[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 131 (Tuesday, September 23, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1866]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              IN APPRECIATION FOR A LIFETIME OF DEDICATION

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. MIKE ROSS

                              of arkansas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 23, 2003

  Mr. ROSS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank an outstanding and 
dedicated constituent of mine who is retiring after a lifetime of 
caring for our nation's most beautiful places.
  Roger Giddings is a 42-year veteran of federal service who began his 
career in 1960 as a seasonal park ranger for Glacier National Park in 
Montana and Everglades National Park in Florida. Giddings landed his 
first permanent National Parks Service assignment as a supervisory park 
guide at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. He has worked at 
Colonial National Historic Park in Virginia, Natchez Trace Parkway in 
Mississippi, the NPS Headquarters in Washington, DC, and Grand Canyon 
National Park in Arizona before becoming superintendent of Hot Springs 
National Park in Arkansas in 1981.
  His work in Arkansas has resulted in preservation and restoration of 
our national treasure, our bathhouses. In the late 1980's he helped to 
establish the Friends of Fordyce group that worked to get the Fordyce 
Bathhouse rehabilitated into the Park's Visitor Center. For this 
effort, the National Trust for Historic Preservation awarded the park 
it's highest honor, the Historic Preservation Honor Award.
  Giddings's greatest challenge was to save and restore the unique and 
historic Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs, where an essential stabilization 
project is already underway. When he arrived at Hot Springs National 
Park, he set to work not only to revitalize the bathhouses, but all of 
downtown Hot Springs as well. The results of his efforts can be seen by 
all who come to visit, and his work has ensured that many more will 
visit Hot Springs National Park in the future.
  On behalf of all who have visited, enjoyed, and shared the beauty of 
our National Parks, I want to thank Roger Giddings for his persistent 
efforts not only at Hot Springs National Park, but also at some of the 
most amazing places in our great nation.

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