[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 76 (Thursday, June 9, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1191]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         A TRIBUTE TO MEL YOST

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 9, 2005

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to 
Mel Yost, one of our community's most compassionate advocates, who 
passed away on June 1, 2005. I had the privilege of knowing this 
remarkable man personally and working with him the past 8 years on 
numerous issues to help improve the lives of those oppressed by 
poverty, disease, and hopelessness throughout the world.
  Mel Yost was one of three key founders of the first Colorado RESULTS 
chapter in 1983. He believed implicitly in the purpose of RESULTS ``to 
create the political will to end hunger and the worst aspects of 
poverty and to empower individuals to have breakthroughs in exercising 
their personal and political power.'' Mel was active with RESULTS for 
22 years and attended the first RESULTS Regional Conference in San 
Diego in 1986. In September 1990 in Denver's City Park at the World 
Summit of Children's Candlelight Vigil, Mel read Ina J. Hughes' 
``Prayer for Children'' before 3,000 people, including the Governor and 
most of Colorado's national and local politicians. Often accompanied by 
his wife, Jan, Mel attended every RESULTS International Conference from 
1985 through 2004.
  He worked as a truck driver for Safeway for 30 years and frequently 
regaled his friends with stories of driving trucks in the mountains of 
New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. He happily used expressions like 
``hammer on down, blue whiskey,'' his radio handle, and ``put the pedal 
to the medal, baby.''
  In recent years, Mel hosted many meetings of the Denver and Boulder 
RESULTS groups because his retirement community was located halfway 
between the cities. He was a founding member in 1997 of the 
``Experiment in Democracy and Citizenship'' group begun by my 
predecessor Representative David Skaggs. He continued to serve on this 
task force for me, sharing consensus decisions and creative solutions 
about federal legislation.
  Mel always urged people to have fun. If a project wasn't fun, he 
didn't want to do it. He frequently read poetry, sometimes his own, at 
RESULTS meetings. Friends always looked forward to receiving his 
letters because they were poetic, compassionate, and showed clearly his 
positive approach to life, along with his kindness, his love of family, 
his love for all children, and his caring for the poor and oppressed of 
the world.
  In what was to be his final presentation to the Colorado RESULTS 
group, Mel recalled founding the organization in 1983 to work on ending 
hunger and poverty in the world and to provide hope to the hopeless. 
His final words of advice were to ``hook your mind up to your heart and 
let 'er rip, because that's the only way to get anything done.''
  I ask my colleagues to join me today in honoring the life of Mel 
Yost. Our world is better because of him.

                          ____________________