[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 64 (Tuesday, May 19, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E891]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING JOHN BRUEN SR.

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 19, 1998

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, it is with regret that I inform our 
colleagues of the passing of one of the most remarkable residents of my 
20th Congressional District of New York.
  John Bruen Sr. was 92 years young when he died this past weekend, but 
right until the end he remained the embodiment of the dignity of the 
individual.
  John Bruen was born in 1906 in Goshen, NY, and lived in that 
community his entire life. His grandfather was a runaway slave, who had 
shown John the scars on his back from the whippings he had received as 
a slave, and which remained on him until the day he died.
  Because of his heritage, John was working for civil rights for all 
Americans long before it became fashionable to do so. As a young man, 
he worked grooming horses at the Goshen Historic Track in Goshen, New 
York. It was there, as a boy, that he learned his love of reading and 
especially his love of history. A friend gave him a biography of 
Abraham Lincoln, and that initiated John's lifelong dedication to 
equality for Afro Americans.
  John married Gertrude Van Dyke in 1925, and they had six children.
  John loved his family and taught them to share his love of liberty 
and of history. He worked for 30 years for the Erie Railroad, but was a 
true renaissance man: in the 1930's, John began his career as a semi-
pro baseball player. In one season, he had an astonishing .517 batting 
average. Those were the days when professional baseball was closed to 
Black Americans. However, when Jackie Robinson broke that color 
barrier, forever, John Bruen was one of the first to cheer him on.
  John became an expert on the life stories of those heroes who paved 
the way for equality: Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, W.E.B. 
Dubois, Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as Jackie Robinson, and a host 
of others. John was a good friend of another outstanding resident of 
our region--Floyd Patterson--and the two of them shared their love for 
boxing, at which John also tried his hand, and for humanitarianism.
  John had a gift for the written word, and from 1959 until near his 
death, the daily and weekly newspapers in Orange County, New York, 
published his views on the issues of the day. He was a consistent 
fighter against segregation, prejudice, and racism. He was superb at 
quoting those figures from the past who he so admired, and who he 
believed were living proof that all the races should live in harmony.
  John was always of tremendous help to me throughout my career in 
public service. He used his column effectively to promote the causes he 
so believed in, and to remind us of our responsibilities to human 
rights for all. John was quick to praise those of us who supported 
civil rights, but would not consider compromise on those issues he 
considered basic to human dignity.
  To John's surviving children, to his many loved ones, and to those 
who greatly admired him, we extend our heartfelt condolences. While 
John Bruen Sr. may not be quoted in our textbooks or popular histories, 
it is in great part due to the relentless trails blazed and consciences 
stirred by individuals such as John throughout our nation that we are 
closer than ever to achieving the dream of Martin Luther King Jr.
  John you left your mark--we will long miss you.

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