[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 147 (Monday, October 20, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2091]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      IN MEMORY OF BARRY BERINGER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. SHERWOOD BOEHLERT

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 20, 2003

  Mr. BOEHLERT. Mr. Speaker, I want to draw attention today to Barry 
Beringer, who served on the House Science Committee for over a decade 
and was the Committee's Chief Counsel for eight years.
  Tragically, Barry was taken from us on September 29, after a 
courageous fight with pancreatic cancer. Until the very end, Barry was 
committed to the work of the Science Committee. He remained intimately 
involved even when he could not make it into the office. He acted as a 
mentor to our associate counsel through frequent telephone 
conversations, and he always wanted to do more, even as he was 
struggling with the fatigue and other ordeals of his illness.
  Barry had an enormous impact on all of us who worked with him on 
Capitol Hill--both as a chief counsel and as a person. Barry served as 
chief counsel under three Chairmen, and that was no accident. Everyone 
who knew Barry knew that he could be relied upon for sound and proper 
advice, that he did not shade his answers. We also knew that he knew 
the Committee history backwards and forwards, that no one would have a 
better sense of how to make use of precedent. And, above all, we knew 
that no one knew more people on the Hill and had better relationships 
with a wide variety of colleagues. Barry could draw upon these 
relationships for information, for guidance, for assistance. In all his 
years on the Hill, Barry made only friends.
  The strengths Barry had as a colleague grew out of the strengths he 
had as a person. He could draw upon so many friends on Capitol Hill 
because of the warm and decent person he was. Barry did not spend his 
time ``networking'' or building relationships for utilitarian purposes. 
He had a network simply because everyone who dealt with him liked him. 
They knew he was a caring person and a straightforward one. He treated 
everyone with respect. That is all too rare around the Capitol, and 
many of the notes we have received about Barry since his death pointed 
to his basic friendliness and decency.
  But those of us who worked with him most closely knew that there was 
far more to Barry than just a pleasant congeniality. He was smart, 
funny, passionate, caring and kind. He pursued his interests in 
politics and history with fervor and good humor.
  Yet there was nothing he cared about so much as he cared about his 
family. He talked often about his wife, Bonnie, and was as proud (and 
worried) as any parent could be about how his son Francis and his 
daughter Katie were faring. No one could know Barry without knowing 
about his family, and Fran gave a moving eulogy for his father.
  Barry's loss will be hardest, of course, on his family. But those of 
us who worked with him all these years will also always have him in our 
minds and hearts. We still look for Barry when we have a question, and 
are caught up short by his absence. We tell a joke and wait to hear his 
laughter, or his quip in response. We look to him to show us how to 
behave well in difficult situations, and have to rely instead on the 
memory of how he acted. But that memory will be kept with us and will 
help us always.
  Barry was, among so many other things, a devoted and model public 
servant. I know this body will mourn his loss and feel his absence for 
years to come.

                          ____________________