[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 39 (Thursday, March 22, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E425-E426]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN MEMORY OF CHARLES J. TRAYLOR

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 22, 2001

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory 
of Charles Traylor, a longtime leader of our state and a man whose 
compassion for others was as big and open as Colorado's sky.
  ``Charlie'', as he was known by most, was an excellent writer whose 
wit often graced the editorial pages of the Grand Junction Daily 
Sentinel. He was a strong spokesman for improving public education and 
a champion of opportunity for the less advantaged in our society. As a 
highly respected lawyer, Charlie understood the power of education in 
elevating a person's life. He worked hard to carry this message into 
the lives of others. Often, you could find him at school district 
meetings or working to improve Mesa State College.
  Charlie was known throughout Colorado as a ``damn good lawyer.'' Over 
the years, he was ready to take on the hard fights for people who 
didn't have a lot of money--and he often won. He won admiration for his 
selfless commitment to helping Coloradans who needed a hand up. He will 
be missed.
  A recent article in the Daily Sentinel illustrates Charlie's 
accomplishments and character, which left a lasting impression on 
Colorado. For the benefit of our colleagues, I am attaching a copy of 
that column, for inclusion in the Record. 

              [From the Daily Sentinel, February 6, 2001]

               Legendary GJ Lawyer Traylor Dies at Age 85

                            (By Gary Harmon)

       Grand Junction, CO--To have known Charlie Traylor was to 
     have generated a story, one that would always have a point in 
     the telling.
       Today, though, someone else at the Aspinall Foundation will 
     have to tell Mr. Traylor's tales as a committee interviews 
     scholarship candidates. Members of the Mesa County Bar 
     Association won't have the opportunity to hear Mr. Traylor 
     spin out his recollections of the law practice in the mid-
     20th century and what they mean in the new millennium.
       Mr. Traylor--advocate, political adviser, sage and 
     raconteur--died Sunday. He was 85.
       There are to be no services. But there are recollections 
     aplenty.
       The Aspinall Foundation Scholarship Committee, which is 
     unusual in conducting personal interviews with applicants--
     who must aspire to public service--will meet despite the 
     death of the man that banker Pat Gormley described as the 
     ``patron saint'' of the foundation founded in 1968.
       ``We're going to go ahead and hold it because that's what 
     we think he would have wanted,'' Gormley said.
       What Mr. Traylor wanted, he rarely left to doubt.
       A lifelong Democrat, Mr. Traylor once was tempted to switch 
     party registration for the limited purpose of voting to oust 
     a certain Republican officeholder, then switch back a day 
     later, recalled Jim Robb, a Grand Junction lawyer, federal 
     magistrate, and occasional political foe as a Republican and 
     a consistent admirer of Mr. Traylor.
       His response to that suggestion after a day of thinking 
     about it, Robb said, was this: ``He walked into work from his 
     house and if someone were to hit him on that day, he would 
     show up at the Pearly Gates and would have to answer that he 
     was registered as a Republican and he wouldn't have gotten 
     in.
       ``So he decided not to do that.''
       Mr. Traylor, though, was more than a political partisan, 
     even if his home was known to Bobby and Teddy Kennedy during 
     the 1960 election campaign, Robb said. Mr. Traylor greeted 
     John Kennedy on a visit to Grand Junction.
       ``I think I would describe him as a legendary lawyer in 
     western Colorado,'' Robb said. ``Our religions were 
     different, our politics were different. We had so many 
     differences and yet I felt very, very close to Charlie 
     Traylor. I think he brought out friendship in anyone he 
     met.''
       U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., said that Mr. Traylor 
     ``gave immeasurably to his community, state and nation. 
     Western Colorado is undoubtedly a better place because of 
     Charlie's life of service. He will be greatly missed, but not 
     soon forgotten.''
       Mr. Traylor knew how to work as an outsider from an early 
     age, said Tom Harshman, a former law partner. Mr. Traylor, a 
     Roman Catholic, was elected student body president at Ole 
     Miss in strong, Baptist country when religion was an issue. 
     ``He used to say Catholics in Mississippi were as welcome as 
     dogs in a cathedral,'' Harshman said. ``He was quite a 
     phenomenon.''
       He frequently joked that he graduated from college with 
     more money than he had to begin with because he started a 
     business delivering sandwiches to the dorms, Harshman said.
       Mr. Traylor knew how to get what he wanted, Gormley said, 
     remembering the time he was recruited to be treasurer for the 
     campaigns of U.S. Rep. Wayne N. Aspinall, the Palisade lawyer 
     who chaired the House Interior Committee. Mr. Traylor was 
     Aspinall's longtime campaign manager.
       Mr. Traylor didn't approach Gormley directly. ``He asked my 
     father and my father told me that's a good job.''
       A gift of being able to condense issues into a few words, 
     Gormley said, made Mr. Traylor a strong trial attorney.
       When Mr. Traylor moved to Grand Junction in 1946, he took 
     on the duties of bailing out the prostitutes who were hired 
     by madams who kept his firm on retainer.
       When Harshman joined the firm in 1965, his job was to 
     assist Mr. Traylor at trial and that first year was a doozy: 
     five murder trials. Mr. Traylor got four of his defendants 
     off and one guilty on a lesser charge. ``He was an excellent 
     lawyer,'' said Terry Farina, a former Mesa County district 
     attorney. ``He was shrewd and he had the common touch.''
       He didn't try only murder cases. Mr. Traylor was one of the 
     first attorneys to recover damages for widows whose husbands 
     had died of radiation-related diseases contracted in the 
     uranium mines that dotted the Southwest.
       In the meantime, Mr. Traylor and his wife, Helen, raised 
     seven children and he was active in trial lawyers groups.
       ``He was always trying to stretch the paradigm,'' said 
     another former law partner, Dick Arnold. ``I don't think he 
     realized he had this knack for being creative.''
       Mr. Traylor retired from his law firm, Traylor, Tompkins, 
     Black and Gaty, on Jan. 12, his 85th birthday. Four days 
     later he suffered a stroke and was set to begin a 
     rehabilitation regimen.
       ``I was thinking positive,'' said Bill Cleary, a Traylor 
     friend from 1961. ``He told me it was pretty tough, this 
     rehab. I was looking forward to his regaining a certain 
     mobility.''
       Mr. Traylor, in fact, was to have been on the county bar 
     association program on Jan. 22 to recall the old days, Farina 
     said.
       Mr. Traylor, though, never completely retired.
       ``He was so robust,'' Farina said. ``I recently gave him a 
     book about a lawyer-turned-journalist who goes back to 
     Natchez and I thought Charlie would like it.
       ``After two weeks, he and Helen both had read it and liked 
     it and he returned it to me with a critique of the 
     fictionalized trial. He just had that kind of mind.''
       Even to the end, Mr. Traylor kept a few surprises.
       It wasn't until Robb visited him in his office as Mr. 
     Traylor was moving out that Robb realized he and Mr. Traylor 
     were fraternity brothers.
       And Mr. Traylor, effusive as he was, rarely discussed his 
     experiences in World War 11, said Harshman. As commander of a 
     heavy-weapons company, he earned a Bronze Star and liberated 
     Gunkirchen, a camp holding Jewish and Polish prisoners.
       Mr. Traylor's public passion, though, was education. He 
     frequently attended meetings of the School District 51 board 
     and pressed for several programs, including MESA, which 
     promoted math and science for minorities and women, and a 
     committee promoting partnership between District 51 and Mesa 
     State College.
       ``Charlie Traylor was one of a kind,'' said Marilyn Conner, 
     assistant superintendent and a Traylor acquaintance for 15 
     years. ``I believe he was as intelligent and as insightful 
     and as gentlemanly a person as you would run across.''
       Mr. Traylor also was a supporter of Mesa State, regularly 
     attending plays at the college, Robb recalled.
       ``We're going to take a walk along the river and think 
     about him,'' Robb said of his wife, Maggie, who directed many 
     of those plays.

[[Page E426]]

       ``This is going to take some getting used to,'' Cleary 
     said. ``He was bigger than life and that always leaves a 
     vacancy. He was a man of stature. He could be admired by a 
     great many people.''

     

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