[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 132 (Wednesday, November 17, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H9748]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THANKING THE REVEREND DR. BOB PATTERSON

  (Mr. GINGREY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to thank the reverend Dr. Bob 
Patterson for his message today. Bob is no stranger to the halls of the 
United States House or to Georgia congressmen named Phil. When he was a 
young man growing up in Hall County, Georgia, in the 1970s, he was 
appointed to serve as a House page by then Congressman Phil Landrum, 
and later, he was on detached duty with the House Press Gallery during 
the Nixon impeachment inquiry.
  But Bob did not answer to the siren song of politics. He returned to 
Georgia to finish college, and then he headed to Texas for seminary. 
Ministers are not known for staying in one place too long, but Bob has 
made his home at the First Baptist Church of Warm Springs, Georgia, 
since 1986.
  Warm Springs, Georgia, should sound familiar to those who take a 
strong interest in American history. Even before he was elected 
President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a frequent visitor and a part-
time resident. He was convinced that the warm spring water that existed 
there had a healing effect on his polio, and he set up an institute in 
this west Georgia community where other victims of the disease, many of 
them children, could come for care.
  FDR built a house in Warm Springs that is known as the Little White 
House, and it was in this house in 1945 that the President died.
  FDR saw Warm Springs as a place to serve others, and Bob Patterson 
has carried on that tradition in the heart of Meriwether County. The 
thesis for his doctoral dissertation was entitled ``Developing a Need-
Based Community Ministry Strategy for First Baptist Church in Warm 
Springs.'' He has personally ministered to the needs in his local 
community by serving the Family Connection initiative. In fact, he has 
been honored by both the Rotary and the Pilot clubs for his outstanding 
contribution to all of Meriwether County.

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