[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 55 (Monday, May 8, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3603-S3604]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TRIBUTE TO STERLING EDWARDS RIVES, JR.

 Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to a friend 
and patriot Sterling Edwards Rives, Jr. of Petersburg, Virginia who 
died on February 13, 2000, at the age of 78 years.
  A native of Surry County, sterling served in the Army at the close of 
World War II and then spent a year building airfields in the 
Philippines. He returned to a position as an inspector with the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture traveling with his wife Virginia Anne and 
newborn son Sterling III throughout the Southeast grading peanuts, 
potatoes and produce. Two more sons Andrew II an Bailey were born as 
they moved to Petersburg where he began his 35-year career where he 
held leadership positions in the Christ and Grace Episcopal Church.
  Sterling Rives served on the Virginia Republican State Central 
Committee, as a delegate to four national conventions, vice-chairman of 
the Petersburg Electoral Board, and as a delegate to the White House 
Council on Aging.
  President Ronald Reagan once told me that ``Politics is not a 
spectator sport.''
  No one took that more to heart than Sterling Rives who believed that 
it was his civic responsibility and patriotic duty to contribute freely 
his time and talents to elect those he supported to public office. I 
was privileged to be one of those public servants whom Sterling took by 
the hand and guided towards election day after election day.
  Sterling Rives drove the original footings for the foundation of the 
Republican Party of Virginia. He and his family gave tirelessly in 
election after election.
  Just last year Virginians elected a Republican Governor, Lt. 
Governor,

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Attorney General and a new Republican majority in the House of 
Delegates and the Senate for the first time in our state's history. 
That impressive victory was a most appropriate tribute to Sterling 
Rives' long public service encouraging people to be active in politics.
  We have far too few citizens who recognize the importance of the 
political process in preserving our democracy and our freedom. The life 
of Sterling Rives will stand as a model for patriots who seek to 
preserve our liberty. I know my colleagues join me in paying tribute to 
Sterling Rives and extending to his family our deepest 
sympathy.

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