[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 19 (Tuesday, March 3, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H700-H701]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SPEAKER'S GAVEL USED TODAY MADE WITH CARE AND PATIENCE BY DICK DIETERLE 
                          OF MILLERSVILLE, PA

  (Mr. GINGRICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Mr. Dick 
Dieterle. Mr. Dieterle is a retired school teacher and amateur wood 
worker from Millersville, Pennsylvania who can teach us all a thing or 
two

[[Page H701]]

about patience. My colleagues may have noticed that I used a different 
gavel this afternoon, a gavel hand-built by Mr. Dieterle especially for 
this occasion. The head of the gavel is built from white ash that was 
cured for a year and air-dried for a decade. Mr. Dieterle rescued wood 
for the handle from a razed Lutheran church in Millersville and made 
its terminal from African padauk. Perhaps most impressively, Mr. 
Speaker, the striking block was made from a piece of apple wood that he 
has been curing for over 50 years. That is a very long time, Mr. 
Speaker.
  This gavel should remind each of us as we gather to take up today's 
agenda that patience is a virtue and that it often takes 50 years to 
get something just right, whether that something is a gavel or a book 
or a piece of legislation. Dick Dieterle said that he is pretty sure 
the strongest man in the House will not break it. That is what happens 
when you take the time to perfect something. And looking at the gavel, 
Mr. Speaker, I am pretty sure that Mr. Dieterle's time was not wasted.

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