[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 150 (Friday, October 31, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H9844-H9845]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HONORING THE LIFE OF JOHN N. STURDIVANT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Emerson). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I came to speak about the loss of a leader 
in the Washington Metropolitan Area and in our community, but as well 
in our Nation. I came to the floor and I heard the gentleman from 
Washington [Mr. White] speak about Joel Pritchard. I had not heard that 
he died.
  Madam Speaker, I had the opportunity to serve with Joel Pritchard. He 
was a Representative, as has been said, of great integrity and great 
substance, a very decent human being who believed that partisanship 
came long after principle. He was a delight to serve with, and I am 
sorry to hear that he has passed away.
  But as I will say about John Sturdivant, Joel Pritchard was someone 
who made this House a better place because of his service.
  Madam Speaker, I rise to speak about a very good friend of mine, John 
Sturdivant, president of the American Federation of Government 
Employees. John Sturdivant died just a few days ago of cancer. I had 
the opportunity to talk to him about 3 our 4 days prior to his death. 
Even at that time, he was talking about his beloved members of the 
American Federation of Government Employees, was talking about how he 
could fight for and work for ensuring that they had an opportunity to 
earn sufficient funds to create for themselves a decent life and to 
provide well for their families, their husbands, their wives, their 
children.

[[Page H9845]]

  Madam Speaker, his death leaves not only the American Federation of 
Government Employees, not only government employees generally, but our 
Nation bereft of an individual who fought tirelessly on behalf of our 
Nation's civil servants and on behalf of efficiency and effectiveness 
in our government.
  As president of AFGE, John Sturdivant represented over 700,000 
workers throughout the United States during one of the most difficult 
periods facing civil servants in this country's history. He was deeply 
committed, Madam Speaker, to the belief that today's civil servants 
constitute the answer, not the problem, to making our Government 
operate more smoothly and efficiently. The thousands of workers he 
spoke for could not have had a more committed, more knowledgeable, more 
passionate advocate of their interests.
  Madam Speaker, I knew John Sturdivant well. He was my friend. He 
worked very hard to shift public opinion of civil servants from the 
incorrect perception of inactivity and nonperformance to the truth of a 
dynamic and hard-working national resource.
  Madam Speaker, I will be speaking at John Sturdivant's funeral next 
week, and I will remember him as a good human being, as an American who 
cared about his country, as a person who utilized his talent to the 
fullest, not simply for himself or for profit or for gain, personal 
gain, but for the welfare of the country he loved and the welfare of 
his members.
  He was at times a person of great passion and even anger, but that 
anger and passion was directed at correcting and righting wrongs that 
he perceived.
  I know that he dealt with the President, with the Vice President, and 
with so many of us in the Congress of the United States as an advocate 
of policies that would reward our personnel based upon their effort and 
their talent and their accomplishments.
  He will be difficult for AFGE to replace. He will, like all of us, be 
replaced. None of us are indispensable. But all of us hopefully can be 
remembered as making a special contribution, a contribution of 
significant worth, a contribution emanating from a sense of our 
country's needs and the needs of our fellow men and women.
  Madam Speaker, I thank you for this time to remember a good and 
decent American, John Sturdivant, President of the American Federation 
of Government Employees.

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