[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 42 (Wednesday, March 17, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2879-S2880]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO ROBERT LAWRENCE INMAN

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, on March 4, 1999, Robert Lawrence Inman, or 
``Coach Inman,'' as he was known to his friends--and everyone who ever 
met him was his friend--``slipped the surly bonds of earth,'' and, I am 
sure, passed into the waiting arms of his Lord and Savior.
  He left behind a loving family. He left behind a grateful community. 
He left behind two generations of Nashville youth, including my own, 
who learned much more from Coach Inman than how to succeed on the 
athletic field.
  They learned that kindness is contagious, that a smile is a wonderful 
gift, that the path to success is paved not with lesson plans and study 
guides but with encouragement and with support. They learned that life 
is not about just winning or losing, but about being the best that you 
possibly can be.
  At his funeral last Saturday, at the First Methodist Church in 
Franklin, TN, the pews were literally packed with people whose lives he 
had touched in so many personal ways: Fellow teachers from the Ensworth 
School in Nashville, where he taught for over 30 years, fellow coaches 
from the Harpeth Valley Athletic Conference--a local sports league he 
founded for seventh and eighth graders--and family and friends and, of 
course, students, young and old. For almost all of them, graduation was 
not the end of their friendship; it continued through college and 
through marriage and through children of their own.
  They literally packed the pews; they lined the walls; they billowed 
over from the balcony; they crammed the choir loft; they spilled out 
into the vestibule and literally overflowed into the street--all in an 
outpouring of love and enthusiasm for a man whose love for children was 
boundless.
  What made him so special? Students of all ages who remembered him 
last week answered that question far better than I ever could. Their 
words:

       He was always smiling. His smile alone would make you feel 
     better.

  Another said,

       He always had a story to tell to motivate you--and if he 
     didn't, he'd make one up.

  Said another,

       He liked to tell jokes and play tricks to make you laugh.

  And yet another,

       He always showed he cared--whether it was just a word of 
     welcome, or something much more serious--like tending to 
     injuries in body and spirit.

  Realizing that learning does not just end at the school door, Coach 
Inman started a tradition of outdoor education, initially in the 
glorious mountains over East Tennessee. There were camping trips with 
students, all where the students could practice problem-solving or 
study the stars or really just be together and have a good time.
  When some of his students suggested that, ``Well, we should have one 
more outing after graduation,'' then began the famous Inman ``Out 
West'' trip, an excursion into the truly great outdoors of Mount 
Rushmore and the Grand Canyon and the Redwood Forest.
  Each summer these trips would be the focal point for scores of 
children. In fact, several of the Frist family children, including my 
own son Harrison, shared Coach Inman's ``Out West'' adventure--a time 
that I know they will never forget.
  What did they learn from him? Well, in the words of one little girl:

       I learned how special it is to stand at the top of the 
     Grand Canyon and realize that--like the water--if we try hard 
     enough, and stay at it long enough, we too can create our own 
     wonders. . . .
       I learned that--every now and then--you should stop to look 
     at an old tree because it has learned how to reach up to the 
     clouds and still keep its roots in the earth. . . .
       I learned that beauty is everywhere . . . how nice it feels 
     to fall asleep to the sound of a stream . . . how bright the 
     moon can look from the top of a mountain.
       I learned that there is a way to teach people without 
     lecturing, and that sharing with someone who you are and 
     where you've been is one of the best gifts that you can give. 
     . . .
       I learned that love isn't about conditions . . . that there 
     are good people in the world.

  And she continued:

       If it hadn't been for Coach Inman, his words wouldn't be 
     the ones I still hear when I'm afraid or nervous telling me 
     that I can do anything and that there are people who will 
     support me--even if I fall.
       If I could build a mountain, or paint a sky to tell him how 
     much a part of my life he is, then the mountain would stretch 
     out past the clouds and the sky would be the color of smiles 
     and laughter and it would tell him that I love him.

  Mr. President, children weren't the only ones who appreciated Robert 
Inman. He was six times honored by the Peabody College of Vanderbilt 
University as an outstanding educator. Singer Amy Grant--herself a 
former Inman student--donated the funds necessary to refurbish the 
Ensworth Elementary gym on the condition it be named for Coach Inman.
  Commenting on this gift at his funeral, his friend and fellow 
teacher, Nathan Sawyer, noted that the Egyptian pharaohs believed that 
if their names were written somewhere they would live forever. Thus, he 
said, every time a stranger sees that name over the gym and asks who it 
was that was so honored, the Robert Inman story will begin again.
  True enough. But I think he needn't worry. For as the poet Albert 
Pike said:

       What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we 
     have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.

  At a time when there is so much concern about the state of American 
education, so much concern about the quality of teachers, the lack of 
good and virtuous example, it is reassuring to know that there was a 
teacher of the caliber and the character of Robert Inman.
  To his loving wife, Helen--who shared his life and his passion for 
children--and to their three wonderful sons, Michael, Matthew, and 
John--our love and support. Although Coach Inman is no longer with us, 
his memory will live on in the inscription over the gym, on the 
football fields, on the

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basketball courts, at the wrestling matches, at the track meets, but 
most of all in the minds and in the spirits and the hearts of all the 
children he touched; children who, indeed, are better people because 
there was a teacher who cared, a teacher named Robert Lawrence Inman.

                          ____________________