[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 27, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E16]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E16]]
                       TRIBUTE TO JAMES B. HUNTER

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 27, 1998

  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of 
James B. Hunter, a longtime member of the Arlington, Virginia, County 
Board, who passed away on January 5.
  Jim Hunter embodied what many of us strive our entire lives to 
achieve--a compassionate and effective blend of civic activism and 
public service that forms a lasting legacy.
  Jim served on the Arlington County Board from 1990 until he retired, 
for health reasons, last September. While on the Board, Jim Hunter 
spoke up loudly and effectively for the rights of those whose voices 
are often muted.
  But his record of public service encompasses much more than those 
seven years as an elected official. This willingness to speak up for 
the dispossessed began long before Jim ever held elected office. 
Through years of community work, he had built his reputation as a wise 
and dedicated public servant for years before he gave Arlington voters 
the opportunity to endorse his leadership through election.
  Throughout his life, Jim gave of his time to raise money for groups 
like the United Way, and served on the boards of the Arlington County 
chapter of the American Red Cross and the Veterans Memorial YMCA. He 
was a former president of the Committee of 100, a group of concerned 
Arlingtonians committed to finding solutions to community challenges. 
He founded the Arlington Housing Corporation, an organization that 
works for low- and moderate-income housing and helps keep county 
teenagers out of trouble. He served on numerous county commissions 
dealing with issues as wide-ranging as law enforcement, fiscal affairs, 
and planning.
  As a member of the County Board, he served on committees of the 
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, including a stint as 
chair of COG's transportation planning board and service on boards 
dealing with airport noise abatement, human services, public safety, 
and the environment.
  But aside from his generous contributions to public service, Jim 
demonstrated his dedication to others in his private life as well. 
After he and his wife, Patricia, had three children of their own, they 
adopted a teenage girl who has fled her native Laos with an aunt and an 
uncle and who was living in a two-bedroom apartment with 10 other 
people. This personal response to suffering was indicative of Jim 
Hunter's life of purposeful compassion.
  A Marine Corps veteran, a loving husband, father and grandfather, a 
respected, indeed beloved, public servant, Jim Hunter served as a role 
model for an entire generation of civic activists who learned from him 
profound and lasting lessons about duty, responsibility, and integrity. 
His family, his friends, and his community will miss him, but we will 
also remember his commitment to the less fortunate, and in remembering, 
we will renew our own.

                          ____________________