[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 12 (Thursday, February 10, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H337]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              WISHING A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GLENYS BURQUIST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Nethercutt) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NETHERCUTT. Mr. Speaker, February 3 marked a special day for a 
person close to my heart, for it was the 90th birthday of a wonderful 
woman with whom my family had a long association of close to 60 years. 
Her name is Glenys Burquist, and she was a legal secretary to my late 
father for 36 years, and a secretary to me for 18 years, until I was 
elected to Congress in 1994. She worked 2 years for my dear wife, who 
is also a lawyer, and she worked for 11 years before starting with my 
dad back in 1941 at the law firm that he joined that year.
  Her job with our firm was the only job she ever had after becoming a 
legal secretary, and she was a great one, able to smooth the edges of 
an unhappy client, or make a happy client happier by her warmth and 
sense of humor.
  I have never met anyone more loyal, more selfless, more honest, more 
diligent, more full of wisdom, more efficient than Glenys. She never 
let you know if she had a bad day. Despite a few health problems in her 
later years, she never has considered herself a victim of anything 
because she was too busy looking on the bright side of things.
  Over the course of 60 years this woman, Glenys Burquist, typed the 
pleadings for thousands of adoptions that we did, thousands of 
probates, thousands of letters and other pleadings and real estate 
closings and minutes of corporations, and all the other things that go 
on in a law firm.
  Before copy machines, she simply used carbon paper. In the late 
1980s, she gave in and finally switched to a memory typewriter. That 
was about as far as she would go.
  Unfortunately, in today's world, Glenys may represent the end of an 
era of employee stability and commitment. She never was looking for a 
better deal elsewhere, or griped about a little extra work that kept 
her after regular hours. For years she came into the office regularly 
for half a day on Saturdays, without any complaint.
  Quite simply, Glenys Burquist is one in a million, an institution in 
the Spokane, Washington legal community, and a person so deserving of 
happiness and peace and respect and congratulations that this 
recognition hardly does her justice.
  On behalf of the Nethercutt family and my wife, Mary Beth, 
especially, and all the lives she has touched, we wish Glenys Burquist 
the happiest of birthdays, and send our abundant love and respect.

                          ____________________