[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 31 (Monday, March 20, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1453-S1454]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  REMEMBERING MY FRIEND MARSHALL COYNE

  Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, it is with deep regret and personal 
sorrow that I come to the Senate today to report the death of my good 
friend Marshall Coyne. He died in his sleep on March 16. He was 89 
years old. Marshall became my friend years ago. Actually, it was with 
former Senator and Ambassador Saxbe that I first met Marshall Coyne. He 
had served on the symphony board with my wife Ann. The two developed a 
great friendship. Following her death, he continued to be my friend, 
and has continued now for many years to be a dear and loyal friend to 
me and my wife Catherine, our daughter Lily, and our whole family. He 
was a rare man.
  First, let me state that in all the time I knew him, he never asked 
me how I voted, suggested how I should vote, or indicated that he had 
anything he wanted me to do on this floor. He did ask me for some 
information once in a while about various things going on in the city, 
the District, that is. But he was a very different person.
  We developed such a close friendship that as I chaired Senate 
delegations going overseas, he would ask me where I was going, and he 
would show up there. He showed up in Geneva when we were there for the 
Senate arms control talks with the Soviets--going back that far. He 
showed up in London when we had the British parliamentary talks with 
Members of the Senate. And he showed up in Paris when we were there for 
the Paris Air Show. Marshall was the kind of friend who was always 
welcome. I never knew any Senator to object to the fact he was there. 
They all knew he was my friend and that he would come along.
  We have had such a rare relationship. He had lunch with me every 
Friday that I was in the District of Columbia, I think, in the last 10 
years. He had been to my home either one or two times a month during 
that whole time when we would be in Washington, DC.
  He was the kind of friend I think every Senator needs and should 
have. We fished together. We fished together in Alaska. I remember how 
surprised he was one time when he saw a bear when we stopped at a 
stream. He, with my late friend Mike Joy, traveled around Alaska with 
me many times fishing. We fished off the coast of Costa Rica. We fished 
in Florida. He discussed his trips with me when I was not able to go. 
He went to Mongolia once, and he came back very impressed with that 
place.
  Of course, our mutual interest was China, where I had served in World 
War II. He was one of the first Americans to reenter China after 
President and Mrs. Nixon's historic visit. He personally once a year 
visited Iceland. Another example of Marshall's interest in 
international affairs was his support for the Center for Strategic and 
International Studies (CSIS), a premier public policy institution 
dedicated to policy analysis on the world's major geographic regions.
  He was, I think, a friend to many Members of the Congress and to many 
members of the military. Mr. Coyne organized the Ambassadors' Round 
Table at his Madison Hotel here in Washington so that new ambassadors 
to our country got to meet each other socially.
  He also organized a series of meetings for former Cabinet members and 
distinguished military leaders who had reached the top of our military 
structure so they could come together and share their interests and 
remember old times together.
  He said to me once: A person really was not your friend unless he 
really remembered you after he left office. He developed friendships 
that I think the memories of will last for a long time.
  It is a difficult thing for me to think of not having my friend in 
the Senate dining room with me for years to come. But I want the Senate 
to know that I think this is one man who contributed a great deal to 
the friendships of our Senate. Oftentimes he had dinners at his home, 
at my suggestion, to help bring together some of the Members of the 
Senate and the House, so we might meet together socially and discuss 
nonbusiness subjects and get to know one another better.

  I am hopeful that the District will remember that he was a member of 
the board that controlled the District of Columbia before the District 
became independent and elected its own Mayor. Marshall served on the 
Opera Board at the Kennedy Center and he served on the Boards of both 
Georgetown and George Washington Universities. He was proud to call 
himself a Mason.
  He had a collection of rare manuscripts and books. I will be very 
interested to see what happens to them. He had signatures he collected 
of almost every well-known politician, President, and Cabinet officer 
in the history of the United States.
  He obviously had a very large Lincoln collection, for he was a great 
admirer of Lincoln. Since I have been Chairman, when one enters the 
anteroom of the Senate Appropriations Committee, they will see a bust 
of Lincoln--it is really a reproduction of a bust of Lincoln that Mr. 
Coyne gave me--so people might understand the importance of Lincoln to 
the process we all are pursuing here; that is, equal justice for all.
  I do hope other Members who have known Mr. Coyne will share their 
knowledge of his activities with us on the floor. But in any event, 
Madam President, thank you very much for the privilege of addressing 
the Senate.
  I ask unanimous consent that the Washington Post article from March 
17 concerning Mr. Coyne be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

[[Page S1454]]

               [From the Washington Post, Mar. 17, 2000]

      Marshall Coyne Dies at Age 89; Developer Built Madison Hotel

       Marshall B. Coyne, the Washington developer whose best-
     known holding was the Madison hotel, which hosted prime 
     ministers and celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, died of 
     complications from a broken hip March 16 at his home in 
     Washington. He was 89.
       Mr. Coyne was a New York native who moved to the Washington 
     area in the 1940s. With his late business partner, Charles 
     Rose, he started Roscoe-Ajax Construction Co. and built 
     apartment and office buildings, mostly in the District. They 
     opened the Madison luxury hotel at 15th and M streets NW in 
     1963, and Mr. Coyne later became the sole owner and 
     proprietor.
       Rival hoteliers were skeptical of the Madison's potential, 
     predicting that no one would pay the $27 daily minimum to 
     stay in a place simply because it offered deep-pile carpets, 
     rosewood paneling and Czech crystal chandeliers. Rooms at the 
     Madison now average $465 a day.
       Mr. Coyne hoped the hotel would rank with Claridge's in 
     London. He said, ``We'll start looking at the balance sheet 
     later, after we've built up the kind of clientele we're 
     seeking and after we have the hotel operating at capacity.''
       He envisioned an attentive staff whose members knew their 
     guests by name and always had a cigarette lighter handy to 
     aid a smoker. In the first year, clients included newspaper 
     heir William Randolph Hearst Jr. and Robert Six, the former 
     president of Continental Airlines Inc.
       Notable guests in recent years included the Russian 
     delegations during the 1987 and 1990 summits between the 
     former Soviet Union and the United States.
       Because of his clientele, Mr. Coyne maintained a private 
     persona.
       ``He was not the kind of guy who would stand on the street 
     corner shouting about how he had lunch with the Dalai Lama, 
     which he did a couple of times,'' said Sheldon S. Cohen, the 
     former IRS commissioner who was a longtime friend and estate 
     trustee.
       Another close friend was Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who 
     described Mr. Coyne as ``the kind of friend every senator 
     should have. He never talked business. He talked fishing or 
     stamps or books, and often of his trip to Mongolia, because 
     of our mutual interest in China.''
       Stevens said Mr. Coyne also organized the Ambassadors' 
     Round Table, an informal gathering of potentates who had 
     lunches and dinners at the Madison.
       Hotel food, in fact, put Mr. Coyne in the news briefly in 
     1982, when he was fined $5,000 for buying Canada geese with 
     the intent to turn them into pate, a violation of the 
     Migratory Bird and Treaty Act. He denied charges that he 
     served the geese at the hotel's Montpelier Restaurant--he 
     said they were for private consumption--but pleaded guilty 
     and paid the fine.
       His wealth then was estimated to be $50 million to $100 
     million, and he told The Washington Post that the fine was 
     ``like a parking ticket. You pay the $3 and forget about 
     it.''
       The Madison, with 353 rooms, is one of about 10 area 
     properties run by Madison Management and Investment Co., 
     which Mr. Coyne had headed since the 1970s. Until last year, 
     he also owned the Shoreham Building at 15th and H streets NW.
       He served on the boards of the Kennedy Center, the Center 
     for Strategic and International Studies and Georgetown 
     University. He belonged to Washington Hebrew Congregation. 
     His hobbies included rare books and manuscripts.
       His marriages to Sylvia Shefkowitz and Jane Gordon ended in 
     divorce.
       His daughters from his first marriage predeceased him, 
     Ellen Coyne Stichman in 1993 and Linda Coyne Fosburg Lloyd in 
     1996.
       Survivors include five grandchildren and a great-
     granddaughter.

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