[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 31, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E528]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO MRS. DOREEN SILVERMAN BROGDEN

                                 ______
                                 

                    HON. ROBERT E. (BUD) CRAMER, JR.

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 31, 1998

  Mr. CRAMER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mrs. Doreen Silverman 
Brogden, a woman who is a credit to our nation, the state of Alabama, 
and my alma mater, the University of Alabama School of Law, where she 
has been employed for the past 30 years.
  Doreen Silverman was born in England during the War. In 1957 she 
traveled to the United States to live with her aunt and uncle in 
Brooklyn, New York. One year later, at a dance in the city, she met a 
young American serviceman named Harold Brogden. Eight months later, on 
December 29, 1958, they were married.
  In 1961 Mrs. Brogden moved with Harold back to his native Alabama, 
where he attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Born and 
bred in London, she was not at all sure about moving to this southern 
state. But, as she has so often in her life, Doreen Brogden summoned 
the grace and pluck instilled in her at the Skinner School for Girls in 
Stamford Hill, and approached change with open arms. Upon arriving in 
Alabama, Mrs. Brogden found employment with a local attorney, Mr. 
Gordon Rosen, and began to learn the ways of the Bar. On September 1, 
1968, she joined the staff of the University of Alabama School of Law 
as secretary to Dean Daniel J. Meador. She served under two subsequent 
deans, Thomas L. Jones and Thomas W. Christopher, before becoming the 
school's Law Publications Coordinator in 1984. In this capacity, Doreen 
Brogden has served as sage and assistant to over a generation of 
student editors on the staffs of the Alabama Law Review, The Journal of 
the Legal Profession, the Law and Psychology Review, and the American 
Journal of Tax Policy.
  Over the years, Mrs. Brogden has worked tirelessly to better the law 
school she calls home. At the same time, she has been a loving wife to 
her husband Harold and a devoted mother to their son Gregg, who was 
born in 1966. You will see pictures of both prominently displayed in 
her office at the law school among those of her favorite students and 
faculty members throughout the years--of which there are many. Yet no 
picture is more prominently displayed than that of Gregg and his wife 
Lyric, whom he married in 1993.
  When you meet Doreen Brogden for the first time, she will tell you 
that she lives by the creed her mother taught her in England: ``I bow 
down to God only, the rest of us are equal.'' She is as good as her 
word. From deans to law students, Doreen Brogden treats them all alike: 
as peers when they deserve it, as friends if they can earn it, and, 
above all else, as her own children. Mrs. Brogden is an exemplary 
Alabamian who has earned the respect and gratitude of a countless 
number of Alabama law students. She is particularly treasured by the 
staff of the Alabama Law Review, where she has guided countless 
Managing Boards through the trials and tribulations of producing three 
issues a year.
  As we approach the 30th anniversary of her joining the University of 
Alabama School of Law, I seek to honor this special woman. We are 
grateful that she found her way to our state, a state she loves as much 
as any native-born citizen. But Alabama cannot claim all of Doreen 
Silverman Brogden. She is truly an international individual, and she 
exemplifies a goodness that knows no boundaries. Mr. Speaker, I join 
today with her many friends and admirers at the law school in thanking 
Doreen Brogden for her life of service and her heart of gold.

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