[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 59 (Friday, May 10, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E757]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E757]]



                         TRIBUTE TO JERRY RICH

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHNNY ISAKSON

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 9, 2002

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend an American who 
exemplifies the opportunities and possibilities our free enterprise 
system brings to all Americans and, like so many Americans, an 
individual who has taken his success and its rewards and found a way to 
share it in a meaningful way.
  I am pleased to rise today and commend Mr. Jerry Rich of Sugar Grove, 
Illinois, and I am very pleased to be joined by Speaker Dennis Hastert 
in this tribute. As the age of technology dawned in the 1970s, Jerry 
Rich applied his entrepreneurial spirit and personal dedication to 
develop a technology system capable of providing those in the financial 
markets with the ability to monitor disparate information on a single 
screen. Jerry Rich's innovation is now shared in the capital markets 
and on Wall Street by everyone. His innovation and success ultimately 
led to a merger of his company with Reuters and retirement from his 
business in 1988. But like so many Americans, Jerry Rich applied his 
success to his passion, and his passion to benefit America's youth.
  Jerry Rich bought eight farms and combined them into what is now 
known as Sugar Grove Estate. A passionate golfer, Jerry set out to 
build and develop a unique golf course, and unique it is. Originally 
nine holes with three separate tees, Rich Harvest Links is now an 
eighteen-hole championship golf course, ranked by Golf Magazine as one 
of the top ten new private golf courses in America. Rich Harvest Acres 
has a staff of forty-five attending to this challenging 7,446-yard, par 
72 golf course. While Rich Harvest Links is one of the most exclusive 
in America, currently with twenty-five members and a plan for twenty-
five more in the future, it also is a golf course that Jerry Rich 
shares with amateur golfers in the great State of Illinois.
  Jerry is very active in the youth program, ``Hook a Kid on Golf,'' 
which introduces youths to the game of golf and has spread to twenty-
nine states in America and Canada. He started a foundation that funds 
the operation for ``Hook a Kid on Golf'' in Illinois where, last year 
alone, one thousand five hundred children attended five-day clinics.
  Jerry Rich embodies everything the American entrepreneurial spirit 
represents. Throughout his life he has taken risks, applied 
knowledge,sought innovation and built a business. From its success he 
has been rewarded, and with that success he shared with others. This is 
what America is all about, and Rich Harvest Links is not just a tribute 
to golf, but a tribute to a great man of Illinois who cares: Jerry 
Rich.

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