[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 83 (Tuesday, June 23, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1204]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                IN MEMORY OF REV. ROBERT JOSEPH STEVENS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 23, 1998

  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness and 
regret that I must rise today to inform the House that the Rev. Robert 
J. Stevens recently passed away.
  Mr. Speaker, Rev. Stevens was a good friend. And, though he has 
passed, I want to take this opportunity to stand before you today in 
order to recognize his remarkable career.
  As some of you may know, Rev. Stevens spent most of his career 
serving as one of South Florida's finest morticians. With sensitivity 
and compassion, Rev. Stevens worked to comfort mourners during what is 
always a very difficult time in a person's life.
  Rev. Stevens graduated from Palm Beach County's Roosevelt Senior High 
School in 1958. Furthermore, he completed advanced studies at 
McAllister College of Embalming in New York and North Carolina A & T 
University. He returned to South Florida to enter into the Stevens 
Bros. Funeral Home family business in 1973, where he worked until his 
death several weeks ago.
  Rev. Stevens always believed that his greatest achievement was being 
called into the Ministry to preach the word of God. He was the founder 
and pastor of New Christ Missionary Baptist Church in West Palm Beach.
  In addition to Rev. Stevens' work in his church and funeral home 
business, he was an active leader of the Florida State Morticians 
Association, the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association, 
and the Masons. His extraordinary work on behalf of these organizations 
will continue to preserve his memory, well into the future.
  The passing of Rev. Stevens is a difficult one for me personally. 
However, Mr. Speaker, I know that he will be missed even more by the 
people of South Florida. He was there for them as a pastor and as a 
friend. He will surely be missed.

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