[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 53 (Tuesday, April 29, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3797-S3798]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO PATRICIA GRAY

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, every one of us here in the Senate are very 
privileged to be able to do what we do at the request of the citizens 
of our State and with their trust. And we often get a lot of credit and 
occasional brickbats for it. But the truth is, none of us could do what 
we do without the capacity of able staff. We are all blessed with that. 
It is the way that we succeed, knowing what we know when we vote or 
being able to pursue some legislation that we pursue.
  I have been particularly blessed to have an individual work on my 
staff since I arrived in the U.S. Senate, a person who came as my 
scheduler when I arrived in 1985, and who, until this day, was my 
scheduler. When I arrived here 12 years ago as a new Senator and began 
to assemble a staff, I was extraordinarily lucky to be introduced to a 
person by the name of Patricia Gray, Pat Gray as she is known to those 
who have worked with her here in the Senate.
  She came to me as a professional's professional, Mr. President. She 
had come to Washington a number of years before having been initiated 
into public service by one of the all-time great Senators, Paul Douglas 
of Illinois. After arriving in Washington, she worked for Senator 
Douglas, for Senator Hubert Humphrey, for the Democratic Congressional 
Campaign Committee, for a host of Democratic Presidential campaigns 
over the years, and for some other congressional offices.
  She took important time off during her career at various points to 
give birth to and to raise two sons, and worked in both nonprofit and 
for-profit private sector organizations.
  A complete recitation of her extraordinary career would require a 
separate speech. But let me just say that it was my extraordinary good 
fortune 12 years ago to have Pat Gray be willing to take a place in my 
office and help to create order out of chaos.
  I realize there are a lot of people on the outside who might wonder, 
not having worked in close proximity to someone in public life, or even 
somebody as a high private official, why somebody would need sort of a 
full-time professional scheduler, and in the case of some offices I 
suppose more than one person. But literally, as all my colleagues know, 
it is a very special talent to be able to make people feel good who you 
have to say no to. And you have to say no.
  It is a very special talent to be able to balance the scores of 
invitations with the schedule here, which we can never quite determine, 
to be able to balance the when and if as a Senator--you might be able 
to appear--without making people feel somehow that you are either 
indifferent or lack caring with respect to their concerns or desire to 
have you come. And we, all of us, receive hundreds of invitations, not 
only by the week, but by the days sometimes.
  It is extraordinarily hard to contend with the need to balance 5 or 
10 committee meetings in the course of a week, overlapping with votes 
that occur whenever they might occur, and to keep all of the people 
happy who you are trying to balance as that schedule changes. I really 
cannot think of a tougher job, while simultaneously trying to enhance 
an individual Senator's ability to be able to meet their legislative 
agenda, not to mention as all of us struggle so much with a personal 
life, our home agendas. So the absence of that very, very special 
talent is literally the absence of order and capacity in a Senate 
office.
  For these past 12 years, Pat has applied her remarkable storehouse of 
information that she brought with her to Washington about the Congress, 
about

[[Page S3798]]

life here, about those who animate both this city and this institution. 
She readily acquired the same degree of sophisticated knowledge about 
my State of Massachusetts and those who animate our State and our 
politics and our lives. And she learned my preferences and patterns in 
personal and family needs and incorporated those into the schedule 
process. That is a very potent package, Mr. President. It is one for 
which many elected officials, for that competence, would give their 
right arm and leg in an effort to find that kind of person.
  But I want to emphasize something. She brought a great deal more to 
the job than simply her capacity to be able to run the schedule. It is 
a special skill and it is a special knowledge. But I would like to just 
very quickly mention a couple of other very special traits.
  First, she, among many people--and I have been blessed to have scores 
of people who have worked for me since I have been in the Senate--has a 
deep constitutional commitment to the principle that anything worth 
doing at all is worth doing well. No matter how long it took, no matter 
how early she had to come in in order to make it work, no matter what 
the complexity of the scheduling matter of which I or other staff 
members were depending on her to see us through, she saw it through.
  I cannot begin to relate the number of days, Mr. President, on which 
when I arrived in the office--and I often arrive early--I found Pat 
there, the first person in the office and often, I might say, the last 
person to leave on the same day.
  When I was flying out of Washington to Boston or elsewhere in the 
country, she was at her phone until she knew the plane had taken off, 
until she knew there was no delay, no cancellation, no crisis to 
rearrange. All who dealt with her and those who work in my office and 
those who work in other Senate or House offices or elsewhere in 
government, constituents in Massachusetts, and all others, knew her to 
be an utterly and remarkably dependable person.
  It was her responsibility to make certain people understood. And 
because it was her responsibility, they did understand that they could 
depend on her. That is a very special brand of devotion, and I would 
respectfully suggest different probably from a lot of the mores that 
currently circulate at large in our country.
  I also want to underscore that she did not just stumble into 
government by accident. This was not a place where she had to find a 
job. This was not a place where she wound up because she did not have 
the talent to find any kind of work anywhere else. This was a place 
that she worked for more than a quarter of a century with a purpose 
because she believed devoutly in the ability of this place to make a 
difference in the lives of other people and in the ability of the 
democratic government, and more importantly, the fundamental 
responsibility of a democratic government to serve people.

  Unlike those who hold the philosophy that government is just somehow 
inherently incapable of ever helping somebody, she believes intently 
that bureaucracy aside, government has the ability, well delivered, 
efficient, and well thought out, to be able to help people to do things 
for themselves, not to do things for them. I think that she also shares 
a deep belief that corporately good things can happen that improve the 
quality of life that individuals sometimes simply cannot do on their 
own.
  She believes that government has, just as individuals have, a very 
special obligation to those who do not share the good fortune that 
others enjoy, and she particularly always shared and I think her work 
for Hubert Humphrey and Muriel Humphrey and Paul Douglas, and I hope 
she will feel for me, were part of her commitment to the impoverished, 
the illiterate, sick, elderly, the disabled, and those for whom life is 
hard in many ways, that others never know or know only in mild terms.
  This foundation energized Pat Gray, and I think over all the years 
they gave her a stamina and the ability to persevere even when others 
would have thrown up their hands and walked away. It led her to spend 
her entire career in public service, when she really could have chosen 
a dozen other courses.
  Recently, and to my benefit, Mr. President, that commitment caused 
her to remain at her post even after she was entitled to full 
retirement benefits. Her dedication to improving government, to making 
it work better, for the benefit of those who need and depend on its 
wide variety of services, is visible to everybody who ever came in 
contact with her. She knows that every person who works in government, 
regardless of his or her specific position or responsibility is a part 
of the whole, and therefore the effect of the whole, and she has been 
determined that her contribution would be measured as positive.
  Finally, Mr. President, Pat has been nothing if she has not been 
tenacious. Surrender is simply not a word in her lexicon. If she 
believes it is her duty to accomplish something, all of us in my 
office, or in offices around her--including I might say, at peril 
several times learned--it is best not to inadvertently be standing 
between her and her goal. When it came to keeping that schedule, 
despite the uncontrollable interruptions, despite all the forces that 
tugged at it, no one could have mustered or demonstrated greater energy 
or commitment than she did.
  It is a blessing, Mr. President, at the right time, after a lifetime 
of work, to leave the workplace for the pleasures of her retirement. 
But that time has now arrived for Pat. So, no longer every week will 
she have to leave her husband Ken, himself a veteran of public service 
with Senator Douglas, Senator and Vice President Humphrey, Senator 
Stevenson, Senator Tydings, several Presidential campaigns, and a 
number of other posts, who has been retired for a couple of years, no 
longer will she have to leave him in their home on the side of Old Rag 
Mountain in the Blue Ridge in order to commute here for long days in 
the office and short nights in an Arlington apartment. No longer will 
she be unable to join him in Colorado at their mountain cabin for the 
few weeks of the summer that she gets, as she did forgo on occasion 
because of the Senate schedule. Ultimately her friends, her family, and 
above all, her garden that she cherishes will be the winners for this 
moment.
  In my office, we will take a very, very special pleasure in knowing 
that she will be enjoying this well-earned time so much. After her many 
years of contribution to the U.S. Senate and to the country and to my 
State and to my office personally, we wish her, as I know everyone who 
has come in contact with her in the Senate and in Washington does, we 
wish her well. She has made her mark and we should all wish that we 
could live a life as clearly committed and devoted as hers.
  I ask unanimous consent that a letter from Muriel Humphrey be printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                                   April 29, 1997.
       Dear Pat: How I wish I could be with you on this very 
     special occasion. However, although I cannot be with you 
     personally, I am pleased to have this opportunity to express 
     to you my hearty congratulations and sincere best wishes as 
     you retire after many years of dedicated public service.
       Pat, I want you to know how grateful I am to you for all 
     you have done for Hubert and me. We could always depend on 
     your expertise, your loyalty, your friendship and support 
     throughout the years, and that meant a great deal to us. You 
     contributed substantially to whatever success we enjoyed and 
     you were there to encourage us in times of struggle and 
     challenge. You are truly a part of the Humphrey family!
       It is certainly appropriate that your many friends and 
     colleagues gather to honor you on this special occasion. I 
     add my voice to theirs in wishing you all the very best for a 
     long, happy and fulfilling retirement.
       Again, Pat, congratulations!
           Warm regards,
     Muriel Humphrey Brown.

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