[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 54 (Tuesday, May 5, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H2780-H2781]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO SENATOR TERRY SANFORD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Wise) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, recently, on Earth Day, Senator Terry Sanford 
of North Carolina was buried in Durham, North Carolina; and I deeply 
regretted that I could not be there.
  In many ways, Senator Sanford was responsible for that because of 
opportunities that he had given me as a young person. I was able to be 
in my district where the President and the Vice President of the United 
States were visiting and participating in Earth Day ceremonies.
  It was because of Senator Sanford, ``Mr. Sanford'' as we knew him 
when

[[Page H2781]]

we were students at Duke, that I and many like me have had our chances 
to get ahead in life and to try and participate fully in the political 
life of this country.
  I first came to know Terry Sanford, then a recent governor of North 
Carolina, in 1970, when he became president of Duke University. And, 
Mr. Speaker, my colleagues know what the climate was like then on most 
college campuses. It was a time of emotional turmoil and consternation, 
great riffs over Vietnam and civil rights; and certainly Duke had seen 
its share of them. Initially, many of us who were students said, how 
could someone who has been in political life come to be president of 
this academic institution?

                              {time}  1900

  Mr. Sanford soon showed us wrong and showed us the kind of person he 
was. We learned how he was able to bring together many disparate 
elements and get everyone sitting down. I guess there are several 
incidents that describe how Terry Sanford worked and lived. The one 
that came most to my mind was one day he had only been in office at 
Duke for a few months, word came that the gathering of some of our more 
radical students had gathered out on the campus drive and were getting 
set to march on the administration building. They had actually 
blockaded the circle by which all traffic could get into the 
university. Rather than having them march down, Terry Sanford, new 
President at Duke, new kid on the block, he marched out to the traffic 
circle. There he confronted, and I still remember one bearded student 
looking at him and saying, ``Do you know what we're going to do?'' 
President Sanford said, ``What is it you propose?'' He said, ``Well, 
we're going to march right down and take over Allen Building, the 
administration building.'' He stepped back, he looked at them, gave 
that wry chuckle of his and said, ``Well, good luck. I've been trying 
to take it over for months.'' Safe to say, that demonstration broke up 
right there. Indeed President Sanford, then in his true style, invited 
everyone to come to Allen Building and to meet with him and, of course, 
as he often did, held regular meetings and hours with students.
  Another time in a campaign that I worked in that he was involved in, 
some of us were being critical of another staff member, a young person, 
just like us. I still remember him looking at us and saying, ``Nobody 
is ever going to be able to say that I didn't give somebody a chance.'' 
That was what his life was all about. It was giving young people, all 
people, but particularly young people chances.
  He gave voice to a number of us who were still students in 1972 when 
we were looking for a presidential race and a candidate that espoused 
what we believed in. He took on that dark horse presidential race. It 
was not an easy one for him. Obviously he did not get the nomination. 
But on the way to fighting for that nomination, he gave hundreds of us 
a chance to participate and to become stakeholders in this democratic 
process. I just wonder how many students he turned from being simply 
angry and frustrated, turned to being full participants in people 
making an investment in our system today.
  Indeed, you can look at any role of government officials or business 
officials or people taking an active role in their community and you 
can find Terry Sanford's handiwork and signature in all of them. He ran 
for the Senate from North Carolina and he was elected for a term and he 
represented North Carolina well. This was as someone who at a time when 
most of us might think of retirement, Terry Sanford was always serving. 
He fascinated me because no matter what increase in years he might 
have, he could always communicate directly with young people, in terms 
that young people related to. You trusted him, he brought you in, he 
made you part of what you wanted to do. There are thousands of places 
and thousands of people across this world tonight who are doing 
something that probably they would not have done had it not been for 
Terry Sanford. I think that is the highest tribute that can be paid to 
Mr. Sanford. People, a lot of us, have opportunities today that we 
never would have had had he not given us a voice and a vehicle by which 
to express them. And so that is the job that all of us need to dedicate 
ourselves in his memory.
  I would say to Mr. Sanford, you left our Nation much better, you 
enriched countless lives. Many generations are going to have enhanced 
opportunities because of you. Thank you, Mr. Sanford.

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