[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 56 (Wednesday, April 28, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E683]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TRIBUTE TO HENRY AND RUTH MORGENTHAU

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. MICHAEL E. CAPUANO

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 28, 2004

  Mr. CAPUANO. Mr. Speaker, I rise to praise two of my most illustrious 
constituents, Henry Morgenthau III and Ruth S. Morgenthau. Harvard 
Hillel will honor them this weekend, on Sunday, May 2, with its Tribute 
to Excellence. Henry and Ruth Morgenthau are distinguished citizens of 
the 8th Congressional District, Massachusetts, and of our nation. They 
can be said, truly, to be also citizens of the world. They are 
cosmopolitan in the best sense, their knowledge and compassion 
embracing several continents.
  Ruth Morgenthau is Adlai Stevenson Professor of International 
Politics emerita at Brandeis University and Founding Director of its 
graduate program in sustainable development. She wrote an award-winning 
book on the politics of francophone Africa and became an early, 
persuasive advocate of micro-finance and micro-enterprise as 
development strategies. She organized Food Corps International to 
provide low cost, low-tech assistance to rural populations in Africa, 
Asia, and Latin America. She serves now as Chair of the Board of 
Directors of PACT, an NGO that supports capacity building community 
projects in twenty countries. PACT is remarkable too, and here one sees 
Ruth Morgenthau's leadership, for its work in educating and empowering 
women.
  Henry Morgenthau III, the son and grandson of eminent public 
servants, has been a pioneer in public television. He early sensed the 
role it could play in our civic life, and he used it to deepen our 
understanding of ourselves as a people. He served as Executive Producer 
of Prospects for Mankind, the program that Eleanor Roosevelt hosted 
during the last three years of her life, interviewing, among others, 
Ralph Bunche, John Kenneth Galbraith, Adlai Stevenson, and, at Henry's 
urging, a young Senator from Massachusetts, John Kennedy. In the spring 
of 1963, he produced, for Boston's WGBH, an important series on The 
Negro and the American Promise, featuring interviews with Dr. Kenneth 
Clark, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin. He has won 
many awards, including the Peabody, Emmy, UPI, EFLA, and Flaherty Film 
Festival Awards.
  Both Henry and Ruth Morgenthau achieved significant and enduring 
professional triumphs. But they were never too busy to help a friend, 
shelter a refugee, or further a good cause. Their house on Highland 
Street in Cambridge commemorates decades of public service. There are 
pictures of Henry Morgenthau, Wilson's ambassador to Turkey, who 
pleaded for the Armenians; Henry Morgenthau II who helped President 
Roosevelt shape the New Deal and defeat the Axis; family photos with 
Eleanor Roosevelt and other world leaders. Mrs. Roosevelt was a dear 
friend to them both and stood by the chupa at their wedding. Every 
year, on October 11, they celebrate her birthday, with a party, verging 
on a rally, that never fails to inspire all present.
  Today, I want, above all, to thank Ruth and Henry Morgenthau for 
their tireless efforts to make the world free and safe. They have kept 
hope alive and encouraged us all to carry on the struggle.

                          ____________________