[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 100 (Wednesday, July 18, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1356-E1357]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        IN MEMORY OF BOB PRIDDLE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN J. LaFALCE

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 18, 2001

  Mr. LaFALCE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to share with you and my 
colleagues a very special remembrance of a dear personal friend of 
mine, Robert B. Priddle, who passed away on April 13, 2001. I had known 
Bob Priddle for nearly 30 years; his wife, Elvi Hirvela Priddle, was my 
district secretary in Buffalo for nearly 20 years. It is my hope that 
anyone in this Chamber who has been blessed with the gift of a loyal 
and devoted friend will appreciate the sentiments expressed in the 
following eulogy given at the memorial service for Bob by my long-time 
district aide and close friend of Bob and Elvi Priddle, Becky 
Muscoreil.

                            In Memory of Bob

       We are gathered here this morning not to mourn, but to 
     celebrate the life of our friend, husband, father, 
     grandfather, brother, uncle, cousin, nephew, Robert Bruce 
     Priddle. We are here to share wonderful memories with each 
     other that will help sustain us in the days ahead and to hold 
     onto him, each in our own way. I know I cant hold a candle to 
     Bob's oratorical ability to tell great stories, the way he 
     could keep you spellbound and believing every word until, 
     with a perfectly straight face, he would lay it on you and 
     you would realize you'd been totally taken in, bamboozled. 
     But I will try my best to draw a picture of this fine man who 
     we all loved so much because he gave so much of himself to 
     us. Thank you, Elvi, for giving me this honor today.
       Bob was born on September, 23, 1931 on Crowley Avenue at 
     his parents', Robert (a salesman) and Genevieve's home. They 
     moved to Grant Street in Lockport, where Bob's Dad passed 
     away in 1935, shortly after Donnalee was born. Then his 
     mother moved Bob and Donnalee to North Buffalo and about 5 
     years later married Orvard Seeburg when Bob was 9. Bob 
     attended Kensington High School (this is where he met the 
     love of his life, Elvi Hirvela in geometry class) but dropped 
     out to join the Navy in his senior year. He served as an 
     electrician on the communications ship, USS Mount Olympus and 
     traveled to the Mediterranean region and Cuba at the
       After the Navy, Bob returned home and courted Elvi and they 
     were married at Elvi's mother's home on April 17, 1954, Bob 
     was 22 and Elvi claims she was 12 or so. Karen was born in 
     1955 and Sue and Sandy in 1958. Bob went back to night school 
     to complete his high school education and began working at 
     Schuele & Co. in their warehouse, but his talents were soon 
     recognized and he was promoted to sales where he remained for 
     about 7 years until he moved on to work for Cook & Dunn and 
     after that as an assistant sales manager at MacDougal & 
     Butler. Later, he joined up with his uncle and became manager 
     of McCorney's Decorating Center in Lockport. Prior to his 
     retirement in 1991, he worked for Ellicott Paint and 
     Wallpaper.
       I think we will always remember Bob's captivating charm and 
     when you added that to his uncanny sales ability, he would 
     have made a great politician. But instead, he became involved 
     in politics when he met his match, John LaFalce, through the 
     Jaycees. Bob was a Democrat of the Roosevelt/Truman/Kennedy 
     legacy and he devoted himself to John's campaigns, giving all 
     the time he could to ensuring John's first election to state 
     office and on through the early Congressional campaigns. He 
     drove John to the ends of the district and eventually learned 
     the locations of every bowling alley, bingo hall and fire 
     hall in four counties. He and Jim Pries would be up and out 
     by 5 a.m. or earlier every election day putting up poll 
     signs, checking on voter turnout and crunching numbers after 
     the polls closed. During those early campaigns, Bob was known 
     as the ``General'' and Jim as the ``Colonel''--one of the 
     first things the young, green campaign workers learned was 
     that you didn't mess with those two. They were the `body 
     guards' and Big Guy's confidantes. They were to be feared in 
     a respectful way.
       Jim remembers the first time he met Bob over the fence that 
     separates their back yards. And within minutes, Bob had him 
     joining the Jaycees and working with him on the campaigns. He 
     was convincing and compelling and it was always difficult to 
     say ``no'' to him. Jim said that ``life was never the same 
     after meeting Bob''--on that, we can all agree.
       As you know, Bob was very active locally and nationally in 
     the Jaycees and the Jaycee Senate--there were years when we 
     always had to refer to him as ``Senator.'' He joined

  Jim Pries recalled an interesting trip to a Jaycees convention in 
Atlanta in 1971 to which he and Bob and John LaFalce traveled together. 
Bob decided to take his camper-trailer to save on their hotel costs, 
but unfortunately, when they arrived at their destination, the camper 
blew over and they couldn't get it upright. John said not to worry, he 
had a friend in the area who was a priest and he would call him to see 
if he could help find them a place to stay. Lo and behold, the priest 
welcomed them to stay at a local convent overnight and you can only 
imagine how much fun Bob had with that story. He told them he couldn't 
wait to get home and tell his strict, Baptist mother where he had spent 
the night.
  Every person in this room today, in remembering their relationship 
with Bob, has a story to tell that will make us laugh and shake our 
heads knowingly, saying, ``yep, that was the Bob we knew'' with that 
devilish grin and a sparkle in his eyes that couldn't help but draw us 
to him. Over the past few days, I've collected a few of these stories 
that epitomize the character and personality of this wonderful man we 
will never forget.
  Karen remembers when she was about 14 or 15 and babysat for one of 
Bob's Jaycee friends, David Shenk, on Parkhurst Blvd. She came home 
about 3 a.m. and went to her room to get ready for bed and as was her 
habit, shut and locked her door. When she tried to open it to go to the 
bathroom, the door handle just kept turning around and around and she 
couldn't get out. She started banging on the door and yelling ``Mom, 
Dad, help, I can't get out'' and after a few minutes both Elvi and Bob 
came to her door and tried and tried to open it from the outside 
without success. Finally, Bob decided the only thing he could do was to 
go and get the ladder and either get Karen out through the window or at 
least get in and try to get the door open from the inside. So here it 
was, about 4:30 in the morning, Karen opens her window and Bob is 
climbing up the

[[Page E1357]]

ladder and Karen starts shouting out the window ``Hurry before my 
father hears you.'' In a very low and quiet voice, he said ``shut up'' 
trying hard not to break out in laughter so as not to wake up the 
neighbors. But I seriously doubt he could hold it in. Kind of reminds
  In 1985, when Kristen was born, Sandy was in Kenmore Mercy Hospital 
and at that time, they still had strict visiting hours for maternity. 
But as we all know, that wouldn't stop Bob from visiting his daughter 
and granddaughter. He walked up to the front desk and gave Sandy's name 
and when he was advised visiting hours were over, he announced that he 
was Mrs. McInerney's pastor and of course, was allowed right in. Only 
Bob could get away with that, with a straight face, no less.
  One of Sue's favorite stories from her Grandmother Seeburg was from 
Bob's childhood. He was about 6 years old and came home early from 
school one day. When his mother asked him why he was home so early, he 
claimed that the store across the street from the school burned down 
and they let all the kids leave early. Mrs. Priddle's suspicions led 
her to walk over to the vicinity of the school where, of course, she 
noticed the store in question was still intact. We probably don't want 
to know what happened when she returned home. But at least we now have 
a better understanding of the early development of Bob's storytelling 
ability.
  One of Elvi's favorite stories is about a cold winter morning when 
Bob was working at McCorney's in Lockport and had to be there early to 
open up for business. But he went out to start his car and found the 
battery was dead. He came back in the house and called Triple A and was 
told it would be at least an hour or more before they could get to him. 
He told the dispatcher, ``Look, you've got to help me out here, I 
stayed overnight at my girlfriend's house and her husband is going to 
be home any minute.'' The poor fellow on the phone was overcome with 
sympathy for the situation and needless to say, a truck was in the 
driveway in a matter of minutes. Bob arrived at work with time to spare 
and probably pretty proud of himself for such a coup.
  For those of you who know Kate, one of Bob and Elvi's two lovely 
granddaughters, you may know she has become somewhat of a connoisseur 
of French onion soup, thanks to her grandfather. It seems that one 
evening at dinner at Cameo's when Kate was about 8 years old, Bob had 
ordered the French onion soup and it had lots of cheese on top. Kate
  Donnalee has visited many times since Bob was admitted to McAuley on 
March 17, 1998. She remembers the first year he was there and was still 
pretty mobile and managing to get to the far corners of the building in 
his wheelchair. He happened upon a new maintenance man and struck up a 
conversation asking him how long he had been there, where he was from, 
etc., perfectly normal for Bob. Then he said to the man, ``Do you know 
what my job is here?'' And the maintenance man looked at him kind of 
funny since he was quite sure he was a patient, but was kind enough to 
go along with him and said, ``No, what do you do?'' Bob said, ``I am 
the elephant chaser.'' The man, a bit perplexed, answered, ``Oh, 
really?'' and Bob replied, ``Well, you don't see any elephants around 
here, do you?''
  All of us who knew and loved Bob realized that patience wasn't 
exactly one of his primary virtues. When he Was in Buffalo General 
Hospital in January of 1998, he needed a nurse, but when he rang the 
buzzer a few times, no one came. So he picked up the phone and dialed 
``911'' and told them they had better hurry up and get a nurse in there 
for him.
  One time when Bob and Joe met at Brighton Golf Course, they teed up 
on the first hole, a par four and Bob hit one heck of a swing but 
unfortunately, hit the maintenance barn, way too far to the right. He 
was a little disturbed, but set up another ball and swung and again hit 
the barn. He started saying some very bad words about the golf balls he 
was using, but teed up for a third time and this time hit over the barn 
and into the parking lot. He turned to Joe and said, ``I probably 
should have had that second Manhattan to straighten out my swing.''
  I think it is safe to say we are all better for having known this 
loving, kind, funny and loyal man who was so devoted to his family and 
friends. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, ``Many people will walk in and 
out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints on your 
heart.'' Throughout the rest of our days, may we always have Bob 
Priddle's footprints on our hearts.

                          ____________________