[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 55 (Tuesday, April 27, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E654-E655]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION DESIGNATING THE NEWELL GEORGE POST OFFICE 
                           IN KANSAS CITY, KS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DENNIS MOORE

                               of kansas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 27, 2004

  Mr. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, joined today by Representatives Todd Tiahrt, 
Jim Ryun and Jerry Moran, I am introducing legislation that would 
designate the United States Postal Service facility located at 550 
Nebraska Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, as the ``Newell George Post 
Office Building.''
  Newell Adolphus George served as a member of the 86th Congress, from 
1959-61, representing the Second District of Kansas, which was 
redesignated as the Third District following the post-1960 
congressional reapportionment. He was a member of the House Veterans' 
Affairs Committee. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1904, he attended 
Hawthorne Grade School and Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, 
Kansas, as well as Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri, 
and Park College in Parkville, Missouri.
  After studying law at the University of Kansas City School of Law, 
Newell George obtained employment as a Capitol Hill elevator operator 
through the patronage of Senator George McGill of Kansas and graduated 
from the George Washington University Law School. He then was an 
attorney for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in Washington, 
D.C., from 1935-1937, a regional counsel for the War Manpower 
Commission from 1942-43, and a regional attorney for the Bureau of 
Employment Security and the Federal Security Agency from 1937-52. After 
the Democratic Party lost control of the Executive Branch, George 
served as first assistant Wyandotte County Attorney from 1953-58. At 
that point, he began running for Congress, losing to incumbent 
Republican Errett Scrivner in 1954 and 1956. In 1958, however, a strong 
anti-Republican tide ran through the farm and western states, resulting 
in the defeat of numerous incumbent Senators and Representatives, 
including the defeat of Representative Scrivner by Newell George.

  With Republican dominance returned to Kansas in 1960, Representative 
George was defeated for re-election by Robert Ellsworth of Lawrence, 
making Newell George the most recent resident of Kansas City to 
represent Kansas in the U.S. Congress. After his defeat, however, 
George was the first U.S. Attorney nominated for appointment by the new 
Kennedy-Johnson Administration. Newell George served as U.S. Attorney 
for Kansas from 1961-68. After losing another congressional race in 
1968 to Representative Larry Winn, Jr., George practiced law privately 
in Kansas City, Kansas, and died in 1992.

[[Page E655]]

  Married to the former Jean Hannan of Kansas City, Kansas, Newell 
George was an intrepid public servant and active, concerned citizen. In 
addition to his political activities, he was a member of Abdallah 
Shrine, Scottish Rite; a master of the West Gate Masonic Lodge; 
president of the Kansas City, Kansas, Hi-12 Club; a member of the 
Kansas State Hi-12 Association; a member of the Breakfast Optimist 
Club; a member of the Wyandotte County, Kansas and American Bar 
Associations, the American Judicature Society, Delta Theta Phi law 
fraternity, the American Academy of Political And Social Science, the 
Kansas City, Kansas Chamber of Commerce, the Terrace Club, the Top o' 
the Morning Club, and the First Presbyterian Church of Kansas City, 
Kansas.
  Newell George's other public service included membership on the 
Kansas Public Disclosure Commission; the Civil Service Commission of 
Kansas City, Kansas; the Kansas State Government Ethics Commission; and 
service as a director of the Kansas Multiple Sclerosis Society. 
Nicknamed ``Punk'' by his friends, George's other activities included 
managing a string of boxers, after boxing himself at Wentworth Military 
Academy; bowling; and adding to a collection of old books--mainly 
Bibles and McGuffey readers--begun by his father.
  In short, Mr. Speaker, Newell A. George was the kind of community 
oriented, politically active individual who made things happen on the 
state and local level in so many American cities during the middle 
third of the twentieth century. With regard to Kansas and Kansas City, 
he was one of a small but hardy group of Democratic activists who kept 
two-party government alive in one of our country's most Republican 
states. It is fitting, therefore, that the House consider the 
legislation introduced today by the bipartisan Kansas House delegation 
that will designate Kansas City, Kansas', civic center post office in 
memory of U.S. Representative Newell George.

                          ____________________