[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 75 (Wednesday, June 2, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1004]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO RAYMOND FRANCIS ROURKE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MARTIN T. MEEHAN

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 2, 2004

  Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay special tribute to Raymond 
Francis Rourke who passed away on Monday, May 24 at the age of 86. Ray 
was a loving father and husband, an outstanding public servant, and 
friend and mentor to many including myself.
  I ask unanimous consent to enter into the Congressional Record the 
Lowell Sun's Editorial from May 26:


                         Ray Rourke. 1917-2004

       If Lowell could build a pantheon to its all-time great 
     civic leaders, a statue of Ray Rourke would stand on a 
     pedestal alongside those of Paul Tsongas, Telemachus ``Mike'' 
     DeMoulas and others.
       Rourke, who died Monday at the age of 84, was a Mill City 
     icon and a throwback to an era of Irish gentlemen who 
     succeeded in combining a valued family life with an equally 
     strong commitment to public service.
       In his essence, Rourke was a good listener and a specially 
     good adviser. He never told people how to think; instead he 
     kindly counseled them as to the importance of what they 
     should be thinking about. It was a philosophy that won him 
     hundreds, if not thousands, of lifelong friends.
       Of all his many accomplishments, Rourke considered his 
     greatest legacy to Lowell and the state of Massachusetts to 
     be his seven children. ``I added to the economy seven 
     times,'' he would proudly say at Mr. Al's Barbershop on 
     Middlesex Street.
       Rourke will go down in political annals for his long and 
     distinguished public service as a city councilor, mayor, 
     state representative and state Deputy Secretary of 
     Transportation in both the Dukakis and King administrations. 
     Yet if we could write a fitting epithet for his statue, in 
     our pantheon of Lowell greats, it would read:
       ``Ray Rourke [1917-2004], one of those humble yet great 
     working-class men from Lowell's `Flats' neighborhood who 
     decided to do something good for the community and 
     succeeded.''
       Ray is survived by his wife, Rita; his two daughters, 
     Maureen A. Cohen and Nancy L. Vieira; his three sons, Raymond 
     R., Richard P., and John P.; and his sixteen grandchildren 
     and fifteen great-grandchildren.

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