[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 69 (Thursday, May 22, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5018-S5019]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TRIBUTE TO RICHARD LLOYD THOMPSON, SR.

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a 
truly remarkable man who, on May 30, 1997, will celebrate his 
retirement after 38 years as an educator--Richard Lloyd Thompson, Sr. 
of Middletown, CT.
  Within every middle-sized town in America, there is a small handful 
of individuals that form the backbone of that community. Everyone knows 
and respects these individuals, because they are continually working to 
strengthen neighborhoods and help others. They always place the needs 
of others above their own, and they continually give of themselves to 
ensure that their hometown is a better place in which to live. Dick 
Thompson is one of these individuals.
  People like Dick Thompson are every bit as important to the city of 
Middletown, CT as major employers like Aetna, Pratt & Whitney, and 
Wesleyan University. He has helped to educate more than a generation of 
students in Middletown, and countless children and their families in 
this town have had their lives positively impacted by him.
  Dick has seen Middletown grow and mature before his own eyes. After 
teaching in the Hartford Public Schools for 10 years, he came to 
Middletown in 1971 to serve as the principal at Bielefield Elementary 
School. When Dick accepted this job, he entered a newly racially 
integrated school as the first nonwhite school administrator in the 
history of this school system. Through the strength of his own 
character, he was able to guide the school through a period of social 
uneasiness, and he has been an institution within the Middletown school 
system ever since.
  But Dick Thompson's contributions extend far outside the school. He 
has served on Middletown's Planning and Zoning Commission, their 
Charter Revision Commission, and their Salvation Army Advisory 
Committee. To illustrate the broad variety of his community 
involvement, he has been named an honorary deputy by the Middlesex 
County Sherriff's Association, and he has also served as a Middlesex 
County justice of the peace.

[[Page S5019]]

  I have been fortunate to get to know Dick personally through his 
involvement with the Democratic Party. He has been a local and State 
delegate for Middletown's Democratic Town Committee, and he has also 
served on Middletown's Democratic Nominating Committee.
  Despite the broad range of Dick Thompson's community service, the 
driving force behind all of his activities has been his concern for 
children. As someone who was orphaned at the age of 5, and who lived in 
an orphanage from ages 5 to 18, Dick is keenly aware of the needs of 
children and the positive impact that the surrounding community can 
have on a child's life. Dick sits on Middletown's Youth Services 
Commission, and he has taken a very active role in the lives of 
children through his service as a Deacon in his church. Dick has been a 
mentor for many children, and he has helped to instill these young 
people with a strong set of values that they will carry for a lifetime.
  As Dick approaches his retirement, I am certain that he would 
consider his commitment to his family to be his greatest 
accomplishment. Dick has been happily married to his wife Betty for 
more than 30 years, and together they have raised two wonderful 
children. Following in the family tradition, their daughter, Claudette 
Renee, worked as an educator of children and adults. She worked for 
Head Start programs in both Boston and Atlanta, and she currently 
serves as a technical director for an international corporation in 
Maryland. Their son, Richard, graduated from law school in 1994, and he 
is working as an attorney in the Washington, D.C. area. There is no 
greater source of pride for a parent than to see his children succeed, 
and Dick should be pleased to know that his pride in his children is 
exceeded only by their admiration for their father.
  Again, I want to congratulate Dick Thompson on his retirement, and I 
wish him the best of luck in all his future endeavors.

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