[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 157 (Sunday, November 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12403-S12404]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO DON NOEL

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President. As 1998 rolls around, so does another 
election. But this upcoming campaign season will be different from any 
other that I have ever known. For the first time since I entered public 
office in 1974, a certain dapper reporter with a flower in his lapel 
will not be there reporting the facts of the campaign and offering his 
assessments. Don O. Noel, Jr., who is one of the most prominent and 
respected journalists in Connecticut history, has retired after working 
for 39 years as a political reporter in Hartford.
  Don Noel's career as a journalist dates all the way back to 1958, the 
year that my father was elected to the first of two terms as a U.S. 
Senator. It is amazing for anyone to have such a long career in any 
field, particularly in an area as mentally, physically, and emotionally 
demanding as journalism.
  Don Noel started out as a writer for the Hartford Times, where he 
worked for 17 years. For a change of pace, he ventured into television 
journalism and spent a decade at WFSB-TV Channel 3. He eventually 
returned to print journalism in 1984 when he became a political 
columnist for the Hartford Courant, where he stayed until his 
retirement.
  Don Noel was an old-school reporter in the truest and best sense of 
the term. He was always courteous and respectful of the people he 
interviewed and wrote about. At the same time, he refused to skirt 
around difficult issues and never refrained from asking stinging 
questions or making pointed comments. He felt that part of his role as 
a journalist was to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
  Don Noel was able to succeed for so long because he was a reporter of 
substance who cared about the truth and cared about his readers. He 
understood that his role as journalist was to hold politicians 
accountable for their actions and to serve as a watchdog on behalf of 
the general public.
  Don Noel did more than simply report the facts, he also interpreted 
them. As an editorial page writer, he was responsible for offering his 
opinions on the issues of the day. Not everyone agreed with his ideas, 
but everyone respected them because they were always thoughtful and 
well-developed. Most of Mr. Noel's criticisms were aimed at those who 
tended to be a bit more conservative, but to the end he remained an 
equal opportunity critic. It didn't matter if you were a Democrat, 
Republican, or Independent; if you were a public official and Don Noel 
thought that you were anything less than an upstanding public servant, 
it's safe to say that your name would be in the paper that week.
  One of his colleagues at the Hartford Courant noted that Don Noel was 
an institution not because of the number of years he put into service, 
but how well he applied them. I strongly concur with these sentiments 
and believe that Don Noel was one of the finest people that I have had 
the pleasure of knowing during my career in politics.
  While his retirement is truly a loss for the people of Connecticut, I 
am glad that he will finally have more time to do the things that he 
truly enjoys. He has said that he plans to spend a good deal of his 
new-found free time doing community service work in the neighborhoods 
of northwest Hartford, where

[[Page S12404]]

he has volunteered for more than a decade. He also hopes to travel with 
his wife and have an opportunity to try other kinds of writing in which 
he won't have a deadline hanging over his head. Whatever he chooses to 
do in his retirement, I wish him only the best, and I thank him for his 
many years of service to the people of Connecticut.

                          ____________________