[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 90 (Wednesday, June 18, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1294]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN RECOGNITION OF JAMES MATLACK

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BOB FILNER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 18, 2003

  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, I would like to take this 
opportunity to recognize and congratulate James Matlack upon the 
occasion of his retirement as Director of the Washington, DC Office for 
the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). He will be honored at a 
reception on Wednesday, June 25th.
  James was born into a Quaker family in Moorestown, New Jersey and 
attended Quaker schools there and in Westtown, Pennsylvania, an early 
influence that led to his work at AFSC. He received his Bachelors 
Degree from Princeton University, his Masters Degree as a Fulbright 
Scholar at Oxford University in England, and his Ph.D. at Yale 
University where he was a Danforth Fellow and a Woodrow Wilson Scholar.
  He held a number of academic positions before joining AFSC. I first 
met James when he was on the faculty at Cornell University in the late 
1960s. At the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, he served as the 
Master/Director of the Southwest Residential College. Later, he joined 
the faculty at Hampshire College, also in Amherst, while he was working 
as Executive Assistant to the President and Secretary of the Board of 
Trustees.
  Before joining the AFSC staff, James spent two terms on their 
National Board of Directors in the position of Vice Chairman of the 
Board. He was also Presiding Clerk of the Nationwide Peace Education 
Committee. In 1979, he was a member of the AFSC delegation to Vietnam 
and Cambodia, the first Western group to visit Phnom Penh after the 
fall of the Khmer Rouge. James has been a worldwide traveler on behalf 
of the work of AFSC, with trips to the Middle East six times, to 
Central America three times, and to Mexico.
  In 1983, he became Director of the AFSC Washington office. In this 
position, he has worked on a wide range of AFSC domestic and 
international issues, involving government officials, diplomats, policy 
experts, the news media, and like-minded advocacy groups.
  James also has served on the Board of Trustees of Sidwell Friends 
School in Washington, DC.
  Upon his retirement, he is joined in celebrating his accomplishments 
by his wife, his three children, and five grandchildren. His dedication 
and commitment to the work of the American Friends Service Committee 
have been monumental, and he will be missed.
  My sincere thanks and best wishes go to my friend, James Matlack. He 
has been a tireless advocate for peace, human rights, and civil 
liberties. He was one lobbyist that I and many of my colleagues 
heartily welcomed in our offices!

                          ____________________