
with little opportunity for independent research and analysis by the 
Congress. Indeed, with an average of only two or three personal 
assistants per Member and a mere handful of committee staff, Members of 
Congress had nowhere to turn for accurate, reliable research and 
analysis. Nowhere, that is, until Ernest Griffith assumed the reins of 
the Legislative Reference Service.
  Fueled by his belief that ``the Congress of the United States is the 
world's best hope of representative government,'' Dr. Griffith 
dedicated himself to transforming the fledgling LRS into a vital source 
of objective, nonpartisan information and analysis for Members of 
Congress and their staffs. He recruited experts in disciplines ranging 
from tax policy to transportation, and greatly expanded the services 
offered by the LRS. He also appointed senior specialists who, under the 
terms of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, could be called 
upon by congressional committees at a moment's notice to work on 
important legislative initiatives. These senior specialists laid the 
foundation for our modern legislative information infrastructure, and, 
in so doing, with others enabled the legislative branch to re-assert 
itself as the Nation's first branch of Government.
  When asked to describe his greatest achievement as the Director of 
the LRS, Dr. Griffith once responded: ``I think I am proudest of the 
fact that we have operated independently of the executive branch in a 
technical age.'' Mr. President, I too am proud of Dr. Griffith's 
achievement in this area. It is something of which we should all be 
proud.
  Dr. Griffith left the LRS in 1958 to become the founding dean of the 
American University School of International Service. A Rhodes scholar, 
he received his undergraduate education at Hamilton College and his 
Ph.D. from Oxford University. He taught economics at Princeton and 
government at Harvard, and was the undergraduate dean at Syracuse 
University before moving to Washington in 1935.
  Among his many academic distinctions, Dr. Griffith was a Fulbright 
visiting professor at Oxford. He also lectured at New York, Birmingham, 
and Manchester Universities, Swarthmore College, the University of 
Oslo, and the University College of Swansea. He was visiting professor 
at the International Christian University and Rykko University in 
Japan, and lectured on American Government in Turkey and Brazil. He was 
professor of American Government at Alice Lloyd College in Kentucky in 
his middle eighties.
  In his spare time, Dr. Griffith taught Sunday school and served as a 
delegate to the Third World Council of Churches. He founded the 
Pioneers, a forerunner of the Cub Scouts, and chaired the Council of 
Social Agencies, a predecessor of the United Way. He chaired the policy 
board of an inter-university training center for Peace Corps 
volunteers, was vice president of the American Political Science 
Association and president of the National Academy of Economics and 
Political Science. He climbed mountains into his nineties.
  Mr. President, it is with great sadness that we bid farewell to 
Ernest Griffith, who was memorialized last Saturday at the Metropolitan 
Memorial United Methodist Church here in Washington. He was a 
pioneering public servant, a brilliant student of

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American Government, and a true friend to the community around him. He 
will be sorely missed--not only by his children, grandchildren, and 
great-grandchildren, but also by us.

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