[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 65 (Wednesday, May 20, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H3598-H3608]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO SENATOR TERRY SANFORD
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hefner) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
General Leave
Mr. HEFNER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks
and to provide extraneous material on the subject of my special order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kingston). Is there objection to the
request of the gentleman from North Carolina?
There was no objection.
Mr. HEFNER. Mr. Speaker, as the dean of the North Carolina
Delegation, I would take this time to pay tribute to what I consider
one of the greatest politicians and public servants that has ever
served this country, former Governor Terry Sanford; Duke President
Terry Sanford; and as of late, the Senator Terry Sanford.
At this time, some of my colleagues from North Carolina have remarks
that they would like to make, and I yield to the gentleman from North
Carolina (Mr. Price).
Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for
organizing this special order and for giving us the opportunity tonight
to pay tribute to an extraordinary citizen and a visionary leader,
Terry Sanford, a son of North Carolina of whom we are exceedingly
proud.
Terry Sanford died on April 18. When we look back on the broad sweep
of his life, in addition to being governor and senator, he was an FBI
agent at one time; a World War II paratrooper; a state legislator; a
lawyer; an author; a university president. We see a life committed to
the greatest movements and deeply involved in the greatest
accomplishments in this American century.
Terry Sanford was a mentor and an inspiration to many of my
generation who came of age politically during his governorship in the
early 1960s. He was the first political figure with whom I seriously
identified. He became governor at a time of extraordinary challenge as
the movement for racial justice swept across the South. The South, in
fact, was a racial powder keg, with the sit-in movement, the Freedom
Riders, a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, mob violence, and federal
troops occupying college campuses.
Governor Sanford rejected the politics of demagoguery and defiance
and thus set a standard for the New South on the most important and
explosive issue of the day.
While massive resistance was embraced by some, during his 1961
inaugural address, Terry Sanford called for a ``new day'' in which ``no
group of our citizens can be denied the right to participate in the
opportunities of first-class citizenship.''
It made a world of difference to me and my generation to have Terry
Sanford as a counter-example to the Wallaces and Faubuses and Barnetts,
as an example of decency and dignity and a willingness to change.
Governor Sanford also in the space of a short, single term made major
contributions to the improvement of public education in North Carolina,
to the development of North Carolina's community college system, and to
the growth of Research Triangle Park. A Harvard study designated him as
one of the Nation's top 10 governors in this century.
Most importantly, Terry Sanford taught my generation what democratic
politics at its best could be. He was a model of energetic and
innovative leadership, full of ideas, refusing to be bound by the
shackles of the past, possessing a vision of future possibility that
inspired and empowered others.
When I returned to North Carolina in 1973 to teach at Duke
University, it was again under Terry Sanford's inspiration as we
launched what is now called the Terry Sanford Institute of Public
Policy. President Sanford's idea was to bring disparate disciplines
together, from economics to political science to history, to the arts,
to ethics, to bring these disciplines together to enrich one another
and to address the major challenges facing our society. As a young
faculty member, I could not have asked for a more worthwhile mission or
a more congenial atmosphere than what he fostered at Duke University.
Under President Sanford's leadership, the world-renowned Duke Medical
Center doubled its capacity, the Fuqua School of Business was
constructed, the University's endowment tripled. In short, under
President Sanford, Duke reached its current status as a national leader
in education, while also strengthening its ties to North Carolina and
its contribution to our region of the country.
Along the way, Terry Sanford chaired a major national Democratic
Party commission, he wrote a book, and organized a national forum on
our flawed system of presidential nomination, and he ran for President
himself, standing up to George Wallace in the 1972 primaries.
{time} 1915
Finally, Terry Sanford served North Carolina and the Nation as a
United States Senator. He was a reluctant candidate in 1986, but he saw
the need, and he responded to the call. I will forever treasure the
memory of running on the ticket with him in my first campaign and
serving with him here. He was the best at delivering a political stump
speech that I have ever seen, speaking without notes in perfect one-
sentence paragraphs, each one of them a perfectly crafted applause
line. He was very, very good.
Senator Sanford's diverse policy interests were expressed in his
service on the Committee on the Budget, Committee on Banking, and the
Committee on Foreign Relations, and in initiatives that ranged from
promotion of a stable peace in Central America to the cause of truth-
in-budgeting. As always, he combined a gift for national policy
innovation with faithful stewardship of North Carolina's needs and
interests.
Terry Sanford had multiple careers, any one of which would be a
credit to most people. I do not expect we will see another Terry
Sanford in our lifetimes. But we can pick up parts of his legacy, and
we can move that legacy forward.
We can all draw strength and wisdom from our memories of the example
that he set, the courage that he displayed, the diligence and patience
he showed in mentoring the younger generation, the good humor that
infused everything that he did, the confidence he had in the capacities
of ordinary men and women and in the ultimate judgment of history, even
when he was undergoing temporary disappointments or setbacks. We will
remember the confidence he had in us, willing to believe the best about
each of us and thus enabling us to be our best.
Terry Sanford empowered and enabled many, many people. The ultimate
impact of his influence and his inspiration will be limited only by the
energy and creativity and the passion for realizing social justice that
each of us can muster.
Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the tributes to former Governor
and Senator Sanford from the magnificent memorial service at the Duke
Chapel: the remembrances by Governor James B. Hunt, President Nan
Keohone of Duke University, former North Carolina House Speaker Dan
Blue, Duke Endowment Chairwoman Mary Semans, Judge Dickson Phillips,
and former Sanford Institute Director Joel Fleishman.
In addition, I include in the Record the eulogy from that service by
Provost Emeritus Tom Langford of Duke University. I would also like to
include a tribute by Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Director Tom Lambeth,
delivered on another occasion, and then two
[[Page H3599]]
columns by national journalists who knew Terry Sanford well and admired
him greatly, Albert Hunt of the Wall Street Journal and David Gergen of
U.S. News and World Report.
Remembrance at the Terry Sanford Funeral
(By North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt)
In the words of a great Methodist hymn: ``Oh, for a
thousand tongues to sing our Great Redeemer's praise.''
Indeed, 1,000 tongues are here today to praise our Redeemer
and one of His most magnificent gifts to the people of our
state and our nation. I know that I speak for many of you
when I say very simply: Terry Sanford was my hero. He was my
hero because of what he did, but also because of the way he
did it. His approach, his style, his ideas. He was constantly
looking for ways to improve things. Calling people together
to study issues, to prepare proposals for action. In fact, I
suspect by now he has almost certainly had his orientation
session with the Lord. And it was NOT a one-way conversation.
I expect he has given the Lord a few good ideas for improving
Heaven. Some of which should be done in the next 30 days. And
almost certainly, if he has found any poverty, any
discrimination, any poor schools, any worthy arts ideas there
are projects underway, even now.
At a time when we struggle about whether government should
act, let us remember the words of this uncommon man, Terry
Sanford, who could think great thoughts and make them a
reality. In one of his books, Terry wrote:
``Indeed, if government is not for the express purpose of
lifting the level of civilization by broadening the
opportunities in life for its people, what IS its purpose?''
And he added: ``Government is not something passive, not
our kind of government. It has built into it the spirit of
outreach, the concern for every individual. Look at the verbs
in the Preamble to the Constitution--establish, insure,
provide, promote, secure. All these connote action, and all
suggest that we must constantly be striving to improve the
opportunities of our people.''
And ACT Terry Sanford did. Strive to improve opportunities
for our people he did.
Imagine what North Carolina would be like if we had not had
Terry Sanford striving for us all these many years.
Imagine what North Carolina would have been like in the
1960s if we had not had a governor who believed in bringing
people of all races together. If we'd had a governor, like
other states, who appealed to the worst rather than the best
in us. Imagine no Terry Sanford.
Imagine what North Carolina would be like without the
Research Triangle Park. Imagine no Terry Sanford.
Imagine what North Carolina would be like without the
community college system or the School of the Arts. Imagine
no Terry Sanford.
Imagine what North Carolina would be like had he not set
national excellence as the goal for this great university--
and all of our other universities. Imagine no Terry Sanford.
Imagine what North Carolina public schools would be like if
a great governor had not had the courage to pass a tax for
school improvements--an act of courage that cost his own
political ambitions deeply. Imagine no Terry Sanford.
It is truly unimaginable. You cannot imagine North Carolina
without Terry Sanford.
Forty years ago, no one could have imagined what North
Carolina would become.
No one, that is, but Terry Sanford.
He once wrote: ``The governor, by his very office, embodies
his state. He stands alone at his inauguration as the
spokesman for all the people. His presence at the peak of the
system is unique, for he must represent the slum and the
suburb, his concerns must span rural poverty and urban
blight. The responsibility for initiative in statewide
programs falls upon the governor. He must energize his
administration, search out the experts, formulate the
programs, mobilize the support and carry new ideas into
action.''
Terry, you set the goals and our sights very high. So high
that we often wonder if we can meet your standard. But your
good works, your words and your spirit tell us every day, in
every way, that the goal can be ours. That the struggle is
worth it.
When we leave today, we will leave the body of our hero in
this chapel. We will leave it here because no other structure
is sufficiently magnificent to serve as the final resting
place for a life as magnificent as his.
But while we leave his body here to rest, the evidence of
his good works is and will be around us everywhere--in the
institutions he led, in the innovations he championed, in the
individuals he touched and, most of all, in the spirit of
everyone here today and everyone in this state. And so it
will be for every generation to come.
For all that North Carolina has become and will be, Terry,
we thank you.
God bless this place. God bless this family. And thank God
for the magnificent blessing of giving North Carolina Terry
Sanford.
____
Terry Sanford Remembrance
(By Nannerl O. Keohane, President of Duke University)
Of the many eloquent tributes that have been paid to Terry
Sanford this week, the one in our student newspaper on Monday
would have been especially dear to him. It was written by
Devin Gordon, the editor of the Chronicle, and it begins as
follows: ``Surely there is a place in heaven for Terry
Sanford. For eight decades, Duke's patron saint found his way
into the soul of this university and into the hearts of North
Carolinians. The highlights of his storied career read like
the resume of a dozen men combined: four decorations as a
paratrooper during World War II, two years as a state
senator, four years as N.C. governor, 15 years as university
president, two runs for the United States presidency and six
years as a United States Senator. On Saturday morning at
11:30 a.m., however, he finally stopped to rest.''
Terry Sanford took office at Duke in 1970, at a time when
one might have thought that only a madman would take a
university presidency. It was the very height of the protest
against the war on campuses everywhere; presidents were being
thrown out of the office right and left, and those who kept
their jobs were harried and beleaguered. In those tumultuous
times leadership was scorned and often ineffective. But Terry
took the job with zest, and from the very first, performed it
with panache, sincerity, serenity and purpose.
We've relished the story of how he met with protesting
students during the first few weeks and, when they told him
that they planned to occupy our administration building, he
said, ``Great, take me with you. I've been trying to occupy
it for weeks.'' But it's less well known that after
delivering that memorable quip, Terry neither departed nor
called in reinforcements. He took a chair and sat down on the
stage behind the student leaders. This quiet but brilliant
gesture immediately established his authority, demonstrated
that he intended to be part of the solution, and forced the
student leaders to redirect their attention, both literally
and metaphorically, to the president as well as to the
audience in front.
Even more remarkable, Terry aspired then not just to keep
Duke University roughly on course, not just to create space
for dialogue, not just to keep the peace. He took the
presidency of a fine university with a distinguished history
in its state and its region, and determined to make it one of
the nation's truly great institutions. And he succeeded,
beyond what any observer could have predicted or foreseen.
Now Terry would be the first to say that he did not do that
all by himself. Many others, many gathered here today, were
important in this endeavor, but his leadership was crucial.
Terry had extraordinary political skills--political in the
best sense of the word--which he used in the state, in the
university, in the senate: the power to persuade, the ability
to bring people together to accomplish shared goals, an
uncanny sense of strategy, and patience coupled with
determination and leavened by humor.'
At a time when politics is held in less than good repute by
many in our country, it is worth celebrating a man for whom
politics was a true vocation, who excelled at it. There's an
essay by that name. ``Politics as a Vocation,'' which was
written in the dark aftermath of World WAr I in Germany by
Max Weber, who was himself a statesman and a teacher. And he
said: ``Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards.
It takes both passion and perspective. Certainly all
historical experience confirms the truth that man would not
have attained the possible unless time and again he had
reached out for the impossible. But to do that a man must be
a leader, and not only a leader but a hero as well, in a very
sober sense of the world.
Terry Sanford was, in truth, a leader-hero. That word re-
echos around this Chapel today. As one of his successors in
this office, I have learned more than I could possible
describe from Terry's example and from his wise counsel. From
the very first time we met for breakfast soon after I came to
Duke, when he looked me over with that piercing but kindly
glint in his eye and gave me some extraordinarily sage my
perspectives on my new university and my new state, to the
last time I saw him, just a few weeks ago when I went to his
house to ask his advice about the great bonfire controversy
that raged at Duke this spring, he was an unfailing source of
staunch support, friendly advice, and regular inspiration.
As President, ``Uncle Terry'' was especially close to the
students. He felt, and he said, that the students were the
whole point of the institution. At breakfasts, at parties at
his house, just by walking around the campus, he drew his
strength as president from the exuberance and the freshness
of the undergraduates. He did so remembering the importance
in his own life of a great leader of his alma mater in his
student days--Frank Porter Graham. One of Terry's legendary
moments, Herculean in its implications, came when he swayed
the Cameron Crazies, at a time when their cheers had become
especially obscene and ruthless. He wrote to them as Uncle
Terry, and appealed to them to be more clever and less gross,
to be ``devastating but decent.'' And they responded, with
greetings of exaggerated courtesy to our friends from Chapel
Hill, with loyal halos, and with respectful jibes at the
referees saying, ``we beg to differ.''
He believed in giving students a great deal of power within
the university. He put them, for example, on Trustee
committees, and he asked of them in turn a high degree of
responsibility; and they responded affectionately and
admiringly. The list of Terry's accomplishments as president
of Duke is long
[[Page H3600]]
and very impressive--the buildings he built, the programs he
instituted, the Fuqua School of Business, the Institute of
the Arts, the Talent Identification Program, the Mary Lou
Williams Center, the Institute of Policy Sciences, which now
bears his name, and many more. But he was especially proud of
the Bryan Center, the student center, which he called the
``living room of the university.'' He wanted all students at
Duke to have a good experience, to make friends, to enjoy
their time. When two of his administrative colleagues came to
tell him that Duke could not afford to build the student
center, and that it was time to tell the board this news,
Sanford said: ``then you'll also have to explain to them why
I'm no longer president.'' Needless to say, a way was found
to build it.
Terry Sanford also cared deeply about employees. He wrote a
policy statement shortly before he left office in which he
emphasized that ``Every person who works at Duke is vitally
important to Duke. We are all Duke University people. Our
employees' welfare and creative contributions are intertwined
with Duke's excellence and success. Working at Duke, in
whatever capacity, must be a satisfying way of life. We are
each an individual part of one of the great institutions of
America.''
Leaders who care deeply about individual human beings
sometimes find it hard to focus on institution-building, and
leaders who have built institutions have sometimes worked in
abstractions and knew little of the people who were part of
those institutions. But Terry was amazingly able to bring
those two aspects of leadership together. He understood that
institutions are made up of individual human beings. They are
not bloodless abstractions. He also understood that
individual human beings need good institutions in which to
live and to work and to flourish. He cared about the state of
North Carolina, the government of his country, the United
States Senate, the School of the Arts, the School of Science
and Math, and Duke University. We are all better, and
stronger, and more optimistic about the future, because of
the lasting legacies of Terry Sanford's life and leadership.
____
Remembrance at the Funeral of Terry Sanford
(By Daniel P. Blue, Trustee of Duke University and Former Speaker of
the N.C. House of Representatives)
To the wonderful Sanford family and the extended Sanford
family, I come to remember and commemorate the single most
important North Carolinian in my lifetime and perhaps the
single most important North Carolinian of this century.
When I was 24 years old with a wife and young son and two
weeks experience practicing law, Terry Sanford came to visit
me in my office. He walked in, closed the door, sat down. He
could tell I was nervous. After all, who wouldn't be if you
had a former governor, the president of the university from
which you had just gotten your law degree and the single
partner in a law firm that had just blazed a new path in this
state by being among the first to hire an African-American
lawyer, come in the office.
Well, after giving me a little fatherly advice on the
practice of law, Terry told me, he said, ``I came over here
to check on you, see how you're doing. These fellows will
treat you all right. If they don't, let me know. And let me
know if there is ever anything I can do for you.'' It was his
law firm of course--Sanford, Cannon, Adams and McCullough, at
the time. And I later learned that Terry had placed a call to
the senior partners in that firm and told them that he had
observed this Duke law student and he wanted them to
interview me, which was tantamount to telling them ``come
hire me.'' So, after we had talked a while, Terry also did
the greatest tribute, I guess, to a young lawyer. He assigned
me to one of the major cases in the firm, directly answerable
to him and two of the other main partners in the firm.
Later, as time went on, not only with me but other people
in the firm, Terry consistently urged us to be politically
active and he urged me to run for the North Carolina House of
Representatives, and I did. Later on, as a U.S. senator,
Terry learned that I was interested in being speaker of the
House of Representatives and he called and he said, ``You
know, people will call you and they'll tell you why you can't
do it for various reasons. Some of them will be obvious to
you. Some won't. You ought to listen, be courteous to them,
acknowledge their interest and concern, then go on about
tying down those who are going to support you and do it.''
And you know, with his help.
The fact that I stand before you today, as a farm boy from
Robeson County, one who embodies all of those things that
Terry Sanford did and meant for North Carolina, and as I
stand to help remember one who is considered one of the 10
greatest governors in America during this century, it's a
clear measure of how far we have come and how far Terry
Sanford has led us. You know, the amazing, almost mystical
thing about Terry Sanford, as one of his former law partners
told me, was his ability, the rare knack, to get ordinary
people to do unordinary and extraordinary things.
We reflect a little bit, those of us who grew up in North
Carolina in the Sixties, on a different climate, but we also
wonder whether our brethren in North Carolina were much
different than our brethren throughout the region during
those turbulent times, or were we blessed in the Sixties with
the kind of the leader who did not reflect a lot of the
sentimentalities and the sensibilities of the people as much
as he shaped them and elevated those sensibilities?
Thirty-five years ago, in neighboring states in the South,
Ross Barnett in Mississippi closed gates, shut doors to
prevent James Meredith from entering the University of
Mississippi. At about the same time Gov. Faubus from Arkansas
closed gates, shut doors, to keep students from integrating
the public schools in Little Rock. At about the same time,
Gov. Wallace from Alabama stood in the schoolhouse door to
block entrance, to close the gates. In Virginia, schools
closed, people were denied, gates came down.
And at about the same time, Gov. Terry Sanford in North
Carolina boldly generated the resources to improve public
education for my generation, helped establish our statewide
system of community colleges for my generation, created the
North Carolina School of the Arts, created the Governor's
School in Winston Salem, created the Learning Institute of
North Carolina, increased teacher pay, started the North
Carolina Fund, and established the Good Neighbor Council to
discuss racial issues in the state during those tense times.
He had a vision to see across the landscape of
hopelessness, hate, distrust and despair: to look through the
hills, that existed at the time, or racism, of economic
deprivation and all of those things that he clearly could see
across, and see a gate of opportunity for all North
Carolinians, for all Southerners, for all Americans.
In fairness, I will say this, one quarter of a century
later, Gov. Wallace repented and we know, those of us who are
believers, that the Lord has said there will be more
rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99
righteous person who do not need to repent. But with due
respect to heavenly custom, Lord, I would say that down here
in North Carolina there is more rejoicing over one righteous
person, a righteous man, who need not repent for any position
that he took in times of trial or in rough decision.
If I have known any man who has made a difference in my
life and in the lives of so many North Carolinians, who
believed in people and who was impervious to the pressure of
other people's prejudice, it was Terry Sanford. I'm speaking
as just one of the people who own him a tremendous debt of
freedom and gratitude. I told my children as they asked me
many years ago when they were looking at Duke, that Terry
Sanford was reason enough to look because he was a man who
was at least two generations ahead of his contemporaries. The
older I get, my friends, the more I know I need to revise
that. Terry Sanford was a man who was at least three
generations ahead in his vision of my generation.
So, let me say, if you will permit me to use this
opportunity, offered by the power of this pulpit and the
honor of this occasion, to discharge a personal duty to Terry
Sanford, to do for him in his afterlife what he did for us as
lawyers who had the privilege of practicing with him, what he
did for us as North Carolinians and as Americans--offer a
short, persuasive recommendation for admission. And I would
start it by saying, Dear Lord, open your gate wide for Terry
Sanford. He opened gates for me. Dear Lord, open your gate
wide for Terry Sanford, he opened gates for all of us here on
earth. Oh Lord, open wide your gate for Terry Sanford, he
never closed a gate on anyone. He never kept the gate closed
on anyone. God bless him.
____
Remembrance at the Funeral of Terry Sanford
(By Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, Chair of The Duke Endowment)
A man from Durham County called me and asked, ``Do you
think we could come to Terry Sanford's services. He was my
friend.'' I'm sure he's here today because all of us know
that we are all his friends. That man knew that all of
Terry's friends were real, they were forever and they were
sincere.
And as a citizen of Durham, I have to express gratitude for
what he meant to this community. This became his home. He
recognized Durham's egalitarianism, and he enhanced its
peoples reaching out for each other. As a result of his
historic achievements, Terry Sanford changed the face of
North Carolina. For those of us who worked with him through
the years, Terry Sanford was our hero. We referred to
ourselves as being part of the family. He made us feel that
we were on his magic carpet and that he expected us to do
things we never dreamed we were capable of.
The image of North Carolina as that special state, which
stands out in the South as its most progressive and
inventive, was created by Terry Sanford. He had golden
aspirations for it and he made them come true. He was
convinced that there was no fence which could be built that
North Carolina could not reach and climb. So he established
the goals and led the state to its place of honor.
Just think of some of the institutions--some which have
been mentioned already, but I have to say again--we watched
him build: Governor's School for academic achievers; the
North Carolina Fund, one of the nation's first poverty
programs; the community college system; a public policy
institute at this university; the establishment of the
American Dance Festival that he brought to this state; and of
all audacious achievements, the North Carolina School of
[[Page H3601]]
the Arts, a conservatory for talented professional aspiring
young people unique in the South, and in many ways unique in
the nation, which is already graduating Oscar nominees and
winners.
As president here, Terry Sanford threw open the windows of
Duke University--open to the state, the nation and the world.
He reminded this institution of its great North Carolina
history as Trinity College and brought its alumni back into
the fold. He sensed the founders' dreams and carried them
out. He emphasized Mr. Duke's vision. Known by many students
as ``Uncle Terry,'' he listened to students and challenged
them with new opportunities. When he was here at Duke as
president, Terry Sanford said, very wisely, ``there is never
an end to building an institution.''
He never stopped building and he never stopped dreaming and
even in the last few months, he was planning an institute for
the arts in the Triangle. Looking back, we realize that
almost every one of his great achievements was concerned with
youth, as well as with the disabled, minorities, the under
served and under privileged--not only helping them in groups,
but caring about them and reaching out to them as
individuals. He cherished the teachings of his parents and he
lived a life based on his Sunday school lessons. There was a
particular sweetness about his love of the Methodist Church
and of this state and always there was Margaret Rose by his
side. Thank Good for Margaret Rose.
As we face the days ahead with a lost feeling, we know that
in addition to being an icon, he was a comfort. Just knowing
he was nearby gave us a sense of security. Steven Sender
wrote that the truly great are those who in their lives
fought for life and who wore, at their hearts, the fire's
center. Terry's fire will never go out, but we must vow to
carry on his fight to make the world better for everyone--for
all the people. We must never let him down. So call out the
trumpets and celebrate the life of this great man who was our
great friend.
____
Terry Sanford Remembrance
(By Judge J. Dickson Phillips, Jr., Senior Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals
for the 4th Circuit)
Margaret Rose, Terry, Betsee, Helen, Mary Glenn, friends
all. I last saw him in the hospital just before he left and
he wanted to go home. He greeted me then, both feebly and
with effort, as he had a thousand times during our
intertwined lives--the raised hand and twinkly smile, the
same song, Dixon. From there my memories of him run back at
least 65 years, give or take a few either way, the boyhood
days in Laurinburg. Our mothers were both Virginia-born
school teachers. They had been lured to Laurinburg, so one of
our Virginians once suggested, for the dual purpose of
bringing some Virginian intelligence and learning to the N.C.
backwoods, and perhaps, God willing, improving the Scotland
County gene pool. Both of them, faithful to their missions,
married good young men of the town, raised their families
there and lived long lives as friends until Miss Betsy died
at 99, a few years before my mother died last year at 98.
Both of them almost to the long end of their widowhoods in
the houses in which Terry and I were raised lived before
going separately off to college and away in the mid-30's. So,
I look back and down the long road of his life and
accomplishments as recounted by Jim and Mary and Dan, some
portions of which it was my good fortune to share--in the
close knit airborne units of World War II and law practice,
and political battles. In moments too few, in retrospect, of
simple fun and foolishness. I look back to the beginnings
long ago.
In looking back it all seems very simple to me. Why he was
what he was, and did what he did and persevered to the end.
He did it because he took an oath when he was 12 years old
and kept it. It started out, ``On my honor I will do my best
to do my duty to God and my country,'' and then included such
things as help people at all times. It's hard to believe, but
he believed it. He was the eternal Boy Scout, it is just that
simple. He was a true believer, not a heavy breathing true
believer but a true believer in the Frank Graham mold--that
it's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness--
That you should not take counsel of your fears, that the
fundamental requirement is to do justice, to love mercy and
remember that you are mere mortal in the eternal presence,
that on the earth's last day if you should happen to be
there, the thing to do would be to plant a tree or write a
book or start building something worthwhile.
Of course, he was more complicated than that. Of course, he
didn't always succeed. Of course, he was capable of
occasional miscalculations and errors of judgment in public
and private affairs. Of course, he was prey for the usual
human failures. But on the essentials, for the long run, in
good times and bad, he kept the oath about as well as can be
kept by one in the heavy engagements of an active,
uncloistered life. The simple compass held him true on course
until the end. That is why in the world he liked to quote
about his great personal and political friend, Kerr Scott,
``He plowed to the end of the road, his furrow was deep.''
Airborne all the way.
____
Excerpts From the Terry Sanford Remembrance
(By Joel L. Fleishman, Professor of Law and Public Policy at Duke)
Terry Sanford was a great-spirited, great-souled man, a man
of passion, a man with a conscience that had real bite, a man
of loyalty. But most of all, Terry Sanford was a creative
genius, but a thoroughly practical one, who transformed
everything he touched into something finer, better, worthier
and more useful to the world. If I had to call him by any
single phrase, it would be ``the great transformer.''
At a time when most Southern governors were engaged in
shameless, vicious race-baiting, Terry Sanford staked his
political career on achieving equality of opportunity without
regard to race, and thereby transformed, really transformed,
public discourse in North Carolina.
The great transformer, what was his secret? What were the
qualities of mind and character that enabled him to achieve
those feats? First off, he genuinely cared about people.
Secondly, he never let things get to him. Over 47 years, I
never saw him get angry but once. That was when a state
trooper on duty at the Governor's Mansion inadvertently let
it be known to a reporter that, get this, alcohol was being
served upstairs at the mansion, and Terry was furious that
his mother might discover that he took an occasional drink.
He stuck to his word. Unlike so many persons who occupy
political roles, Terry Sanford did not change his mind or his
tune depending on what those with whom he was talking wanted
to hear or according to the views of those with whom he had
talked most recently. If he made a decision and committed
himself to you, you could count on the fact that he would
stick to it and not be persuaded out of it.
How could he do that? Because he had real values, bedrock
values; he believed in things. He acted on those beliefs. And
he served those values with the most amazing energy I've ever
encountered in anyone. He was literally indefatigable. It was
not only boundless, but it was never-ending, showing itself
even as he fought the last battle of his life against cancer.
One is forced to ask, why? Why did Terry Sanford pour so
much of himself into his quest for a better society, in his
efforts for others? One time, Terry and Bert Bennett, who's
sitting here on the front row, were out on the road
campaigning with Margaret Rose, and they were all being
subjected to the same old, cold green peas and chicken and
equally tasty rhetoric from some of the local politicians.
Margaret Rose was complaining to Bert that Terry was gone
from home all the time, little Terry and Betsee were moaning
about missing their father. Bert slipped a note to Terry
which said, Why do you continue to stay in this business
anyway? Terry fired back a note with the following words: to
keep the SOBs out!
It was the ideals which drove him. I know of no public
figure who has demonstrated such consistent fidelity in his
ideals over a lifetime than Terry Sanford did. Most of us
change as we grow older, get a little more radical sometimes,
more often we get a little more conservative. But his
devotion to his ideals didn't waver one whit over those 47
years.
In another extraordinary respect, Terry was unique among
all those of my acquaintance. He had an unquenchable thirst
for ideas from everyone, which led him to seek out persons of
all stations and conditions of life with whom to consult.
Indeed, his life was a never-ending pursuit of the best ideas
from as wide a circle as possible about how to solve the
problems of concern to him or indeed them. He was resolutely
determined to resist becoming the captive of his long-time
friends, his campaign workers, his kitchen cabinet. It goes
without saying that he was always loyal to them and they had
access to him, but that inner circle was perpetually
refreshed over the years by hundreds of others whom he sought
out and drew in on a continuing basis. He had the most
remarkable thirst for new ideas of any man of action I've
ever known, and that had to be the key to many of those
innovations for which he is so justly credited.
____
Eulogy Delivered at the Funeral of Terry Sanford
(By the Rev. Thomas Langford, Provost Emeritus at Duke University and
Former Dean of Duke Divinity School)
Everyone here possesses his or her own memories of Terry
Sanford; each of us has our own sense of friendship and
achievement; each has a story to tell. And we were reminded
of this as we heard these moving and delightful stories of
those who knew him well.
Terry stood at the intersection of the local community and
an expanding world. He always began at home--a dutiful son, a
family man, a proud Methodist, and a committed North
Carolinian. His loyalty was intense and generous.
He asked that his commitment to the Methodist Church be
especially mentioned. He was, he said, an active Methodist
(this description, of course, is redundant. Anything Terry
did, he did actively). He reminded us that from his local
church he had also participated in the regional and national
life of his denomination, and that he thought that was
significant.
Our commitments express who we are, and so with Terry. From
roots deep driven, new growth came forth, limbs extended and
spread. Not leaves alone, but fruit was borne and passed life
to others. We respected Terry Sanford.
[[Page H3602]]
Here, O Lord, is one of your special treasures whom we
return for your safe keeping.
Terry's achievements have been immense. You've heard them
recounted: a loyal son of the state, a loyal son of his own
university, and a loyal president of Duke, a loyal citizen of
the nation, and a loyal friend.
In his retirement, he kept doing what he had always done,
and conceived an institute for the arts, which would bring to
this state activities that were nationally important in both
dance and drama.
In all the things that we have heard, Terry Sanford added
quality to our lives. We followed him with gladness.
Here, O Lord, is one of our special treasures whom we now
return to thee for your safe keeping.
Terry possessed confidence, and he recognized the
competence of others. His own reach was extended through
others exercising their abilities.
How many of us owe some aspect of our life or hope or
ambition to Terry's encouragement? He was always with people.
He enjoyed people, he enjoyed the relationships, he enjoyed
organizing people around a purpose. He was a people person.
And we enjoyed his company.
Here, O Lord, is one of your special treasures whom we now
return for your safe keeping.
To recall Terry is to recall Margaret Rose, Terry, Jr.,
Betsee, their family. You really cannot think of one without
the other. Margaret Rose. What words are adequate? Helpmate,
faithful, patient, supportive, creator of relationships,
sharer of hopes, constructive critic, companion. All of these
and more.
But the family was not small. It has extended and been
extending so that many of you think of yourselves as part of
the extended family. All of us share this loss. We were drawn
into his companionship.
Here, O Lord, is one of your special treasures whom we now
return to your special keeping.
Grace, at times, comes in human form. Remember God's own
best gift was in human form. Terry has walked among us, and
we have relearned that human life can express love and
loyalty, justice and hope; that humanity can possess passion
and compassion, friendship and challenge, and, now, death and
resurrection.
We are thankful for Terry Sanford. We remember him with
gratitude, with admiration, and with joy.
Here, O Lord, is one of your special treasures whom we now
return for your safe keeping.
____
Tribute to Terry Sanford Delivered at the N.C. Democratic Party's
Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, April 25, 1998, By Thomas Lambeth, Executive
Director, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation
Let me begin by saying that while this is a time of
sadness, Terry would not want that sense to prevail tonight.
He would have found joy in the presence of all of you, old
friends and new friends, and special satisfaction in the
presence of the great lady who is our speaker [former
Governor Ann Richards of Texas] and whose politics were his
politics and he would have sat here with admiration and pride
for our governor whose political roots were his roots.
We have been reminded often in recent days of the sense of
humor which was always with him. Those of us who visited with
him in recent weeks know that it was there as long as
consciousness remained. When asked once why he stayed in
politics given all of its travails, he said ``I stay in to
keep the SOBs out.'' He would want us reminded of that high
calling once again.
The essence of Terry Sanford's leadership is found in one
compelling strength of his character as a leader: he paid to
us his fellow citizens the ultimate compliment--he asked us
for our best.
He asked that because he believed we are capable of giving
our best and because he knew that North Carolina was worthy
of no less.
This is an event tonight which pays tribute to him in a
special moment against a long tradition of paying tribute to
two great leaders of the Democratic Party. Terry would agree
with Jefferson that the ``whole art of government is being
honest; simply strive to do your duty and know that history
will give you credit where you fail;'' and his career
reflects that great strength which North Carolina's own
Gerald Johnson found in Andrew Jackson--``he knew the
people's problems and he made them his own.'' Terry's own
Democratic roots went back to childhood. He remembered well
walking in a torchlight parade in Laurinburg when he was
eleven, holding high a banner which said ``Me and Ma Is For
Al Smith.''
Yet, to fully understand his political commitment as to
fully understand the man, one has to see him as what he was
first and foremost: a North Carolinian. He would be
comfortable with the words of Jefferson and Jackson but you
know him best in the words of Aycock and Vance. He believed
with Aycock that the role of the Tar Heel leader was ``to
speak the rightful word and do the generous act'' and his
politics of a lifetime demonstrated his conviction that Vance
was right when he said that North Carolinians are ``a people
of sober second thought.''
His ambitions for North Carolina were in the minds of some
outrageous but in the mirror of history courageous and sound.
He knew a secret about this place that Aycock knew and Vance
knew: that there is an audacious bent to our character that
drives us to achieve greatness against all the odds. So there
they are: a School of the Arts, a Governors School, a
statewide Community College System, an Institute of Policy
Studies, a Museum of Art, a state symphony, a Council on
the Status of Women and private and public colleges and
universities that are secure among the best in the
nation--there they are for everyone, for every child, for
every mind and for every heart.
He said to us that we will create here a tradition that
says we can set our goals by how bold we are in our dreaming
and how strong we are in our doing and excellence is the aim
of all our endeavors.
If at times North Carolina was not with him, he was always
with North Carolina and, in the spirit of Aycock and Vance
and his own mentor Frank Graham, he never doubted that in the
course of time he and North Carolina would be together. It
was not so much an act of faith as a statement of the depth
of his understanding of his fellow Tar Heels--an
understanding grounded in more than half a century of going
to them where they were.
All of Terry's statewide campaigns--as several drivers here
tonight remember well--had to involve a 100 county tour. He
lived most of his adult life in urban centers and he was
excited by them but he was formed by a small town and in a
time when very wise men and women could explain North
Carolina as a collection of media markets, he never forgot
that it was also Burgaw and Burnsville, Mann's Harbor and
Mooresville, Southport and Sparta. His politics were people.
``But What About the People'' was not only the title of a
book he wrote, it ws the theme of his public service and it
was always important to him to be with people in those places
where they live--where the richness that is North Carolina
abides.
It is rare to find a public figure with such a lifetime of
achievement, FBI agent, combat paratrooper, state senator,
governor, University President and US Senator. To all those
he brought not just a rich and creative intellect but a
mighty heart and the kind of courage of which greatness is
born.
And always there was the belief in his fellow citizens.
Nothing is more characteristic of that belief that his choice
of the title to give the network created by him to deal with
the challenges of desegregation in the 1960s--he called them
good neighbor councils. If people could just see issues of
race as a matter of living together as neighbors even that
challenging a time could be made good.
Terry Sanford helped to give us our sense of our own
greatness. What he led us to believe about him is not really
so important. What is important is what he led us to believe
about ourselves.
So if we are truly to pay tribute to him tonight we will
help others, especially young people, to understand that
politics can be a noble ambition, that the people's business
is a blessed career and that it has never been the politics
in people that was wrong, only sometimes the people in
politics. He would want young people to believe that service
to their fellow citizens demands courage and intelligence and
faith in each other and that such service is worth a lifetime
of devotion.
His own life of public service is a powerful answer to
those who doubt the capacity of free men and women to
undertake difficult tasks, to preserve their freedom, to find
harmony and respect amid diversity.
To those whose pursuit of selfish ends left poverty and
despair in their wake as they argued about limited resources
he said, but what about the people.
To those who ignore or squander the talents of that
majority of our population which is female, he said but what
about the women?
To those who stumbled at the price tag of progress, he said
but what about our children?
To those who cast fear in front of reconciliation, he said
but what about our dreams?
And if he were here to speak to us tonight, as we mourn his
loss and share the bittersweet memories of our time with him,
he would say . . . but what about tomorrow?
Terry was a fascinating combination of scholar, practical
politician, combat paratrooper, and Boy Scout. All of that is
captured for me in the memory of that day thirty eight years
ago when he filed for Governor. He was armed with all the
practical tools of a good candidate: county organizations,
major endorsements, and an understanding of how far he could
go without leaving the people behind him. Yet he made certain
that his young aide knew as he went out that morning that in
his pocket to pay his filing fee was a check written by his
crippled and dying friend O. Max Gardner, Jr., . . . on his
finger was a paratrooper ring . . . and up under his lapel
was a Frank Graham for Senate button.
But what about tomorrow? In the days and years to come men
and women, young and not so young, will answer that question
in their own ways in countless endeavors strengthened by his
memory and enriched by his inspiration for service and if you
look closely you will see, under their lapels, another
button.
It will say Terry Sanford, still at work.
God bless Terry Sanford. God bless North Carolina.
____
[From The Wall Street Journal Thurs, Apr. 23, 1998]
Terry Sanford Made a Real Difference
(By Albert R. Hunt)
Last weekend, the phone call came from Duke University--my
wife is an alumna and
[[Page H3603]]
trustee--to say that Terry Sanford had died. It brought back
many powerful recollections and thoughts about politics and
government.
Back in the early 1960s, when I was a young college student
at Wake Forest, there used to be raging debates over whether
the ``Negro'' had basic rights. Terry Sanford gave an address
calling for equal opportunities and an end to segregation in
public accommodations. This was a Southern governor speaking,
before Selma. Lyndon Johnson and the great national debates
over public accommodations and voting rights had broken the
ground for him.
Terry Sanford then became one of my heroes. When he died
last Saturday at the age of 80, he still was.
A few years ago a Harvard survey named him one of the 10
top governors of the 20th century. As president, he turned
Duke into one of America's greatest universities. ``Terry
Sanford was a creative genius,'' his dear friend Joel
Fleishman said in an eulogy yesterday, ``who transformed
everything he touched into something finer, worthier and more
useful to the world.''
He deeply believed in the power of government, properly
channeled, to do good. Politicians interested in leadership
should study the life of Terry Sanford.
Shaped by the Great Depression, this native North
Carolinian was awarded a bronze star as a paratrooper in
World War II, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. Bill
Friday, a Sanford friend and occasional rival as the
president of the University of North Carolina, remembers
those postwar times at Carolina Law School: ``When our
generation came back from World War II, there was a
noticeable sense of commitment that we were going to change
things and make things better for North Carolina. Terry was
our leader.''
Inspired by Frank Graham, the legendary president of the
University of North Carolina. Terry Sanford and his allies
became the apostles for change. In 1960, after endorsing John
F. Kennedy, a Catholic, for the Democratic presidential
nomination and battling segregationists in the Tar Heel
State, he was elected governor. The battle cry throughout
most of the South those days was states' rights, a code
phrase for racism. Terry Sanford instead preached and
passionately practiced states' responsibilities.
On race, he never bowed to the racial demagoguery. He hired
blacks, pushed for more job opportunities, launched a model
antipoverty program, and integrated the state parks with his
secretary of commerce, Skipper Bowles, father of the current
White House chief of staff, Erskine Bowles. North Carolina
avoided much of the racial animosity that afflicted
neighboring states.
It would be a generation before he could win a statewide
race again, but he left a much deeper legacy. ``Southern
politician (like Terry Sanford and former Florida governor
Leroy Collins) paid a great price for their courage,''
remembers Eugene Patterson, a former newspaper editor and
Duke professor. ``But I don't know what the South would be
today without them.'' Remember, this was a decade before New
South governors like Jimmy Carter and two decades before Bill
Clinton's governorship.
Rather than closing schools or standing in schoolhouse
doors, he became the nation's ``education governor,''
creatively working with foundations and the private sector to
bridge gaps and build an asset base for the future. He
started a school for the arts and the Governor's School for
gifted students. He significantly improved higher education
and, perhaps most importantly, built a community college
system; there were only five community colleges when he took
office, but he led a more than tenfold expansion.
This has been indispensable to the prosperous North
Carolina of today, from the fabled Research Triangle to the
megalopolis of Charlotte, one of the nation's financial
centers. ``Without the community college and his other
educational reforms we wouldn't have had the people with the
skills to attract these businesses to North Carolina,'' notes
the younger Mr. Bowles. ``He really led our state into the
20th century.''
He remained an activist when he took over the presidency of
Duke in 1969 during the turmoil of the antiwar years on
campus. When students threatened to take over the
administration building, President Sanford replied: ``Go
ahead. I've been trying to occupy it for a month.''
Back then Duke was one of the best Southern universities.
When Terry Sanford departed as president 16 years later, it
was well on its way to becoming one of the half dozen top-
ranked schools in America. ``Terry believed that Duke should
have `outrageous ambitions,' '' noted its current leader,
Nannerl Keohane--and then he achieved them.
Among his many accomplishments--expanding the world-class
medical school, starting a top-flight business school, more
than doubling undergraduate applications and attracting a
higher-quality and more diverse student body--Terry Sanford
again was a racial trailblazer, hiring African-American
faculty members. Vernon Jordan recalls that the first
commencement speech he gave at a non-black Southern
institution was in 1973 at Duke, at Terry Sanford's behest.
The day he became president, a quota on Jewish admissions was
terminated.
During that period, Terry Sanford made two ill-fated and
mercifully short attempts at running for president. If only
he had known how to win, he would have been a great
president. In 1986, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, but he
was defeated six years later.
In his last years, he remained a powerful proponent of the
importance of government in improving people's lives. Many of
the innovative state governors over the past 30 years drew
from the Terry Sanford experience. On the federal level,
government bashing is a favorite pastime, but Terry Sanford
surely would remind us to think about Head Start, or the
Internet, or cutting the poverty rate among the elderly by
two-thirds over the past three decades, or the world's
greatest military or the best national parks or the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, or the 20 American Nobel
prize winners in the past three years who were funded by the
National Science Foundation. That's government.
Those are lessons that young scholars at Duke's Terry
Sanford Institute of Public Policy will learn for years. When
thousands said goodbye yesterday, there was a powerful
symbolic aspect, appreciated by those who know of the intense
academic, social and athletic rivalry between the University
of North Carolina and Duke, only 11 miles apart. Terry
Sanford became the first son of Chapel Hill to be buried in
the Duke chapel.
____
`A Conscience With Bite'--
Terry Sanford showed that one fearless leader can make millions brave
(By David Gergen)
When doctors at Duke University discovered in December of
last year that Terry Sanford had inoperable cancer, they told
him he had 90 to 120 days to live. ``I'm not giving up,'' he
replied, ``because I learned how to live with much worse odds
during the war. Now, I don't want you to give up, either.''
Ever gallant, ever hopeful, the former governor and
university president entered his last struggle. On April 18,
he finally lost, but as thousands of mourners gathered at the
Duke chapel last week, they remembered with joy the many
other battles he had taken up and won on their behalf. They
knew his journey had a significance far beyond his own
beloved state: He taught us once again--at a time we need
reminding--how much a single, fearless leader can do to
release the energies of a democratic people.
Over coffee at his home shortly before he died, Sanford
returned time and again to his youth and war experience. He
talked of his roots in a rural town and his continuing pride
in having become an Eagle Scout. ``That probably saved my
life in the war,'' he said. ``Boys who had been scouts or had
been in the CCC [the Civilian Conservation Corps of Franklin
Roosevelt] knew how to look after themselves in the woods.''
Learning courage. As with many of this century's leaders--
Harry Truman was one, George Bush another--Sanford discovered
his own personal bravery in combat. He had to talk his way
into uniform (``they rejected me the first time because of
flat feet'') and wound up a paratrooper. He jumped into
France just after D-Day, survived that horrendous winter of
1944-45, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and came home a
decorated hero.
``We become brave by doing brave acts,'' Aristotle wrote,
and so it was with Sanford. Elected governor of North
Carolina in 1960 and limited by law to a single term of four
years, he was so effective that later on, a Harvard survey
recognized him as one of the 10 best American governors of
the century. Long before other governors, especially in the
South, he invigorated public schools, built community
colleges, attracted research investments, and created centers
of artistic excellence. But above all, he stood up
courageously for civil rights.
In Mississippi, Gov. Ross Barnett shut out blacks; in
Arkansas, Gov. Orval Faubus; in Alabama, Gov. George Wallace.
Only in North Carolina and Georgia did governors insist that
blacks had rights, too. With the Klan on the move, Sanford
created Good Neighbor Councils across the state, asking
prominent blacks and whites to work together in pursuit of
better schools and jobs. His popularity was damaged, but he
defused the crisis and helped liberate the state from the
shackles of racism.
Sanford himself was the first to credit valorous black
leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and Rosa
Parks for the civil rights revolution. Yet progress would
have been even bloodier and more painful had it not been for
a few white leaders who also put themselves at risk by
embracing the cause.
Terry Sanford didn't live by the polls, as nearly every
``leader'' in Washington now so slavishly does; he lived by
his own sense of right and wrong, learned back in a little
town. And he stuck to it, regardless of personal risk. In his
funeral service last week, where his long years as president
of Duke and as a U.S. senator were also celebrated, his
friend Joel Fleishman said he had ``a conscience with bite.''
Exactly.
Sanford, like Lyndon Johnson, believed that racism was not
only dividing blacks from whites but also dividing the South
from the rest of the nation. By freeing people from its
scourge, everyone in the region would have a better chance to
grow. Indeed, that captured much of his political philosophy:
A leader's role is to raise people's aspirations for what
they can become and to release their energies so they will
try to get there.
When Sanford became governor, as Fleishman pointed out, his
state was 49th among the 50 states in per capita income;
today it is 32nd and rising. More than that--as so many
natives will attest--hate is giving way to decency, pessimism
to hope. A
[[Page H3604]]
single leader, brave and idealistic, liberated the best in
his people.
Mr. HEFNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from North
Carolina (Mrs. Clayton).
Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me
and also thank him for his leadership in arranging for this special
order honoring a great American.
Kahlil Gibran asked this question: Are you a politician who says to
himself I will use my country for my own benefit, or are you a devoted
patriot who whispers in the ear of his inner self, I love to serve my
country as a faithful servant?
With regard to Terry Sanford, his accomplishments speak for
themselves. He served North Carolina and the Nation at large in a
variety of roles: FBI agent, Army paratrooper, Democratic Party
Convention delegate, governor, Duke University president, presidential
candidate, and U.S. Senator with distinction and honor. He sincerely
loved to serve his country.
This truly faithful servant weathered some of the most turbulent
storms of the century, his moral accomplish never wavering. Terry
Sanford faced crisis and adversity head-on, never afraid of doing what
was right and just, even though those actions had high personal as well
as political costs.
Terry Sanford was gifted with a unique combination of virtues:
caring, courage, and vision. He cared deeply about all of North
Carolina's citizens and was courageous enough to buck tradition and
ignore conventional wisdom in order to seek out what he knew was best
for the Old North State, North Carolina.
Terry Sanford was progressive before it was popular to be
progressive, especially in the South. North Carolina was at a
crossroad, with monumental opportunity for progress or peril.
Terry Sanford had a vision, one which he made a reality during his
tenure of Governor from 1961 to 1965. This vision is clearly
articulated in his Inaugural Address. He said ``Today, we stand at the
head of the South, but that is not enough. I want North Carolina to
move into the mainstream of America and to strive to become the leading
State of the Nation. I call on all citizens to join with me in the
audacious adventure of making North Carolina all it can and ought to
be.''
Keeping true to this vision, he fought poverty, illiteracy, and
segregation in creative and innovative ways.
Terry Sanford created a statewide anti-poverty initiative known as a
the Carolina Fund, which President Lyndon Baines Johnson used as a
model for his War on Poverty.
He took a great risk and pushed through a political unpopular, but
very necessary, very practical legislation through the North Carolina
State General Assembly expanding the 3-cent sales tax to include food
in the name of education.
He conceived and implemented the first statewide system of community
colleges, as well as establishing the North Carolina School for the
Arts, the first residential, State-supported college devoted solely to
fine arts.
He established the Good Neighbors Council, later known as the Human
Relations Council, to provide a public forum for racial issues during a
time of significant unrest.
His vision extended to projects like the Research Triangle Park,
which is now one of the premier high-tech areas in the country. He
worked diligently to attract companies to that area with IBM being the
first to establish there.
He was ever the eternal optimist, seeing only the best in North
Carolina and seeing the best in all human beings. He continued to push
the State to new heights and challenge the individuals to be all that
they could be and should be.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy remarked ``A man does what he must, in spite
of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and
pressures.''
Terry Sanford did what he had to do as a Bronze-Star winning member
of the 82nd Airborne, as Governor, as Duke University president, as a
U.S. Senator. No matter what he did, he did his duty. He always fought
to do that which is right. And he always fought the good fight.
Confucius said, ``He who exercises government by means of his virtue
may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all
the stars turn towards it. Terry Sanford was Polaris, the bright North
Star, shining in the darkness of the sky, like a beacon. He blazed
trails, on which many of us now follow, his unwavering virtue as a
testament of his caring for people and his commitment to his State.
All of us who knew Terry Sanford thought of him as our friend as well
as our mentor. Therefore, it is our challenge to keep his vision alive
as we, indeed, respond to new opportunities and revisit old
opportunities and challenges. Let us celebrate his life and his
accomplishments through our present and future actions, to be as Terry
Sanford was, to fight the good fight.
Mr. HEFNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Cumberland
County, North Carolina (Mr. McIntyre).
Mr. McINTYRE. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to represent Cumberland and
Robinson and seven other counties that are in our home area,
particularly because, as I thank my distinguished dean of our
delegation, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hefner), and
distinguished colleague, and join these other distinguished colleagues
from the Tarheel State, because Terry Sanford did spend much of his
time in our congressional district that I represent currently, in
Fayetteville and Fort Bragg, and grew up in the town not far west of my
hometown of Lumberton in the neighboring district of the gentleman from
Laurinburg, North Carolina (Mr. Hefner).
When we think about Terry Sanford, we think about the influence, I
would dare say, from another angle of an educator, knowing that his
influence was, indeed, infinite; that a great educator knows how to
pass on his ideals from generation to generation; that he can improve
and uplift the lives of scores of other folks long after the original
teacher has moved on or passed on. Terry Sanford was the consummate
educator and, fortunately, for us, his influence is, indeed, infinite.
A few weeks ago, when I joined my distinguished colleagues, not only
from North Carolina, but other colleagues who serve in government and
education and civic activities and church activities and in the
military and from so many other spheres of influence back home in North
Carolina and also here in Washington, we had 2,000 people gathered in
Duke Chapel to honor a man whose power and influence was not only while
he was sitting in the offices that he held, and we have heard the
laundry list of those great offices tonight, but also by his influence
personally.
When we think about those who were touched by him, we cannot help but
think about the students at his beloved Duke University, where he was
affectionately known as Uncle Terry. As an educator, they love nothing
more than to see his boundless energy and exuberance that comes with
youth.
He was blessed throughout his life to influence folks of all ages but
especially the young in my generation, to empower scores and scores of
young people, to be involved, yes, in politics, but beyond politics, to
be involved in their communities, to be involved in serving their State
and their country and whatever their calling might be.
When Terry Sanford entered into the North Carolina Governor's mansion
in 1961, North Carolina ranked next to last in national per-capita
income and was mired in the social and racial morass that plagued all
other southern States. At a time when other governors across the South
resigned themselves to the moment and were closing the door to all but
a selected few in society, Terry Sanford opened the door.
He saw through the fog of hatred and repression and put North
Carolina on a course where it is today, a leading center for technology
development in the South, and now a State that ranks among the top 30
in the Nation for per-capita income.
The resources that he helped generate to improve public education
were for all North Carolina students and established a statewide system
of community colleges so that every student in the North Carolina
public schools would have that opportunity to attend an institution of
higher learning.
I dare say that the HOPE Scholarship passed by this body just last
year in North Carolina would have not been anywhere nearly as
meaningful if it were not for the fact that this crowning jewel in
Terry Sanford's tenure as Governor came to being during his watch, our
great community college system.
[[Page H3605]]
Indeed, Sanford's commitment to education led to his moniker as the
original education Governor. It also led to the creation of the North
Carolina School of the Arts, the Governor's School in Winston-Salem,
the Learning Institute of North Carolina, the North Carolina Fund, and
also higher teacher salaries for men and women who play such an
integral role in the lives of our children. When we think about the
opportunity for education, for economic development, we think about
Terry Sanford.
Terry Sanford loved challenges. He loved also to issue them because
he was a master at challenging people in a manner that would ultimately
result from those around him realizing greatness themselves or at least
recognizing that the things that they sought to achieve were, indeed,
obtainable.
Terry Sanford taught us that democracy is not a spectator support. He
spoke often of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution,
two documents that serve as both the cornerstone and foundation of our
Nation and government. These two documents are filled with words such
as ensure, promote, establish, provide, and secure, words that, as
Terry Sanford himself pointed out in his own writings, and I quote,
connote action and all suggest, he said, that we must constantly be
striving to improve the opportunities of all people.
{time} 1930
Terry Sanford set a high bar in that effort. While some politicians
see political office as an end to a means, the fulfillment of a desire
for their own fame or power, Terry Sanford viewed it purely as a means
to an end. He viewed public office for what it should be, as the most
effective means to fix what was wrong, to serve the public, to improve
the lives of citizens of North Carolina and the South, and, indeed, the
United States. His unfaltering belief in people, his rock-solid
fidelity to his ideals and values, his boundless energy in fighting for
those ideals and values, proved to be the right mix for nearly half a
century of public service that has left so many positive marks on our
State and, indeed, our Nation.
Yes, Terry Sanford set a high bar, but he never did appreciate easy
challenges, and nothing would please him more than for us to pick up
that challenge and to aim for that bar, no matter how high it may be
set, so that we ourselves can attain those things which seem
unattainable, for it is in that quest that we will undoubtedly
recognize achievements that we may have thought were impossible; it is
in that quest that we will provide a better life and improved
opportunities for the people we represent; and it is in that quest that
we will ensure that the legacy of a man instrumental in the history and
future, not only of our great State of North Carolina, but, indeed, of
our great Nation, lives on forever, just as the teachings of a true
educator should.
I thank the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hefner) for yielding
to me.
Mr. HEFNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina
(Mr. Watt).
Mr. WATT of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for
yielding time and for taking out the time to honor our friend and
colleague Terry Sanford.
Before I do that, I want to pay special tribute to the dean of our
delegation, who, much to the consternation of all of our Members, has
decided that he is stepping down after this term in Congress. We are
going to miss him immensely for the wonderful contributions that he has
made to the State of North Carolina and to our country.
But, of course, tonight is not about the dean of the delegation. We
are going to take out a special order for him and roast him when the
appropriate time comes.
I want to spend a few minutes this evening talking about my friend,
Governor-Senator-President Terry Sanford. It is really hard to know
where to focus your attention when you talk about Terry Sanford because
there are so many wonderful contributions that he made to the State of
North Carolina and to our country.
You could take any one of these contributions and devote long, long
periods of time, much more time than we have this evening, to talk
about them, whether you were talking about his role as a war hero; or
his role as the champion of public education, who initiated numerous
programs to support public education in North Carolina and was
instrumental in having the budget for education, public education, grow
in North Carolina by leaps and bounds during his tenure as Governor; as
the person who originated the idea of community colleges in North
Carolina and nurtured them; or as the person who established the
Nation's first Governor's School, to provide free educational and
enrichment to gifted and talented high school juniors and seniors,
which 100 other programs now exist in 28 States copying that program;
or as a champion and great supporter of the arts and arts education,
and the person who conceived the idea and nurtured the idea of a North
Carolina School of the Arts which has turned out so many wonderful
artistic people, professionals, outstanding artists, performing artists
and dancers and the whole range of artists in our Nation; or as the
Governor who was ranked as the 20th Century's Most Creative Governor by
Harvard University; or as president of Duke University; or as a member
of the United States Senate.
You could select any one of those things and talk for hours on end
about the contributions that Terry Sanford made to North Carolina. But,
having put those things in the record and heard my colleagues talk
about some of them, I want to focus on one thing that I think for me
personally is the mark of this man.
Imagine yourself in the early 1960s in the South, governors standing
in the doors of schools to keep black students from integrating those
schools; governors saying we are not going to allow our higher
educational institutions to accept black students; demonstrations
taking place throughout North Carolina and throughout the South for the
opportunity for black people to sit at lunch counters and sit in
restaurants and eat; and all throughout the South, governors were
taking the position that ``We are going to take the course of maximum
resistance.''
But in North Carolina, Governor Terry Sanford was serving from the
years 1961 to 1965, and Governor Terry Sanford stood up as one of the
only southern governors at that time and said, ``Black people are
Americans, and they deserve rights that are guaranteed to American
citizens under our Constitution.'' He took a leadership role on that
front, and North Carolina is a different State today, the perception
and reality of North Carolina are different today as a result of that
stand.
During his term as Governor of the State, he appointed more
minorities to government posts in his administration than any of his
predecessors had ever done before.
There was a time in 1963 that I enrolled at the University of North
Carolina. It seems so long ago when I showed up on that campus, and I
had three white roommates assigned to room with me in a four person
room. And by the end of the day, every single one of them had moved.
That is the atmosphere that we were operating in in North Carolina and
in the South at that time.
Terry Sanford stood up and said, ``We will abide by the law.
Minorities are citizens. They deserve the protections of the law. They
deserve the protections of the Constitution,'' and North Carolina is a
different place as a result of that.
So among all of these things that I could focus on about Terry
Sanford, for me as a member of the minority race in North Carolina, for
others who are minorities in North Carolina, for others who like to
brag about the progressive image that North Carolina has, for others
who understand that all of us are created equal, Terry Sanford is our
hero. Terry Sanford stood up when other people were sitting down on the
job.
For that reason, I want to thank my colleague, the senior member of
our delegation, for giving us the opportunity to say these few words
about our deceased friend, Terry Sanford. I hope that we will remember
those impassioned positions that Terry Sanford took, and remember that
not long before he died, in an interview he said, ``We almost have the
same problems we had then. Race is far from solved, despite what people
say. Children are
[[Page H3606]]
still neglected. The working man is somewhat improved, but he still
puts in more than he gets out.''
That is what Terry Sanford stood for, making sure that working
people, minorities and every single citizen in North Carolina got what
he deserved, and the benefits of being an American citizen and a North
Carolinian.
I yield back to my good friend, the dean of our delegation.
Mr. HEFNER. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the former Superintendent of
Education in North Carolina, now the Congressman from North Carolina
(Bob Etheridge).
Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the dean of our
delegation. As my colleague from the 12th District said, we are going
to miss you greatly, but we will talk about you later.
I am honored this evening to have a few moments to speak about my
good friend and a friend of many, Terry Sanford.
The first time I remember hearing Terry Sanford speak was at my
commencement exercise as I graduated from college. I had heard of Terry
Sanford, the man of vision, but he had a special way of letting you
feel special, and challenging individuals to really get involved in
their State and their Nation.
But tonight I would say that Terry Sanford was not simply a great and
admired politician. He was one of the most accomplished Americans of
the 20th century. I remember listening to his eulogies at the funeral
several weeks ago, and I could not help but think that those eulogies
coming about an individual who served four years as Governor, not four
terms, four years, serving one term in the United States Senate,
serving as a college president, could have been for five or six people
for the things that he had accomplished, because Terry Sanford served
his State and his Nation with enthusiasm, with bravery, and with
distinction in so many ways.
He fought for his country as a paratrooper in World War II and was
decorated any number of times, and he was proud all of his life of the
time he served his Nation in Normandy and all across Europe. He served
as an agent with distinction in the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
During those times he could have been exempted from serving in the
military, but he did not. He wanted to serve.
As you have heard this evening, he served as a statesman in the North
Carolina General Assembly, and there he laid the foundations of many of
the things he would do later as Governor and as Senator to improve our
State.
As Governor of North Carolina for only four short years, he laid out
a record of improving public education that is unparalleled anywhere in
this country. He expanded educational opportunities, as you have just
heard, for all North Carolinians, no matter what a person's race, creed
or economic opportunities might happen to have been. Maybe that came
because Terry Sanford's mother was a teacher, and she encouraged him
and she really instilled in him the great need for public education,
for which he gave her much credit throughout his life.
Terry Sanford was a guiding force in building one of the finest
community college systems, in my opinion, in this country, and you have
heard about that this evening.
I think Terry Sanford deserves a great deal of credit for creating
the first State-sponsored residential training school for the
performing arts in the United States, at a time when no one would have
thought it would have been created in the South. The North Carolina
School of the Arts, which can now say they have in their list of
graduates individuals who have received the Oscar in acting, who have
received many Emmys, and they came through the School of the Arts
created during his administration.
Governor Sanford had a distinct and heavy responsibility, and was one
of the people who helped create the Research Triangle Park that is one
of the leading parks in this country, that employs thousands of people
in North Carolina every day.
{time} 1945
He created the Governor's School, as my colleagues have heard, that I
had the real privilege as superintendent to oversee during my term
there, and it provided opportunity for over 400 bright and creative
young people every year at two sites to get an educational opportunity,
and it has been modeled across the country. He created the Education
Commission of the States that now helps educators, governors and chief
State school officers work together to improve education in this
country, a legacy that is so important.
Governor Sanford, as my colleagues have heard, was one of the
southern governors of his day, I would have to say, that was rated as
one of the top 10 governors in America by Harvard. But as the gentleman
from North Carolina (Mr. Watt) said, one of his great legacies was that
he was one of the, maybe the only, there may have been others, but the
only southern governor who was the first to stand up and look in the
ugly face of racism and say, no more, and it will not happen on my
watch in my State. And he deserves a great deal of credit for that.
Mr. Chairman, as President of Duke University for 15 years, he
transformed a regionally known, small southern university into a world
leader in medicine, law, religious studies, education, and the arts.
Today, Durham, North Carolina is known as the City of Medicine, and
they are known for that in my opinion because Terry Sanford provided
that engine in Duke University in that great medical school.
As a United States Senator from 1986 to 1992, Terry Sanford fought
tirelessly and selflessly to improve the lives of his fellow citizens
through fighting to improve again public education, promoting racial
healing, and fighting to eradicate poverty as he had at the local
level.
After he left the Senate, he did not go home and start collecting his
coupons or rest on his laurels, he started two law firms. My goodness,
that would be a lifetime for anyone. He did it in the short years after
leaving the Senate. He lectured on public policy issues at Duke
University in the public policy institute building that currently bears
his name. And most recently, he led a $100 million fund-raising
campaign to create a world class performing arts center, an institute
in North Carolina.
Terry Sanford exemplified the best qualities mankind has to offer,
and we owe a debt of gratitude for his undying service to his native
State and to his fellow Americans. Terry Sanford provided a guiding
light for a whole generation of educators, public servants, and other
State and national leaders. He was and will remain a beacon for all
good things about humanity and about being an American. God bless Terry
Sanford, his family, his State, his Nation, and all of those who, like
me and my colleagues on this floor tonight, who have stood on his broad
shoulders.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from the eighth district, the dean
of our delegation, for organizing this hour. I thank him for this
opportunity to say a good word about our good friend, Terry Sanford.
Mr. HEFNER. Mr. Speaker, as dean of the North Carolina delegation, I
would like to say a few words on behalf of a man whose friendship and
professional generosity has meant a great deal to me.
Terry Sanford was at different points in his life a practicing
attorney, State Senator, governor of North Carolina, President of a
major university, a United States Senator, a civic leader, novelist,
father and husband, and a true entertainer. In fact, one could live
one's whole life without meeting a man that had his range of talent.
But then, Terry was no ordinary man, he was really a bit of a legend;
and there were a lot of stories that circulated about Terry Sanford and
some of them were funny and some of them were sad, but there was one
story that was told to me about when Terry was campaigning for
governor. He went up into the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina,
and there was a bunch of mountain folks sitting around an old country
store and he went in and he introduced himself, and this one fellow
said Terry, he said, I would like to know how you feel about some
subject, and Terry said, why, you know how I feel about that. I have
told the people across this State, I bet I have told them 100 times how
I feel about that. And the guy said, well, we just wanted to hear you
say it.
[[Page H3607]]
Neither one of them actually knew what the question was, but Terry
Sanford had the capacity to laugh at himself and to be serious and get
the job done, doing things what he called the North Carolina way. He
once asked the people in our State to join him in an audacious
adventure of making North Carolina all it can and ought to be, and
then, true to his word, he spent the next 40 years showing us how. I
want to emphasize that last statement: Showing us how. Because the
ability to lead by doing was not only the mark of this man's career, it
was the bedrock of his character.
When he was governor of North Carolina in the 1960s, Terry played a
risky card by taking the race issue head-on, as my colleague so
mentioned. It did not matter to him whether it was popular or not and
he did not look at all the polls and the focus groups and what have
you, he just felt a moral responsibility to it. Where a lot of men go
soft, he drew a line in the sand. He took the issue of racism above
politics, even though the politics of a lot of southern governors at
that time was fear, and he challenged us not to just know better, but
to stand up and do better, and that challenge did not end with just
race.
He once said that North Carolina could only be as great as the
poorest among us. He believed he did not have to have power or money to
get an education, and he pushed for increased funding of public
schools. In fact, he funded the State's first community college system.
This was a saying that stuck with me: Develop the mind, he said.
Develop the mind, and the job will follow.
At that time the North Carolina Constitution barred the governor from
succeeding himself, so Terry left to take a job running Duke
University, and for 10 years he used his touch to make the school
famous across the world. He started a school of public policy and
doubled the size of the medical program, and at a time when a lot of
presidents of colleges were under attack and did not have the respect,
but the students loved him, they loved Terry Sanford. And at his
urging, even the student section at Duke University, which was famous
for its colorful language, they even toned it down a notch because
Terry was such an influence, and they could be heard shouting, we beg
to differ, we beg to differ when the referees made a decision that they
did not agree with.
In 1987 he was elected to the United States Senate, and I remember it
very well. We stood at the mill gates and we went all across my
district and we met with a lot of people and there was a commercial
that came out, and this lady, and of course Terry was then 70 years
old, and this lady came on and she was berating Terry Sanford,
``Terrible Terry Sanford,'' for raising the food tax. And he kind of
turned it around and made a joke out of it and he referred to it as
that commercial with that whiney old woman on it. And he did not mean
any disrespect, but he wanted to point out how ridiculous it was for
all of the things that was accomplished in his administration, and he
got the name, right or wrongfully, I think wrongfully, of ``Terrible
Terry,'' and it went with him to his grave.
In 1993 he went back to private life and took his work ethic with
him. He wrote books on policy, started a novel, opened a second law
firm, as my colleague alluded to, served on a dozen corporate boards,
and became director of the Outward Bound program, as well as a
participant. In fact, at 63 years old, he broke a bone in his back
during a hiking trip in Oregon when he jumped off a 40-foot cliff into
the river, which he admitted that was bad judgment at the time.
When the doctors told him that he had cancer and gave him 2 months to
live, he told his family, do not worry, I will beat it. If anybody
could have beaten it, it would be Terry. We have a motto in North
Carolina that is on the State seal. It is a simple one, but I like it
best because it cuts right to the point, and it means, ``to be rather
than to seem.''
Terry Sanford followed that motto for his State, he followed it for
his country, for his friends and his family, and he made it a goal the
rest of us could not only shoot for, but believe was possible. For
that, Terry, for your guidance, for never turning back, and for asking
us to be brave, we are eternally in your death. I think I speak for
every person in the State when I say that as much as your achievements
have changed our lives, we will remember them forever in our heart.
There is a great old verse from a gospel song that I think just fits
Terry Sanford and it goes something like this:
I'll meet you in the morning with a how-do-you-do, and
we'll sit down by the river, and with rapture our
acquaintance renew. And you're going to know me in the
morning by the smile that I wear, when I meet you in the
morning in that city that is built four square.
Enjoy your rest, Terry. You will be dearly missed, and you have been
a great influence on so many people in this great country, and your
being on this Earth for these years, you have truly, truly made a
difference.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi).
Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for calling this
special order about a very special person, Terry Sanford. I am very
moved to hear the words of my colleague, and as our other colleagues
from North Carolina as they extend condolences and pay tribute to Terry
Sanford.
The gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hefner) is right. Terry
Sanford was a very, very special, unique person. We were blessed, those
of us who had the privilege to know him and the people of North
Carolina were indeed blessed to have him as their governor and their
United States Senator. As we all know, he loved North Carolina, and he
loved the people that he served there. He loved them so much he wanted
the best for them, and that meant an end to racism and support for
education for all children. Of course, that was his political lifelong
endeavor.
Terry Sanford, one of the reports of his passing said that he died as
he had lived, surrounded by new projects to be involved in, but we all
know that he had died as he had lived also being surrounded by his
magnificent family and so many friends, and my condolences on behalf of
my constituents to Margaret Rose and to Terry's wonderful family, his
children and his grandchildren on his passing.
{time} 2000
He has made a significant difference in the lives of people across
the country, not only in North Carolina, because he served as a model,
a real model as a southern Governor. He transformed the southern
governorship. He, more than anybody, brought the South into a modern
era in terms of education and fighting to end racism.
I first got to know Terry well, although I admired him from afar,
when we were both running for chair of the Democratic National
Committee. Neither of us won. I ended up throwing my support behind
Terry, and still neither of us won, but he ended up being a United
States Senator and I ended up being a Congresswoman from California, so
we do not think we did too poorly, as it all turned out. But I was
very, very proud of our friendship, and was the beneficiary of much of
his political wisdom and advice in the course of that race, and
subsequent to that.
Of course, after that he went back to become the head of Duke
University, of which he was very proud. He said, ``Of all of the things
that I have done, the fulfillment of my professional life was Duke. I
went there with a concept and I think with a mandate. I went out to
make it a nationally recognized school,'' and of course, he did. The
institute there, the Sanford Institute, is named for him, the Institute
of Policy Science, Political Science Affairs, as the gentleman
mentioned.
Terry first started getting involved in politics when he was 11 years
old. His first taste of it came when he was marching in a torchlight
parade for presidential candidate Al Smith in 1928 in Laurinburg, North
Carolina. He carried a sign that read, ``Me and Ma is for Al.'' So he
had it in his system, that fever in the blood, early on about it being
very appealing, and also wanting to be a public servant.
Ironically, when I said that we became friends running for chair of
the National Committee against each other, but became very fast friends
after that, ironically, Hubert Humphrey had offered Terry the job of
Democratic National Chairman in 1969, but Terry turned it down at that
point. It was probably not to be.
[[Page H3608]]
At any event, he had bigger things in mind, and that was really the
education of the children of North Carolina at every level, including
higher education, and in the Senate, to be a fighter, and he was a
peacemaker, bringing peace in Central America; again, fighting for
education for all of America's children, and an end to racism.
We could probably all go on for a long time talking about him,
because he was a very special person. In the course of our lives in
politics we work with many people whom we respect and we admire, but we
all have to admit, as wonderful as we think each other is, that there
are some people who are very special, and Terry was one of those. One
of the sad things, I think, is that he never became President of the
United States. I always thought he would be such a great President.
Instead, he brought his leadership, his scholarship, his dignity, his
grace, his kindness, his love for people to the wonderful challenges
that he had, which were not inconsiderable: Governor of the State, a
United States Senator, and as he said, a president of Duke being his
crowning glory.
In some of the obituaries, his family has to take great pride and
satisfaction in the obituaries that were written about him. But
throughout his life I think he was held in such high esteem and respect
that everybody knew when you worked with Terry Sanford you were working
with somebody that was a true leader.
It has been said that Terry Sanford set forth a standard for
leadership as a Governor, university president, and United States
Senator that few could equal. He leaves a progressive legacy to North
Carolina, one of courage and one of hope.
He demonstrated his courage by being one of the first Southerners to
endorse John F. Kennedy for President, one of the first Senators to
endorse a Catholic for President; and we all know the hope and courage
many times over, but that is just one example. His legacy will long be
felt among the young people of North Carolina, and for future
generations to come. I consider it a privilege to have known him.
Again, I express the condolences of my constituents, because in
California he is well known and well respected. I extend their
condolences, as well as those of my own family, to the Sanford family,
and thank the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hefner) for allowing
me to be part of this special order for our special friend, Terry
Sanford.
Mr. HEFNER. I thank the gentlewoman from California, Mr. Speaker. I
would also like to thank all the people that participated tonight in
these remarks about Terry Sanford, and for those that will enter
remarks for the Record, it will be open for 5 days.
Truly, this has been a time when people thought back to the things
that Terry Sanford stood for, and we will always remember that Terry
Sanford was a real remarkable man, and he will be a legend, as he
should be, in North Carolina and in America.
____________________