[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 112 (Monday, August 31, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9672-S9673]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         A TRIBUTE TO KENT HALL

  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, my Senate family suffered a tragic loss 
Friday night. My Chief of Staff, Kent Hall, passed away suddenly and 
unexpectedly. I have lost a dear friend and a trusted adviser. North 
Dakota has lost a strong and able advocate.
  Kent Hall worked for me my entire tenure in the U.S. Senate. I can 
still remember my job interview with him in 1987. It took place in my 
makeshift office in the Hart Senate Office Building. I had a jelly 
doughnut sitting on my desk, and Kent commented to me as we began the 
interview that if I ate a doughnut every day I would gain 25 pounds in 
a year.
  Along with his terrific sense of humor and his assurance, Kent 
brought with him a remarkable ability to analyze events. He was trained 
as an economist and he was always calm, even in the most difficult of 
circumstances.
  Kent Hall drafted the first speech that I ever gave in the U.S. 
Senate. It was entitled ``For North Dakota's Future and America's 
Future.'' It was about the policies that would be necessary to 
stabilize the commodity-driven income of a State like North Dakota.
  Although Kent began in my office as my chief agricultural aide, he 
was later promoted to Legislative Director and then to Chief of Staff. 
Throughout his twelve years with me, he always gave a thorough and 
complete analysis to whatever problem was before us.
  Kent was interested in issues and he was interested in improving 
conditions for people. That is what motivated him, that is what drove 
him. He was especially interested in farm families because he had grown 
up on a farm in Iowa and he had relatives who were still on the farm, 
so he had a special understanding of their needs. He had special 
expertise in agricultural economics.
  I can remember very well Kent Hall working all night, during the 
drought of 1988, to devise a disaster assistance formula that would be 
most favorable to North Dakota. Kent was a perfectionist, and he was 
ready to do whatever it took to get things right. He was so committed 
that he was willing to stay up all night to make sure that what we were 
doing would get the job done. That was Kent Hall.
  I remember him staying weekends and holidays during the flood 
disasters of last year. In fact, during that entire year I think he 
took one day off. I remember him working this year as the agricultural 
crisis spread across our State, working unceasingly to help our 
farmers.
  More than that, though, Kent had a special way about him. He brought 
a calmness to an office. He brought a calmness to a situation. He had a 
twinkle in his eye because, as he always liked to remind us, he was an 
Irishman. So today he would want us to think about the good things and 
to celebrate his life.
  This morning we had a chance, with Reverend Ogilvie, to share with 
the members of my staff and his widow the life that Kent Hall lived. He 
lived life fully, he loved life, and, most of all, he loved his family. 
He leaves behind two young children. He leaves behind a wonderful wife.
  Even his marriage was not uneventful. He married Michelle Reilly, who 
works for Senator Harkin, in March of 1993. I don't think anybody will 
forget that day. It was the worst snowstorm in 20 years. It shut down 
the entire city, but Kent Hall was undeterred. No snowstorm could stop 
Kent, and that wedding went on. Many friends celebrated it.
  Their wedding, in fact, occurred very close to St. Patrick's Day, 
which was almost like a holy day to Kent Hall. I still have staff who 
remember the St. Patrick's Day parties at his home. There was always 
green beer, and lots of it, and everyone was welcome.
  The births of Kent and Reilly's two children, Caiti and Austin, were 
the highlights of his life. He talked about them all the time. My staff 
and I always knew when they had said their first word, taken their 
first step, or even if they just kept Kent awake during the night.
  Those of us who knew and loved Kent Hall will miss him terribly. Our 
thoughts and prayers are with his wife and children today and in the 
days to come.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I join my colleague and friend, Senator 
Conrad, in paying tribute to a friend of mine--for over 25 years now, a 
fellow public servant, a fellow Iowan. It was perhaps one of the 
saddest phone calls I ever received in my life when I was notified 
Saturday morning that Kent Hall had died Friday night. He was a young 
man in the prime of his life. It just was a terrible shock.
  There are no words to convey to his family and his many friends the 
shock and the disbelief and the sadness that I feel about this great 
loss.
  Kent Hall, as I said, was a friend of mine for 25 years. Kent first 
came to work on my first congressional campaign in 1972. Both of us had 
been in the military. He had served in Italy. We both felt it was 
vitally important that we bring the Vietnam war to a swift conclusion. 
Too many of our friends had lost their lives in Vietnam. We saw the 
futility of it. So much of our campaign in 1972 was directed at the 
war. That s why Kent was one of my principal campaign workers that 
year.
  He was a student at Iowa State University then. We did not win that 
election, but I did fairly well. We stayed at it, and I ran again in 
1974. By then, Kent was in graduate school at Iowa State and then 
became a full-time campaign worker on my 1974 campaign, and we won that 
election.
  He was just a tremendously hard worker. He was very good at getting 
people involved, especially a lot of the students at Iowa State. Kent 
even got some of the local high school students involved in the 
campaign. He inspired them, he got them involved, and he really 
represented the best of what it means to be in politics. There was 
never anything underhanded or dirty about Kent. He was just out there 
knocking on doors, getting the information out, and registering voters.

[[Page S9673]]

 Kent was very, very good at that. He was one of my best campaign 
workers.
  After that election, Kent joined my staff in Ames, IA, where Iowa 
University is located. He and I also shared the fact that we both came 
from very small towns. He came from Lamont, IA, in Buchanan County. I 
always kidded him that he was from a big town. His town, I think, had 
about 500 people and one stop light. My town of Cumming had about 150.
  After I was elected in 1974, I remember talking with Kent about the 
fact that we were from small towns and no politician had ever visited 
our towns. A Congressman or a Senator was somebody who might go to Des 
Moines or Cedar Rapids but never came to small towns. We hit upon this 
idea of taking our office out to the small towns. I believe that Kent 
Hall was the first person to do that in Iowa.
  As a congressional representative, he would go out and have open 
office hours in towns of 100 people, 150 people, 200 people. He would 
go to the post office, or if there wasn't a post office, the American 
Legion club, maybe a church basement, and have office hours in all 
these small towns around the district so that people who couldn't drive 
all the way to the district office would come and see him. It was a 
great outreach program. He initiated that, he started that in Iowa.
  Kent also did my community development work, rural housing, rural 
water programs. He initiated some good programs for people living in 
small towns and communities at that time. Again, it was because Kent 
felt very strongly that Government--whatever else Government's 
functions are constitutionally--ought to be helping make life better 
for people who live in rural areas and small towns who do not have the 
access to the resources of those who may live in our bigger cities. He 
was always greatly interested in extending Government out to people who 
live in rural areas.
  After his great work in Ames, Kent then came to Washington and 
received his doctorate degree in economics at George Washington 
University. He was a great economic thinker. During the 1980s, Kent was 
on the House Small Business Committee staff, and I had since come to 
the Senate in 1985. During some of the tough debates--the 1985 farm 
bill debate, the 1990 farm bill, and in between we had a credit bill we 
had to work on--I can always remember asking for Kent Hall's advice on 
a farm bill and especially on farm economics and agricultural 
economics. He really had an understanding of the economics of rural 
America and agriculture and small businesses and small towns that I 
found absolutely invaluable.
  After that, then, of course, he joined the staff of Senator Conrad of 
North Dakota. I listened to Senator Conrad speak very eloquently about 
his association with Kent Hall.
  Several years ago, Kent began dating a woman in my office from 
Algona, in northern Iowa, by the name of Michelle Reilly. They got 
married in 1993 and had two small kids--Austin, who is now about 2, and 
Caite, who is 4. So his death leaves two small kids.
  I want it to be known that Kent Hall was a wonderful human being, a 
personal friend, someone I admired and someone I regularly consulted on 
a lot of different matters--mainly agriculture and agricultural 
economics. Through it all, Kent remained a fine man.
  A lot of times people live and then they are gone and you wonder what 
it all meant, especially when someone dies as young and as abruptly as 
Kent.
  I am reminded of what John Kennedy once said when he was President. 
He was asked how he would like to be remembered after his passing on, 
whenever that would be. He responded with something I have never 
forgotten. He said ``the highest''--I may not have the words correct, 
but basically he said:
  The highest honor that can be given to a person is just to be 
remembered as a good and decent human being.
  If we use that as the highest tribute we can give to any person, that 
they are remembered as a good and decent human being, then that tribute 
certainly belongs to Kent Hall.
  He meant a great deal to his country. He meant a great deal to all of 
his friends, a great deal to Michelle, his wife, and to his two 
children. He meant a great deal to this Congress and this Senate. But 
above all this--above it all --we will always remember Kent Hall as a 
good and decent human being.
  To Michelle, Caiti and Austin, to his parents Kenneth and Evelyn, to 
his brothers and sister back in Iowa, to all his many friends, my wife 
and I and our family extend our deepest sympathies. And we will always 
remember Kent Hall for the kind and decent human being that he always 
was.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. DORGAN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I would like to join this tribute to Kent 
Hall, following on the remarks offered by Senator Harkin from Iowa and 
my colleague, Senator Conrad from North Dakota.
  I knew Kent Hall, who was Senator Conrad's chief of staff, for 12 
years in the time that he had served North Dakota and served with 
Senator Conrad. I was shocked to learn Saturday morning that Kent had 
died Friday evening in his sleep.
  I know how difficult it is for his family right now. I know how 
difficult it is for Senator Conrad and his staff, the extended family 
that worked with Kent Hall and served with him in the Senate.
  We lead busy, fast-paced and challenging lives here. Kent Hall was a 
part of that. We, from time to time, I suppose, forget to tell people 
what an integral role people like Kent Hall play to make this system of 
ours work. Kent Hall was smart, was tough, and yet had a great sense of 
humor. He was a quick study. He worked very hard. He always had a 
twinkle in his eye. He was quite an extraordinary man.
  He always, to me, had a certain dignity about him as well. When Kent 
was around in a meeting or with a group of people, he was always the 
one who had that certain sense of dignity. Yes, he had the sense of 
humor, but he had a sense of dignity that was unusual as well.
  The last time I talked to Kent, I guess it was a couple of weeks ago 
before the August recess, and what we talked about then was what he 
talked about a lot--it was his children. We talked about our children. 
He leaves behind two young children. And we talked about them.
  I know how difficult this must be now for his widow and his children. 
Kent Hall was a young man with a young family. He had an enormous 
commitment to that family. He also had a commitment to our State and to 
our country. That commitment was a commitment that was manifested every 
day in every way in his public service to all of us.
  So today I express my sorrow and my sympathy for the passing of Kent 
Hall.
  Emily Dickinson wrote a poem called ``Because I could not stop for 
Death.'' I want to read two verses of it.

       Because I could not stop for Death,
       He kindly stopped for me;
       The carriage held but just ourselves
       And Immortality.

       We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
       And I had put away
       My labor, and my leisure too,
       For his civility.

  It is very, very hard, for those of us who have seen too many at too 
young an age leave us, to understand any civility in a death like the 
death of Kent Hall. But I hope that his contributions, as a family man 
and as a public servant, will be known to his family and his children 
by these remarks and by other words that will be spoken in the coming 
days.
  His children, I believe, are age 4 and 2. And I hope they will 
someday understand that their daddy was a very special man. Their 
father contributed to their family and their country in a very 
important way. And those of us who were privileged to call him a friend 
will miss him dearly.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kyl). Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I ask that I may proceed as in morning 
business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator may proceed.




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