[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 150 (Friday, October 29, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2221]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO PAUL B. SOUDER

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. ROBERT A. UNDERWOOD

                                of guam

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 28, 1999

  Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, the island of Guam bids farewell to an 
esteemed resident and long-time servant of the community. Paul B. 
Souder, a former military officer and colleague in the field of 
education and public administration, was called to his eternal rest on 
October 15, 1999.
  Paul Souder was born on July 20, 1915, in Des Moines, Iowa. Having 
graduated from Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, he went on to 
attend Drake University from 1933 through 1935. He later received an 
undergraduate and a master's degree from Iowa State University and 
worked towards a doctorate degree at the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology. Through his college career, he worked as a teaching 
assistant, research assistant and research fellow at Iowa State, at 
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and at the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology. In 1943, he was called to serve in the United 
States Navy. Between 1944 and 1945, he attended the Naval School of 
Military Government at Princeton University.
  Mr. Souder first arrived on Guam in 1945 while still serving in the 
military as a naval officer. He worked for the pre-Organic Act Naval 
Government as the head of the Department of Records and Accounts. This 
department handled tasks now assigned to the Departments of Revenue and 
Taxation, Administration, Commerce, and Land Management, the Commercial 
Port, and the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service.
  When Guam was granted civil government by the Organic Act of 1950, 
Mr. Souder worked for the local government where, at different times, 
he served as director for several of the island's newly created 
agencies. During his service of nearly half a century with all three 
branches of the government of Guam, he headed the Department of Public 
Works, the Department of Land Management and Commerce, the Bureau of 
Planning, the Guam Energy Office, and the Public Utility Commission. He 
also served as Executive Assistant to the Governor of Guam and as 
Director of the Guam Legislative Research Bureau. His retirement in 
1988 as Program Coordinator for the Superior Court of Guam concluded 
his long and distinguished service with the local government.
  Over the years, Mr. Souder also worked in managerial capacities for a 
number of businesses. He held memberships in the Land Transfer Board, 
the Board of Equalization, the Rotary Club, the Guam Historical 
Society, the Board of Education, the Territorial Planning Commission, 
and the Guam Chamber of Commerce. He was a long-standing member of the 
Vicariate Council, the Agana Cathedral Financial Council and also 
active with the Parents-Teachers Associations of Bishop Baumgartner, 
the Cathedral School, the Academy of Our Lady, and Saint Francis 
School. In recognition of his community and public service, Mr. Souder 
received awards and honors from institutions such as the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology and the Public Works Center of Guam. He is also 
the recipient of a papal decoration from His Holiness Pope John XXIII.
  We have been truly blessed in having Mr. Souder become a part of our 
island community. The legacy he leaves behind includes several decades 
of government and community service as well as extensive literary works 
on Guam history, culture, flora and fauna. He will greatly be missed by 
all of us on Guam. On behalf of the people of Guam, I join his widow, 
the former Mariquita Calvo Torres, and his children Laura, Deborah, and 
Paul Bernhardt in celebrating his life and mourning the loss of a 
husband, father, and fellow public servant. Adios, Mr. Souder.

                          ____________________