[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 32 (Tuesday, March 21, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S1509]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    JOHN J. LESSNER'S 100TH BIRTHDAY

 Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize Mr. John 
J. Lessner, resident of Lapeer, MI, who on March 10th of this year 
celebrated his 100th birthday. It is my pleasure to honor him not only 
for having reached this landmark birthday, which is quite an 
accomplishment in itself, but also, and I think more importantly, for 
having lived his life in a manner truly worthy of commendation.
  One of Mr. Lessner's favorite sayings is ``Work-a-Million,'' and he 
has certainly lived by this virtue. For thirty-nine years he worked as 
a high-school teacher and coach, for thirty-seven years a football and 
basketball official, he sold world-book encyclopedias for twenty-four 
years, worked at the H.C. Frick Coal Mine and Monogahela Railroad for 
fifteen summers, spent nine years working towards his M.A. in 
Education, which he received from West Virginia University in 1953, 
spent six years constructing a home for his family and himself, spent 
three years playing fullback for the Brownsville (PA) Independence 
Football Team, and all this after he began his adult life by serving 
his country for a year in the U.S. Army.
  On top of all this, Mr. Lessner, somehow found the time to be not 
only an active community member, but a community leader. He helped 
organize and develop two Parent Teacher Associations, in Greene County, 
PA, and Washington County, PA. He served as the first, twelfth and 
twenty-fifth president of the Greensboro Lions Club in Greensboro, PA. 
During World War II, he served as the Air Raid Warden for Brownsville, 
PA. And every Sunday, for eighteen years, he volunteered his time as a 
Sunday School Superintendent at Christian Church in Brownsville, PA, 
and then later at Mapletown Methodist Church in Mapleton, PA.
  Most important to Mr. Lessner, though, has always been his family. He 
now resides in Lapeer, MI, with his son Jack, the eldest of his two 
children. He moved to Lapeer from Monroeville, PA, where he lived near 
his daughter, Maryjane. And undoubtedly one of his greatest days came 
on December 27, 1979, when he and his wife, Doris Steeves, celebrated 
their fiftieth wedding anniversary.
  This may be selfish on my part, but as I read the biography of Mr. 
Lessner, my only wish was that he had spent more of his one-hundred 
years in Michigan. His is a brand of remarkable that, unfortunately, 
you do not run into everyday. Regardless, John J. Lessner is a true 
role model, and we are glad to have him now. So, on behalf not only of 
myself but also of all my Michigan constituents, I would like to wish 
Mr. Lessner a happy 100th birthday, and I hope that there are many more 
to celebrate in the future.




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