[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 151 (Wednesday, October 21, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S12892]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PIERCE J. GERETY, JR.

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a 
friend and a great humanitarian--Pierce Gerety, Jr., whose life was 
tragically cut short last month when Swissair Flight 111 crashed off 
the coast of Nova Scotia. Pierce Gerety, Jr. was a remarkable man, and 
he will be dearly missed.
  Pierce Gerety dedicated his entire life to humanitarian causes. The 
nephew of two priests, Pierce once aspired to enter the priesthood 
himself. After graduating from Yale, he went to Paris to study theology 
and philosophy at the Institute Catholique, where he found time to set 
up a soup kitchen. However, he soon changed his mind about becoming a 
priest when he met his future wife Marie de la Soudiere.
  After he was married, he and Marie went to India to work for Catholic 
Relief Services. He returned to the United States in 1968, and became a 
social-service case worker in New York City. He then attended Harvard 
Law School and after graduating in 1971, he worked as a legal aid and 
civil rights attorney. In 1980, he began his career in refugee work in 
Thailand with the International Rescue Committee, and, in 1982, he went 
to work at the United Nations. He became a legal officer at the 
headquarters of the U.N. High Commissioner in Geneva, and he eventually 
became a deputy director to the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, but 
he always longed to be in the field working with those who needed help.
  He took on a number of difficult assignments, helping refugees in 
crisis situations in the Philippines, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Congo, 
Rwanda and Burundi. In fact, his colleagues have said that Pierce 
Gerety put himself in more dangerous situations than any other person 
in the refugee field. When a warlord in Somalia kidnapped some 
humanitarian aid workers, Pierce Gerety went into that warlord's armed 
camp and negotiated their release. Last year, he and other officials 
pled with the Congolese rebel leader Laurent Kabila to end the 
slaughter of Rwandan refugees.
  It is ironic that this man, who repeatedly placed himself in harm's 
way to protect refugees around the globe, would lose his life in such a 
senseless accident.
  Pierce Gerety, Jr. brought an uncommon intelligence, courage, and 
devotion to his work. He has touched the lives of countless individuals 
in a positive way. And his impact is not only felt by refugees around 
the globe, it is felt by his many peers and friends whom he inspired to 
do more in their own lives to help persons in need.
  He is survived by his wife Marie and his three children Sebastian, 
Pierce, and Maeve. He is also survived by his mother Helen, and his 
three brothers Tom, Peter, and Miles. I offer my heartfelt sympathies 
to them all.

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