[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 63 (Tuesday, May 4, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E836-E837]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  IN HONOR OF THE LATE GORDON McMILLAN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL P. FORBES

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 4, 1999

  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a true visionary in 
education and champion of children, Gordon McMillan, a veteran Long 
Island teacher who passed away recently at the age of 64.
  Ask any parent or student and I'm sure they'll agree that elementary 
and secondary education in this country must be reformed. But the 
system needs more than an infusion of money, it needs an infusion of 
innovative ideas as well. Innovative ideas were Gordon McMillan's 
specialty.
  Today, and every school day, computers are being purchased, unpacked, 
and delivered to classrooms on Long Island and across the country in 
the hope that teachers will do wonderful things with those computers to 
assist the educational process. The tireless efforts of technology 
pioneers like Gordon McMillan made this possible. Like many teachers in 
our public schools, Gordon started teaching before the era of personal 
computers, but unlike other teachers, Gordon understood the power of 
change and the potential of computers as new educational tools.
  Gordon was born in Cambria Heights, Queens, in 1935 and attended New 
York City's public school system. After graduating in 1952, he went to 
Adelphi University, where he received a bachelor of science degree in 
education in 1956. He later got his master's degree from Hofstra 
University. He started his teaching career at Plainview Elementary 
School on Long Island, and remained with the school district until 
1974, reaching the position of assistant principal. Over the next six 
years, he worked as principal of Summitt Lane Elementary School in 
Levittown and Thomas Leahey School in Greenlawn, and assistant 
principal at West Islip High School. He then became principal of George 
Jackson Elementary School in Jericho where he remained until his 
retirement in 1988.
  After his retirement Gordon worked as a consultant for IBM. In 1997, 
he once again went back to his true passion and took temporary 
assignments as an interim principal,

[[Page E837]]

working stints at Southampton Intermediate School and Medford 
Elementary School. He was working at River Elementary School in 
Patchogue Long Island at the time of his death.
  Mr. Speaker, Gordon embodied the type of role model and educator that 
all would have liked and wanted their children to be involved with 
during their educational career.
  To the parents he will be remembered as the innovator of bringing 
computers to the schools. To the children he will also be remembered as 
a 6-foot, 2-inch, 250 pound bear of a man, who once dressed as the 
Great pumpkin and donned a Superman costume, swinging onto the school's 
auditorium by a rope.
  Colleagues, Mr. McMillan is an educator who will be sorely missed.

                          ____________________