[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 18 (Tuesday, February 2, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E119-E120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               ON THE DEATH OF VIRGINIA GOV. MILLS GODWIN

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. HERBERT H. BATEMAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 2, 1999

  Mr. BATEMAN. Mr. Speaker, today in the borough of Chuckatuck, Mills 
E. Godwin Jr., a former Governor of Virginia, was laid to rest. He was 
not just a Governor of Virginia, he was in my view and that of many 
others, the greatest Governor of the Commonwealth in this century.
  Mills Godwin served Virginia in the House of Delegates, in the Senate 
of Virginia, as Lt. Governor and then from 1966-1970, as Governor for 
his first term as a Democrat. Later, after sitting out a term, he was 
elected to a second term as Governor, this time as a Republican. Mills 
Godwin has the distinction of being the only person twice elected 
Governor of Virginia in this century, and is the only person elected 
Governor of a state once as a Democrat and once as a Republican.
  The first term of Governor Godwin was a magical time in Virginia. For 
too long, unrealistic fiscal policies prevented Virginia from investing 
in its future by elevating the level of

[[Page E120]]

spending for public education, higher education, mental health 
facilities, transportation and economic development. All this changed 
under the inspirational leadership of Governor Godwin. A statewide 
network of two-year community colleges was created during his first 
term. He led in the successful effort to comprehensively revise the 
antiquated 1902 Constitution of Virginia, and in doing so made possible 
prudent fiscal policies that provided limited, responsible use of long-
term financing of vitally needed programs that had been barred by the 
old Constitution.
  It is no wonder that Mills Godwin for so many people epitomized 
responsible conservatism. His life and his work attest to the fact that 
dramatic progress can be coupled with sound conservatism.
  I was privileged to have served in the Senate of Virginia as a newly 
elected Democrat member during Mills Godwin's first Administration. We 
came from different factions of the Democrat Party of the 1960s. I 
served during his second Administration when he was a Republican and I 
had become a Republican.
  My respect for him as Governor, and our friendship, was never 
affected by our political party affiliation. He was a person of 
tremendous natural dignity accompanied by a keen sense of humor, 
untouched by frivolity. No American in my lifetime has surpassed the 
eloquence of Mills Godwin. He had a magical gift of the language and 
the ability to communicate a sense of quiet passion for the ideas and 
values he expounded.
  Virginia has lost a great son. Virginia is and should be proud of him 
and the legacy he leaves behind.

                          ____________________