[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 126 (Thursday, October 7, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10694-S10695]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO DR. LINDA CRNIC

 Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to Dr. 
Linda Crnic, of Denver, CO, who passed away unexpectedly on September 
10, 2004.
  Dr. Crnic was a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the 
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and director of the 
Colorado Mental Retardation and Developmental Disability Research 
Center. She was also an inspiration to thousands of families across the 
Nation for her internationally recognized research on Down syndrome and 
Fragile X.
  Down syndrome and Fragile X are the two leading genetic disorders 
causing mental retardation. Fragile X is an inherited disorder caused 
by a defect in one gene on the X chromosome. It is also the most common 
known cause of Autism.
  While I did not know Linda personally, many individuals have reached 
out to me in recent weeks with stories and tributes about the impact 
Linda made as a mother, as a colleague, as a friend, and through her 
research.
  Dr. Crnic's research helped individuals with Down syndrome and 
Fragile X become increasingly integrated into society and live fuller 
and more active lives.
  Through the efforts and outreach of professionals like Linda Crnic, 
all of us benefit as research about these disorders have also led to 
new medical insights and treatments.
  According to those families, whose lives she touched so profoundly, 
one cannot begin to describe the high regard and affection in which Dr. 
Crnic

[[Page S10695]]

was held. She was a researcher to whom parents of children with Fragile 
X and Down syndrome could always go to with their concerns, regardless 
of whether or not their concerns were related to Dr. Crnic's area of 
research. She listened and responded. This loss, for the Fragile X and 
Down syndrome communities is incalculable.
  I send my deepest condolences to Linda Crnic's family. I hope they 
are comforted with her memory and knowledge that their loss is shared 
by so many in her community and across this nation.
  I ask that the following news story about the life of Linda Crnic 
from the Rocky Mountain News be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From the Rocky Mountain News, Sept. 22, 2004]

               Crnic, 56, Championed Down Syndrome Causes

                             (By Mark Wolf)

       Linda Crnic addressed the National Down Syndrome Congress 
     last month on The Dawn of a New Era in biomedical research, 
     then spent the evening dancing with children with Down 
     syndrome.
       ``She spent hours on the dance floor,'' said Lloyd Lewis, 
     of Lafayette, father of a child with Down syndrome, who 
     addressed the association from a parent's perspective. 
     ``There was a particularly moving moment when a 50-year-old 
     woman was confused at not being able to find her purse. Linda 
     spent an hour looking under every table for it.''
       Crnic, an internationally prominent Down syndrome 
     researcher, died Sept. 11 from injuries suffered in a bicycle 
     accident. She was 56.
       She was a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the 
     University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and, since 
     2001, director of the Colorado Mental Retardation and 
     Developmental Disabilities Research Center.
       ``A topic like (Down syndrome and other developmental 
     disabilities) is never something you can approach with one 
     particular line of investigation,'' said Dr. Doug Jones, 
     chairman of pediatrics at the Health Sciences Center. ``You 
     have to look at genetics, what determines behavior, a whole 
     range of things to understand how to help these children be 
     as normal as possible.
       ``You have to have a psychologist, physician, geneticist. 
     It requires a broad range of disciplines. Linda's great 
     strength was that she saw how to do that, not just within the 
     School of Medicine, but within the entire University of 
     Colorado system and CSU, DU and ultimately across the 
     country.''
       Born in Fort Wayne, Ind., she moved to Naperville, IL., 
     when she was 12. She earned a bachelor's degree from the 
     University of Chicago and master's and doctoral degrees in 
     experimental psychology from the University of Illinois at 
     Chicago.
       She joined the CU Medical School as a postdoctorate fellow 
     in 1975 and became a full professor in 1994.
       ``She was just the kindest, most loving person that you 
     would ever meet in your life,'' said Stan Wilks, her husband. 
     ``She was actively involved and mentored a lot of people in 
     their scientific careers.''
       Their son, Michael, 13, plays cello, and his mother would 
     sit with him while he practiced.
       ``She made that commitment to him,'' said her husband.
       The family loved hiking and camping and had just purchased 
     an A-frame chalet in Hartsell.
       ``We spent two of the last three weekends up there. We 
     bought it as a little family getaway to have some real 
     private times,'' Wilks said.
       The weekend she died, Mrs. Crnic had traveled to Bend, 
     Ore., for a reunion weekend with several women with whom she 
     had attended leadership training. During a leisurely bike 
     ride she fell and fractured her skull.
       ``The tragedy of that is that she was an expert bike rider 
     and practiced safety. She would never go biking without a 
     helmet, and here she was without a helmet,'' Wilks said.
       She was in demand as a speaker to professional 
     organizations nationally and internationally and was a strong 
     advocate for increased support and research for Down syndrome 
     families.
       ``She took the time and was genuinely interested in parents 
     and kids. She stimulated in me the notion that parents could 
     be very active and influential in funding research from 
     various avenues: the National Institutes of Health, Congress 
     and private benefactors,'' Lewis said.
       Surviving in addition to her husband and son are sisters 
     Jacqueline Susmark, of Lakewood, and Janine Bisbee, of 
     Warren, N.J., and brother Brent Smith, of Salida.

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