[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 117 (Monday, September 8, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8932-S8933]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING RICHARD B. McCALL

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize a 
remarkable public servant from my home State of Connecticut--Richard B. 
McCall, who this past month left the Connecticut Department of Motor 
Vehicles after 31 years of working as the head of its Handicapped 
Driver Training Program.
  The Connecticut DMV's Handicapped Driver Training Program is the only 
one in the country where a licensed state agency provides free driver 
training for the handicapped. It began in 1945, in order to meet the 
needs of disabled World War II veterans, and for more than five decades 
this program has helped handicapped residents of Connecticut to 
function as independent and productive members of society. No 
individual is more closely linked to this program and its long-term 
success than Dick McCall.
  Since taking charge of the program in 1966, Mr. McCall has personally 
helped to train more than 3,500 Connecticut residents with disabilities 
who now hold driver's licenses. He made

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sure that anyone who wanted to drive would receive an evaluation and 
have a fair chance to get a license.
  Performing his duties required great diligence, patience, and 
compassion. Mr. McCall would sometimes make as many as 50 trips to a 
trainee's house, while preparing him or her for a test. In addition, he 
made himself available to help his students at all times including 
nights and weekends.
  Dick McCall's attitude toward his job has been described as a one-man 
crusade to give people with disabilities an opportunity for equality 
and personal freedom. Mr. McCall recognized that the ability to drive 
brings with it the dignity of having a job or just being able to drive 
to the supermarket, library, or church. Dick McCall felt that, short of 
curing their disability, the greatest gift that he could give to these 
people was mobility and independence, and he worked tirelessly to help 
as many people as was humanly possible.
  While Dick McCall is ending his career with the DMV, he is by no 
means retiring from public service. He has taken a job with the Easter 
Seals, where he will continue working with people with disabilities.
  Too often, the work of people like Dick McCall goes unnoticed by 
society at large. However, the thousands of people whose lives have 
been touched by Dick McCall recognize the sacrifices that he has made 
in his life, and his work has earned him the nickname ``Saint 
Richard.'' I would like to personally commend him for his ongoing 
career of public service. He is truly an inspiration to all those 
people who have been fortunate enough to know him, and I wish him only 
the best in his future endeavors.

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