[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 115 (Thursday, September 4, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1654]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E1654]]
                   TRIBUTE TO MARY AND PHILLIP KENTER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL P. FORBES

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 4, 1997

  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in this hallowed Chamber to pay 
tribute to Mary and Phillip Kenter, of Riverhead, Long Island, as they 
celebrate their blessed 40th wedding anniversary.
  I know that my colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives 
believe as I do, that marriage is the bedrock of our society, the 
foundation on which all of our values, beliefs, and hopes for the 
future stand. That is why we, as national leaders, should take a moment 
to recognize and honor Mary and Phillip Kenter for all of the love, 
loyalty, and faith that goes into creating a marriage that has endured 
and grown for 40 years.
  Though Phillip is a native of Flushing, Queens, and Mary is from 
Norwalk, CT, their love first ignited on the warm sands of Jones Beach, 
Long Island, where they met in 1955. With a courtship that progressed 
while Phillip attended the U.S. Navy's Officer Candidate School, the 
two were married on September 7, 1957, 1 month after he graduated OCS 
and a week before he shipped out aboard a Navy destroyer for the next 
2\1/2\ years.
  Their first son, Phillip, was born a little more than 2 years later 
and Dennis was born about the time his father left the Navy in 1961. 
Two years later, with a vision of providing TV to all of Long Island, 
Phillip founded Long Island Cablevison, a company he sold to the Los 
Angeles Times Mirror Co. in 1968. By then, their son Kevin had arrived 
and the Kenters settled in Riverhead.
  Gifted with an entrepreneurial spirit, Phillip and Mary then founded 
Relay Communications Center. A true family business, each of the Kenter 
sons are active members of the telephone answering, two-way radio and 
paging services company. There are 45 other members of the Relay 
Communications work force and each of them are treated as members of 
the extended Kenter family, a feeling that Phillip and Mary extend to 
the entire Riverhead community.
  Raising a family and growing a small business would drain the time 
and energy of most, but Phillip and Mary have also been active members 
of the Riverhead community as Scout leaders, volunteers at Central 
Suffolk Hospital, in the Rosary Altar Society at St. John's Roman 
Catholic Church, and the Riverhead Rotary, Women's and Garden clubs.
  All of this demonstrates the values, caring and commitment that 
Phillip and Mary offer their community, attributes that have served 
their marriage well, while making Long Island an even better place by 
their example. The foundation of the Riverhead community, indeed all of 
Long Island, has been strengthened for the past 40 years by the hard 
work and devotion that Phillip and Mary Kenter have dedicated to their 
marriage. We see the many blessings and gifts that have been bestowed 
upon them, of which they so generously share, and understand the true 
meaning of family values. Mr. Speaker, I ask that this entire Chamber 
join me in offering our praise and heartiest congratulations to them on 
this blessed anniversary. A union as blessed as theirs will surely 
endure forever.

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