[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 11 (Thursday, February 12, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S789]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 50TH BIRTHDAY OF MICHAEL B. ROBERTSON

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, next Wednesday, February 18, 
marks an auspicious occasion: Michael B. Robertson--a constituent--will 
turn 50. He will become a quinquagenarian. Individuals often approach 
this milestone with some trepidation. That need not be, for as Sir 
Richard Steele wrote, ``Age in a virtuous person, of either sex, 
carries in it an authority which makes it preferable to all the 
pleasures of youth.'' Now, Steele was all of 38 or 39 when he wrote 
that in 1711, but I can attest to the sentiment, having become a 
septuagenarian last March. More important, we learn from Leviticus 
25:10 that ``Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty 
throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a 
jubilee unto you.''
  Michael Robertson was born in Scotland in 1948. But he ``left fair 
Scotland's strand'' at the age of six and moved with his family to the 
United States. He obtained a bachelor of arts degree in English from 
Wilkes University in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania in 1969. From there, as 
a young man, he headed west, following the advice of Horace Greeley 
(actually, it was the advice of John Babsone Lane Soule, in an article 
published in the Terre Haute Express in 1851).
  His car and his funds made it to Los Angeles. He had to find work, 
and ended up taking a job in the mailroom of Carson/Roberts 
Advertising. His superiors quickly recognized his innate ability and 
work ethic, and promoted him to copywriter. Soon thereafter, he was an 
associate creative director with Young & Rubicam, eventually returning 
to the East Coast. Onward and upward in the highly competitive business 
of advertising to his present position as executive creative director 
of Bates USA, where he is responsible for the overall creative product 
of a $1.1 billion agency.
  Mr. Robertson, I might note, is a neighbor of sorts. His office is in 
the venerable Chrysler Building, a few floors below the suite which is 
my New York City office. He has a lovely family, including a daughter, 
Megan (just recently married); a son, Brendan (a strapping young man 
presently in college); and another daughter, Charlotte (a star fourth-
grader at the Nightingale-Bamford School). His wife, Linda, is quite 
accomplished in her own right: she produced the television commercials 
commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations.
  I would like to take this opportunity, Mr. President, to join with 
Michael Robertson's family and friends too numerous to count in wishing 
him a very happy fiftieth birthday. May it truly be a jubilee.

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