[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 69 (Friday, May 9, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E918]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             IN RECOGNITION OF MR. WILLIAM MECKLENBURG POLK

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 9, 2003

  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me honoring 
Mr. William Mecklenburg Polk, who has made outstanding contributions to 
American society. William Polk has truly distinguished himself 
throughout an extraordinary career in which he has served as a leader 
in the field of secondary education or almost four decades. During this 
time he has been an educator, coach, and mentor to thousands of 
students and colleagues.
  For the last quarter century, William Polk has served with 
distinction as the headmaster of the Groton School in Groton, 
Massachusetts, one of the most rigorous and respected secondary schools 
anywhere in the world. This spring, he will preside over his final 
graduation ceremony before he and his wife, LuAnn, start their new life 
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in what will no doubt be a very active 
retirement.
  William Polk led the Groton School--his alma mater as well as that of 
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Governor and Ambassador Averell 
Harriman, countless leaders in every walk of American life, and several 
distinguished members of this body--with extraordinary wisdom and 
compassion throughout his tenure as Headmaster. His leadership helped 
assure that Groton's transition to a co-educational environment was 
successfully completed; helped usher the School through the onset of 
the digital age; and oversaw its entry into a new century. Fully half 
of the thousands of living Groton alumni know William Polk as their 
headmaster.
  A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Trinity College, William Polk is an 
accomplished theologian who earned a Master of Divinity degree at Union 
theological Seminary after receiving a Rockefeller Fellowship. He has 
excelled in all the many roles in which he has served throughout his 
career--as a headmaster, teacher, theologian, coach, student, husband, 
father, athlete and role model for thousands of young men and women. 
William Polk truly embodies the Groton Scholl motto: ``To Serve Is to 
Reign.''
  Mr. Speaker, I know that my colleagues will join me and two 
distinguished alumni of the Groton School, the Honorable Bobby Scott 
and the Honorable Jim Cooper, in recognizing the extraordinary 
achievements and contributions to American life made by Mr. William 
Mecklenburg Polk.
  He is indeed an American of whom all of our colleagues and all 
Americans should be very proud.

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