[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 127 (Wednesday, September 26, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9824-S9825]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO MARY BERRY GERWIN

  Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, as our Nation mourns the loss of 
thousands of our citizens in the terrorist attacks on America, many of 
us in Washington and in Maine also grieve the passing of a very special 
person who devoted her professional life to public service, Mary Berry 
Gerwin.
  Mary was only 46 when she died on September 18, after a courageous 9-
year battle with cancer. In her short time on Earth, however, Mary had 
a greater impact on public policy and on those of us who knew her than 
most people accomplish in lifetimes that last twice as long as hers.
  I will share with my colleagues a little bit about Mary's remarkable 
career in public service. Most recently, Mary held the position of 
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. During her 
tenure at the Pentagon, she received the Outstanding Public Servant 
Award from then-Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen.
  Among Mary's duties at the Pentagon were working with service 
members, retirees, and their families on a variety of health care 
issues. She traveled extensively to the Middle East, Korea, and Bosnia, 
to meet firsthand with service members to discuss health care and 
quality-of-life issues. She also visited refugee camps in Kosovo to 
help improve conditions there as well.
  I came to know Mary when we worked closely together as staff members 
on the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management from 
1981 to 1987. The very first day I met her, I knew Mary was a star. She 
was extraordinarily bright, and no one ever worked harder or longer. 
Her work ethic was legendary. In fact, her longtime boss, former 
Senator and Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen, remarked of Mary that a 
raised eyebrow could send her back to her desk at 8 p.m. to work 
another 4 hours to midnight.

  She was also a lot of fun, with an optimistic outlook and a quick wit 
that helped to sustain her through her lengthy illness. Mary succeeded 
me as the subcommittee staff director in early 1987. She then went on 
to serve as staff director of the Senate Special Committee on Aging 
when Senator Bill Cohen became its chairman.
  During her years in the Senate, Mary contributed enormously to 
legislative accomplishments. She drafted significant bills, including 
the Social Security disability reform bill, landmark anti fraud and 
abuse legislation, nursing home, and long-term care Medicaid reforms, 
the Independent Counsel Act, the Ethics In Government Act amendments, 
and a major revision of the Clinical Laboratories Improvement Act, as 
well as procurement and information technology reforms. Mary was 
particularly proud of Aging Committee hearings in 1996 that led to 
increased funding for the National Institutes of Health for research on 
diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and spinal cord injuries.
  Mary touched so many lives. Members of our Armed Forces and senior 
citizens who never had the pleasure of meeting Mary have better lives 
because of her work. But it is we who knew her personally who were 
truly pleased. Mary was kind and generous, not only to those of us who 
were her friend but to everyone she met or with whom she came in 
contact. Let me tell you one story.
  Every day Mary would purchase her Washington Post from an elderly 
man. Her husband Ed used to chuckle that Mary was the only person in 
Washington who would spend $5 every day buying her newspaper.
  Mary approached her illness with an abiding faith and remarkable 
courage and cheerfulness, even as she underwent excruciatingly painful 
treatments for her cancer. Whenever I called to check on her, she was 
remarkably upbeat and optimistic. She would quickly turn the 
conversation to what I or another friend was doing, rather than talking 
about the treatments she was undergoing.
  I am reminded of Walter Mondale's tribute to one of our greatest 
Senators, Hubert Humphrey, shortly after Senator Humphrey's death. He 
said: Hubert taught us how to live and he taught us how to die. Mary, 
too, taught us how to live and how to die.
  Mary's boss for two decades, former Secretary of Defense and Senator 
Bill Cohen, delivered an eloquent eulogy to Mary at her funeral mass on 
Sunday. I ask unanimous consent that his eulogy be printed in the 
Record at the conclusion of my remarks.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  (See exhibit No. 1.)
  Ms. COLLINS. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mary's wonderful 
family, particularly her mother, her husband Ed, and her two daughters, 
Katie and Kristen. Katie worked as an intern in my office during this 
past summer and she is so like her mother--bright, cheerful, strong, 
and hard working. Mary's legacy is reflected in those terrific 
daughters, as well as in her professional career. I am so thankful to 
have had the opportunity to have been her friend.

                             Exhibit No. 1

     Eulogy by William S. Cohen of Mary Gerwin, September 22, 2001

       We have all been overwhelmed and immobilized by grief in 
     the days since the terrorist attacks last week. Grief has had 
     the power to silence us, to bring us together, to rouse us to 
     action. As we have gathered around television sets since 
     September 11, staring mutely at the incomprehensible carnage 
     and horror, we may have had some acquaintance with the 
     victims or we have simply grieved for our nation and our 
     fellow citizens.
       Today is different. Today, we are truly taking note of a 
     death in the family. A death in Mary's immediate family, of 
     course, but also in the family of unique individuals I have 
     been privileged to assemble and work with during years in 
     Congress, the Pentagon, and beyond. This is a team of 
     talented men and women who are bound together by many 
     invisible threads, who have worked together, played together, 
     sometimes fought together, and looked after each other for 
     more than 25 years.
       Mary's death has brought us here today, and we grieve and 
     we are angry. Angry that she was so sick for so long, angry 
     that she left us at such a ridiculously young age. But even 
     in our anger and our grief, we celebrate her. Everyone in 
     this room knew Mary as a colleague, an employee, a boss, a 
     mother, a daughter, a sister, a wife, or a friend. I'd like 
     to talk about the Mary I knew, the Mary all of us knew.
       My friendship with Mary started 20 years age. I was a 
     freshman senator, and she was a kid from Portland who had 
     just gotten out of law school. She came to work for me and, 
     unbeknownst to either of us, we started an adventure together 
     that led to writing and changing major laws in this country, 
     led to her visiting and working with US troops in Korea, 
     Bosnia and Saudi Arabia, led to her working with refugee 
     camps in Kosovo, and led to a friendship as well.
       But it started for both of us in Maine. Mary didn't come 
     from a well-to-do family. Neither did I. Mary lost her dad 
     when she was just a baby, and her Mother worked at the 
     railroad and raised four terrific kids on her own. Mary knew 
     how real people in Maine worked and loved and struggled, and 
     that knowledge made her very effective when she helped to 
     write and rewrite the laws that affected their lives.
       Mary and I had something else in common. We both started 
     out as practicing lawyers. But not for long. We were both 
     drawn to the greater possibilities of public service. Mary 
     graduated cum laude from Georgetown Law and spent a very 
     short and uninspiring few months at a law firm, which 
     prompted her to look for work on the Hill. It was one of the 
     luckiest things that could have happened to me.
       It seemed there was nothing Mary couldn't do. She worked 
     closely with a great team that included another remarkable 
     young woman named Susan Collins, whose service as a United 
     States Senator today makes us

[[Page S9825]]

     all very proud. Together, this group ran a subcommittee that 
     oversaw how government programs are run and tried to improve 
     them. Later, Mary ran the staff of the Senate Aging Committee 
     as well, working to improve the lives of older Americans.
       Once I got to know Mary and her work habits, I used to joke 
     with her that the Nuns must have really gotten to her in 
     Catholic school--I had never seen anyone who would stay so 
     late, work so hard, or be so easily made to feel guilty about 
     leaving anything undone. A simple raised eyebrow could send 
     her back to her desk until midnight.
       A truly dedicated mother, Mary understood deeply the 
     difficult balance between being a good parent and being a 
     professional. But instead of complaining about it, she took 
     action--helping to create the Senate Child Care Center so 
     that her children and others could get the highest quality 
     child care and pre-school education.
       Because of Mary Gerwin and her energy and innate sense of 
     fairness and compassion, here are some of the ways our 
     country is different, and better:
       --Disabled Americans live in greater dignity,
       --The savings of older Americans are better protected from 
     investment fraud,
       --There is less fraud and abuse in the health care system,
       --People who receive Medicaid and live in nursing homes are 
     treated better,
       --The government spends its contracting dollars more 
     wisely, resulting in billions of dollars saved,
       --More research money is spent fighting conditions such as 
     Parkinson's Disease and spinal cord injuries.
       There was another effort that Mary championed, and it is 
     called the Independent Counsel Act. Not everyone loved this 
     law. My old boss, President Clinton, really didn't love it. 
     But we worked hard on it because the law said, in effect, no 
     one is above the law, even the President. Mary Gerwin kept 
     this law alive almost single-handedly. Many people, 
     particularly in our own party, opposed this effort. Mary 
     fought for it anyway, and she won.
       When I went to the Pentagon, I asked Mary to come with me. 
     She was the person I turned to health issues affecting our 
     troops, and there were many such issues. She worked with 
     me and with a deeply talented public servant, Rudy De 
     Leon, who also became a good friend to Mary. She didn't 
     just know the right answers--she found out from the troops 
     what they needed.
       Even in times when her illness was sapping her strength, 
     she was traveling to Korea, to Bosnia, to Saudi Arabia to 
     talk to our forces and find out how the Department of Defense 
     could serve them better.
       She came with Janet and me in 1999 for our annual holiday 
     visit to the troops, which is a very arduous trip involving 
     several countries in just a few days and in bad weather. But 
     she wanted to go, and she brought great comfort to the many 
     troops she spent time with.
       After I left office, Secretary Rumsfeld asked Mary to stay 
     on, and she worked well into June before she became too 
     weary. She loved working with the troops. In this way, she 
     was like the father she never knew, who was a Navy recruiter 
     and loved helping young sailors with their problems.
       I mention a sampling of Mary's accomplishments for a 
     reason--to underscore the good that can be done in a life of 
     public service. Mary's accomplishments would be extremely 
     impressive if they were spread over a 50 year career. She had 
     such a short time, and she did so much.
       Her accomplishments would also be impressive if they were 
     all she did. But she saved her best energy for being a wife 
     and a mother, as well as a daughter and a sister.
       You only have to spend a few minutes with Katie and Kristen 
     to see what kind of mother Mary has been, as well as what 
     kind of father Ed has been. Katie and Kristen are exemplary 
     young women--apples who have not fallen very far from the 
     tree. And Mary and Ed had one of the best marriages I knew 
     of--supportive and positive and loving at all times, even the 
     bad times.
       It is remarkable to reflect on Mary's degree of 
     professional accomplishment and personal success when we 
     consider the inescapable fact that the last ten years of her 
     life were spent fighting an awful illness. The pain and 
     difficulty she endured is unimaginable to most of us. Many of 
     us would have given into despair. Mary stayed positive and 
     productive even in the worst of times. She hated to be 
     thought of as sick. She hated for people to cut her any slack 
     because of her illness.
       It is tempting for us all to be angry and feel cheated 
     about a life which ended so soon and had so much suffering in 
     the last ten years. I knew Mary for 20 years, and I wish I 
     had 20 more with her. But we know that we were lucky to know 
     her at all. Rarely in life are we fortunate enough to 
     appreciate the truly special people in our lives. Mary was 
     someone you could count on. She touched all of our lives. She 
     made us laugh, she astonished us with her bravery and 
     devotion to God. There will never be a day that her smile, 
     her love, and her courage will be far from our thoughts.
       On September 11, a great many friends and colleagues of 
     ours at the Pentagon, and many more we didn't know in New 
     York, passed from this world to a better place. Last Tuesday, 
     they were joined by a very special angel. Mary, we will miss 
     you.

  Mr. REID. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Stabenow). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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