[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 4, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S24-S25]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO DAVID ARMAND DEKEYSER

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a great 
American, Armand DeKeyser, my chief of staff for 8 years, who is going 
out into the commercial world. This is a big event for me. It is 
painful, indeed, to lose one with whom I have been so closely 
associated for so long. I have known him and worked with him for more 
than 25 years. We met as we served together for nearly 10 years in the 
U.S. Army Reserve in Mobile, AL, the 1184th Transportation Terminal 
Unit. We went to annual training together and became good friends. 
Armand and his wife Beverly had returned to Mobile after he completed 
his Active-Duty service with the U.S. Army in Germany. He first, after 
he returned, worked in the seafood business, Star Fish and Oyster 
Company, that had been in his family for over 80 years. After another 
business experience, I hired him as a law enforcement coordinator when 
I became U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama.
  Perhaps his most important contribution there was his leadership for 
the Weed and Seed Program that revitalized the Martin Luther King 
neighborhood in Mobile, AL. He helped get the citizens of the community 
together and drew up a plan for a neighborhood redevelopment program. 
The city, the county, and the Federal Government all worked together. 
He did a superb job.
  It was a great success. Today that neighborhood is an entirely 
different community than it was in the early 1990s. I later told him, 
when they put you in the ground, this is one achievement you know made 
the world better.

  In 1994, I was elected attorney general of Alabama, and the office 
was in the midst of a funding crisis--and I mean crisis; I do not mean 
a 1, 2, or 3-percent shortfall. Spending was on track to exceed the 
funds available to the office by $5 million, and the budget was a $10 
million budget.
  I chose Armand to be our administrative officer, and his performance 
was superb. Automobiles were sold, all of them--virtually all of them. 
Offsite offices were closed. Nonmerit system employees were let go. 
One-third of the office, virtually all nonmerit employees, had to be 
terminated--one-third of the Office of the Attorney General. The 
workload had to be completely reorganized as a result, and Armand's 
work during that time was nothing short of heroic.
  Then in 1996, I was elected to the Senate, and I asked him to serve 
as my chief of staff. What a great decision that was. He and Beverly 
agreed to come to Washington--after he and I lived together and shared 
an apartment together here for a while, a three-story walkup--to take 
on the task of helping this new and inexperienced Senator get started.
  He worked harder and longer during his 8 years than any other 
employee on our staff. He knows people all over our State, and they 
like and trust him. He managed so ably we were able to return to the 
U.S. Treasury each year a substantial portion of the funds given to our 
office by the Senate.
  Most of all, he helped me and others on our staff achieve our best. 
He subordinated himself to serve the office with

[[Page S25]]

fidelity, diligence, and integrity. Chief of staff is not an easy job, 
but his gifts and graces were a perfect fit. Whether he was encouraging 
young staffers, dealing with Governors, generals, administration 
officials, or the many constituents who call on us for help, he 
performed superbly.
  His military service, including Active Duty and the Army Reserve, was 
a very valuable asset in his service to me. In fact, the 1184th, after 
I got out of it, was activated, and he spent almost a year in Kuwait as 
part of Desert Storm. He retired after 28 years of service with the 
military at the rank of lieutenant colonel.
  The key to Armand's success and his value to our office, I believe, 
was his deep commitment to an America where the right thing is done and 
where there is an efficient and lawful process for doing the people's 
work. He never forgot that the money we spend here has been extracted 
from some decent American who would otherwise find good use for it. 
Armand believes we must be good stewards of that money, and that 
programs and spending are only worthwhile if they produce a valuable 
return. He feels passionately about this, and our shared values in this 
regard made us a good team, I think.
  He has been a superb public servant, and by thousands of individual 
acts of accountability, frugality, and integrity--mostly unnoticed by 
the press or anyone else particularly--he has saved the dutiful 
taxpayers of America tens of millions of dollars. When he came to 
Washington, I told him that because of my poor abilities, I needed to 
have the best staff we could put together. As a result of his 
leadership, I believe we created and have maintained a magnificent 
team, without whose help I could not have been successful.

  In addition to his wife Beverly, whom I admire so much and with whom 
he attended Murphy High School in Mobile, where my daughter attended, 
and Auburn University, he has two fine sons: Phillip, a graduate of 
Georgia Tech and now a consulting engineer, and David, who commenced as 
a student at Boston College. He is and has every right to be extremely 
proud of them.
  He and Beverly have opened their lives and home to my staff 
throughout the years. Serving as a ``home away from home'' for many 
Alabamians in the area and staff people, Armand's house has been the 
site of holiday and office gatherings on numerous occasions.
  Over the years, his ability to make the staff feel more like a family 
has earned him the friendship and affection of many. Many of our staff, 
as well as their parents, appreciate that.
  I and all our team truly appreciate the open-door policy he has had 
with staff and recognize all the work he has done to keep things 
running smoothly in the office.
  He has served extraordinarily well and faithfully, and it is now 
appropriate and just that Armand undertake new opportunities.
  While I am sad to see him leave, I know he is about to embark on a 
great new career as executive director of the Government Relations 
Group at Kilpatrick Stockton, LLP, one of America's finest law firms. I 
am confident he will meet the challenge of the new job with the same 
professionalism and dedication he has shown for the past 8 years as my 
chief of staff. His years of public service may be over for now, but 
his commitment to the Nation and the principles on which it was founded 
will never waiver.
  I wish him all the best. I close with one final remark close to 
Armand's Auburn heart: War eagle.

                          ____________________