[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 4 (Monday, January 24, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S141]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO DR. DAVID A. AUSTIN

 Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, it is with a heavy heart that I 
rise today to pay tribute to Dr. David A. Austin, an extraordinary man 
who touched many lives but passed away on November 4, 2004.
  Dr. Austin lived a life full of vitality and enthusiasm. He had an 
accomplished career, always helped others without thought for himself 
and made his family the center of his life.
  Dr. Austin was born in Brattleboro, VT, where he graduated from St. 
Michael's High School and received his Bachelor of Science from St. 
Michael's College. From there he went on to medical school at the 
University of Vermont where he began his lifelong career of healing and 
helping others.
  After receiving his Naval Medical Officer commission, he continued 
his education, graduating from the Naval Deep Sea Diving School here in 
Washington, DC and the School of Submarine and Undersea Medicine in New 
London, CT.
  After completing his active duty and residency at St. Albans Naval 
Hospital in New York, Dr. Austin opened his medical practice in Rutland 
in 1970. When not practicing medicine, he was busy serving the 
community as a member of the Christ the King Elementary School Parent-
Teacher Association and the Mount St. Joseph Academy school board, on 
both of which he served as president for a time.
  Later in life, when many people his age were settling into 
retirement, he was called up during the first Gulf War to Bahrain to 
serve his country once again, after which he was awarded the 
Presidential Meritorious Service Medal.
  But one of his greatest honors came last April when his peers in the 
medical community awarded him the Physician of the Year Award. A better 
man could not have been recognized.
  Dr. Austin will be missed by family, friends and all those he touched 
with his healing hand.

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