[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 93 (Tuesday, July 18, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7110-S7111]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE PASSING OF SENATOR JOHN O. PASTORE

  Mr. REED. Mr. President, Rhode Island and the Nation have lost an 
extraordinary statesman and patriot, Senator John O. Pastore. Senator 
Pastore passed away Saturday at the age of 93. He served in this body 
from December 1950 until January 1977. He served with distinction, he 
served with integrity, and he served with the utmost commitment to 
helping the people of Rhode Island and the people of this Nation to 
achieve the noblest aspirations of this country. He committed his life 
to public service. Senator Pastore was, in turn, a State 
representative, an assistant attorney general of the State of Rhode 
Island, a lieutenant governor, a Governor, and then, for over 26 years, 
a U.S. Senator.
  He began his life on March 17, 1907, on Federal Hill, the Italian 
American community in Rhode Island. It was an interesting combination 
of a young Italian American born to immigrant parents on St. Patrick's 
Day. He would never let anyone around forget that he was both proudly 
Italian and fortuitously Irish--at least for 1 day of the year. He grew 
up in an immigrant household that was experiencing all the difficulty 
and travail of people who come to a new land to find themselves and 
make a better life for their children. It was not glamorous; it was 
difficult. He endured the difficulties with the same kind of 
determination that marked his whole life.
  In his own words:

       We lived in the ghetto of Federal Hill. We had no running 
     water, no hot water. I used to get up in the morning and have 
     to crank the stove and go out in the back yard and sift out 
     the ashes and come back with a coal that I could recoup. I 
     had to chisel ice with an ice pick in the sink so that I 
     could wash up in the morning. And that was everybody in the 
     family. That wasn't me alone. That was my wife's family. That 
     was everybody's family.

  The hard, difficult life of a young immigrant family in Providence, 
RI, in the early part of the century became even more difficult because 
when Senator Pastore was 9 years old, his father, a tailor, passed 
away. At the age of 9, he became the man of the family. His mother went 
to work as a seamstress to support Senator Pastore and four other 
children. She labored all of her life to do that.
  Senator Pastore was a bright and gifted student. He progressed 
through the Providence public schools and finished Classical High 
School, which was the preeminent public high school in the State of 
Rhode Island. He did so well that he was offered an opportunity to 
attend Harvard College so that he could fulfill his dream to become a 
doctor. He did so well, not only by studying but at the same time 
supporting his family, working in a jewelry factory in Providence, RI. 
But the reality and the truth was, he was poor, he was without a 
father, and he felt the keen obligation to ensure that he protected and 
helped his family. And so he would forego that opportunity. He was 
without the funds. He had to work to support his brothers and sisters 
and help his mother. It is said--and he has said it, in fact--that he 
wept on the night of his graduation, thinking that his great talent 
would never be fully utilized, that he would forever be committed to a 
life of perhaps even menial work. But he did so willingly and 
voluntarily because he, too, wanted to help his mother and his brothers 
and sisters to make it in this great country.
  As we all recognize, all of us who have in any way briefly come in 
contact with Senator John O. Pastore, he was a man of extraordinary 
determination. He went to work as a clerk at the Narragansett Electric 
Company, and during the day he worked hard. But in the evening he 
enrolled at the Northeastern University Law School extension, held at 
the Providence YMCA. Those were the days when you could become a lawyer 
without going to college and then going from college into law school. 
At night, while working and supporting his family, he became a lawyer. 
After he became a lawyer, he opened up his practice in the basement of 
his family's home in Providence. The clientele did not rush to him, 
frankly, but he also discovered that he

[[Page S7111]]

had a knack for politics. He ran as a State representative in the 
thirties. He was elected twice and, at that point, he began to create a 
name for himself as an articulate advocate, someone who was a hard-
working, determined champion, not only for his people but for all 
people.
  He was made an assistant attorney general for the State, and then he 
was selected to run as lieutenant governor. He served as lieutenant 
governor for the State of Rhode Island. And then, fortuitously--because 
the Governor accepted a position in the Democratic administration--he 
became the first Italian American Governor in this great country. Then, 
he moved on to the U.S. Senate to become the first Italian American 
Senator in the history of this country. An extraordinary individual. He 
came here and worked on so many different issues. He was the chairman 
of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy at the time when atomic energy 
was becoming a powerful force in all of our lives.
  He committed himself to the peaceful use of atomic energy to try to 
develop its potential to help rather than to destroy. He worked 
ceaselessly to ensure that we were controlling atomic energy throughout 
the world. He worked very hard on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. He 
worked with many colleagues--some colleagues who are here today--on 
that landmark legislation.
  He also served on the Commerce Committee where he was the chairman of 
the telecommunications subcommittee. I daresay many of the fundamental 
foundations and principles that have guided this huge explosion of 
telecommunications that have opened up the cyberspace of the world 
began years ago under his deliberations on that committee.
  Also, in 1974 at the end of his career, he was very active in 
campaign finance reform in the wake of the Watergate affair.
  Those are accomplishments, but what is so compelling and so 
emblematic of the man is that his whole life represented something so 
fundamentally American. He was modest and humble. He seized the 
opportunity that is America--the chance to succeed. Then he committed 
himself in his public life, day in and day out, to ensure that every 
American had those types of opportunities.
  That is why he and his colleagues in the 1960s embraced the idea of 
providing educational support to the talented but poor Americans who 
could get into college but couldn't afford to go to college. That was 
not some theoretical flourish he discovered in a lecture hall at a 
great university; that was from his heart, from having lived it, from 
having seen so many of his contemporaries with the talent, the skills, 
and the ambition frustrated and thwarted because they didn't have 
the money to go to college. In so many other ways, he tried to ensure 
that ``opportunity'' was the watchword of America.

  His greatest contribution perhaps is the fact that he lived what we 
all think America should be and is--that someone can rise up from an 
immigrant household, from a place where English is not the first 
language, to the highest positions in this country through hard work, 
dedication, and commitment. That example alone, that inspiration alone, 
is extraordinarily important to all of us.
  We in Rhode Island are very lucky because we have a chance to see our 
public officials close up. All of us have stories about our leaders. In 
Rhode Island, Senator Pastore was no exception. We all understood early 
on that he was one of the most extraordinary debaters and oral 
advocates this body has seen in a very long time.
  In 1964, President Johnson asked Senator Pastore to be the keynote 
speaker at the Democratic National Convention. I was 14 years old then. 
I, as every other Rhode Islander, was crowded around the television set 
on a hot summer's night waiting for our Senator to speak to the Nation. 
He spoke in his typical powerful and forceful way. He spoke about 
justice and opportunity. He spoke about the Democratic Party, and he 
spoke about our commitment to help everyone. He spoke with both passion 
and precision. He moved that convention, and he moved the Nation. We 
will never forget those words.
  Also, again because of the proximity of everyone to everyone else in 
Rhode Island, I had the chance to see him when I was a younger person 
in my early teens because my parents would summer down at Narragansett, 
RI, and his family would summer there also. It was a very modest summer 
resort. My father was a school custodian. So this was not exactly the 
Riviera. But he was there because that is where the people were. That 
is where he went for his summer vacation.
  I can remember going to mass on a hot summer's day. We were all lucky 
just to be in long pants because it was summertime. However, he would 
be there in his suit and tie looking every inch the sartorial master 
that he was, with a bearing and a dignity that was beyond senatorial, 
it was regal, but also with a kindness and a humility that came through 
equally well.
  Finally, with a great deal of appreciation and gratitude, Senator 
Pastore was the individual who appointed me to the military academy at 
West Point. He gave me the greatest opportunity of my life. He did it 
in a nonpartisan, nonpolitical way. I had never really met the Senator. 
I had asked for the appointment. I sent him a letter. He had his staff 
direct me to take a test. I took a test. I took a physical. I took a 
physical aptitude test. I still remember the moment when his executive 
assistant called me and told me I was going to West Point.
  In my office in Washington I have both his picture and the letter he 
sent me on that day. In my office in Rhode Island I have his picture 
and the telegram he sent to follow up. He gave me a great opportunity. 
I like to think that the good things I have done in a way have been a 
response to that confidence he showed in me as a very young man.
  He also was someone who had a great sense of humor about himself and 
about many things. He once quipped that he was very grateful his 
parents named him John O. Pastore rather than Giovanni Orlando Pastore 
because in the latter case his initials would have been ``GOP,'' which 
is something he would have been hard pressed to deal with because of 
his very strong Democratic life and career.

  I can remember also that Senator Mansfield spoke to me one time. He 
said: You know, every St. Patrick's Day, Senator Pastore insisted that 
he be the President pro tempore. It was his birthday. He wanted to 
preside. He also reminded everyone that his name was really John O. 
Pastore with the accent one would have if one were John O'Rourke, or 
John O'Neill, or John O'Donnell.
  He was an extraordinary man. He graced us with a life of service. He 
graced us with a life that is an example to all of us. He has honored 
us by doing his best every day, by taking his work much more seriously 
than himself, and by doing this great work and then quietly and 
gracefully returning home, back to Rhode Island, to his beloved wife 
and his family--to his simple life with the people he respected and 
admired. He is beloved in my State of Rhode Island. He is well 
deserving of that great love.
  To his wife, Mrs. Pastore, to his son John, to his daughters 
Francesca and Louise, to his sisters Elena and Michelina, our sincere 
condolences. But today we not only commemorate his passing but we 
celebrate his great life.
  I yield the floor.

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