[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 74 (Tuesday, June 1, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E974]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              TRIBUTE TO HONORABLE WARD WHARTON McFARLAND

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. SPENCER BACHUS

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 1, 2004

  Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to remember and pay tribute to one of 
Alabama's most esteemed citizens on the occasion of the 25th 
anniversary of his passing. Today a flag flies over the Capitol 
building to honor the man who contributed to the state of Alabama as an 
educator, lawyer, and as a businessman. The Honorable Ward McFarland 
taught at the University of Alabama in the Economics Department for two 
years prior to practicing law in Tuscaloosa. He served as both State 
Highway Director and Docks Director for the state, and participated in 
International Commerce on behalf of the State of Alabama in order to 
recruit industry. His efforts were recognized in 1979, at the time of 
his death, as the Alabama State Senate commended him as one of the 
state's most outstanding and contributing citizens.
  Mr. McFarland founded a multi-million dollar real estate empire that 
included the construction of malls, apartment complexes, medical 
buildings, restaurants, hotels, and neighborhoods throughout Alabama 
and the South. His works were again recognized this past year as 
Alabama Governor Bob Riley proclaimed June 20, 2003 to be James Elisha 
Folsom, Sr.-Ward Wharton McFarland Day, placing him alongside the 
governor with whom he had worked during two administrations. 
Concomitant to that proclamation came the naming of a highway in 
Alabama the ``Folsom-McFarland Highway''.
  His legacy reaches well beyond the borders of Alabama as well. Mr. 
McFarland served in the Navy during WWII, during which his vessel was 
bombed. Accepting Medical Discharges along with all other survivors of 
the incident, he came home to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. His 
resolute patriotism during this time served as a foreshadowing of the 
resolve he maintained in all other enterprises in his life. Mr. 
McFarland has a lasting legacy in the state of Alabama, one that will 
continue to be echoed in the structures that he helped build, and the 
minds and determinations that he helped to mold in the next generations 
of Alabama's citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, I know that the citizens of Alabama are aware of and 
appreciate all that Mr. McFarland has done for his state. I am now 
honored to recognize his accomplishments to this House of 
Representatives in our nation's Capitol.

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