[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 109 (Friday, September 15, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S8626]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 ISSUANCE OF A COMMEMORATIVE POSTAGE STAMP HONORING JOHN B. KELLY, JR.

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, the Olympic Games, set to begin today in 
Sydney, Australia, will feature rowing, which brings to mind the great 
rowing tradition which has been a part of Philadelphia for generations. 
It also brings to mind John B. Kelly, Jr., a Philadelphia native who 
not only made great strides in the sport of rowing, but who personified 
the ideal of an Olympic athlete.
  John B. Kelly, Jr., better known as ``Jack'' or ``Kel,'' came from a 
distinguished family, on and off the water. His father won three gold 
medals in sculling in the 1920 and 1924 Olympics. His sister Grace was 
the late Princess of Monaco.
  After graduating from the William Penn Charter School, Jack enlisted 
in the United States Navy. After a short term of service, he attended 
the University of Pennsylvania where we were college friends in the 
late 1940's and early 1950's. He was a member of the Kappa Sigma social 
fraternity and was honored with a membership in the Sphinx Senior 
Society for his extracurricular accomplishments. Upon graduation, he 
was commissioned as an ensign, combining duty on a destroyer with his 
preparation for the 1952 Olympic games in Helsinki.
  By the time he hung up his oars, he had advanced the cause and the 
international name of American rowing and American sports. Jack was an 
eight-time national single sculls champion, four-time Olympian and 
bronze medallist in single sculls in 1956, and winner of two gold 
medals in the Pan American Games in 1955 and 1959. He was also the 
winner of the Diamond Sculls in the Henley Regatta in 1947 and 1949, a 
race from which the British had banned his father, purportedly because 
he worked with his hands and was not considered to be a gentleman.
  The winner of the 1947 James E. Sullivan award as the nation's 
outstanding amateur athlete, Jack was a leading advocate for amateur 
sports for more than 30 years. Following the 1960 Olympic games, Jack 
became active in the local swimming program in the Middle Atlantic 
Association of the Amateur Athletic Union. In 1970 he was elected 
President of the National Amateur Athletic Union, the youngest person 
to hold that office in more than 80 years. In 1985 he assumed the 
presidency of the United States Olympic Committee, and served in that 
capacity for three weeks until his untimely death on March 2.
  Philadelphia honored its native son by erecting a statue of Jack 
rowing, along the Schuylkill River, and also by renaming the drive 
along the boathouses on the Schuylkill River in honor of the Kelly 
family. I believe it would be appropriate for the United States to 
honor Jack through the creation of a commemorative postage stamp, which 
would pay tribute to his accomplishments as a world class athlete and 
to his contributions to our nation and to international athletics and 
goodwill.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in calling upon the Postmaster 
General to issue this stamp in a timely manner.
  The Olympics started today. Jack Kelly, Jr., has a monument on East 
River Drive which was renamed ``Kelly Drive'' in honor of the Kelly 
family, a very distinguished Philadelphia family. Father John B. Kelly, 
Sr., an Olympic gold medalist, was once denied entry into the Henley 
Regatta because he was someone who worked with his hands, a bricklayer; 
therefore, not considered a gentleman and, therefore, not entitled to 
enter into the competition.
  His son John B. Kelly, Jr., made up for all of it. I knew young Jack 
Kelly as a student at the University of Pennsylvania where we attended 
together. The family achieved perhaps its greatest notoriety from 
Princess Grace of Monaco being Jack Jr.'s sister.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.

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