[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 90 (Wednesday, July 12, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S7411]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO MARY A. RYAN

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, all of us who know Mary Ryan were 
saddened by her death on April 25. She was a truly outstanding American 
diplomat and public servant, and shall be greatly missed.
  Mary Ryan dedicated her life to public service and to helping others. 
She joined the Foreign Service in 1966 and went on to serve the 
American people as a skilled diplomat for 36 years, including service 
as Ambassador to Swaziland and Assistant Secretary of State for 
Consular Affairs. She retired as one of the few Americans to achieve 
the rank of Career Ambassador, and one of the very first women to do 
so, a major distinction in her profession, but above all, she touched 
many lives in the State Department. She served as a mentor to 
generations in the Foreign Service, and many considered her to be the 
matriarch of America's diplomats.
  As Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, from 1993 to 
her retirement in 2002, she frequently testified before Congress, and 
provided us with valuable guidance and impressive expertise. Thanks to 
her leadership, Congress made necessary changes to enable the Bureau of 
Consular Affairs to improve technology, efficiency and information-
sharing. She worked aggressively to develop the TIPOFF terrorist 
lookout system, which became the basis of our current terrorism data 
system. She was recognized as a leader on consular issues around the 
world.
  Mary Ryan exemplified the best in public service. In a commencement 
address she delivered some years ago at her alma mater, Saint John's 
University, she said, ``I ask you what JFK asked the youth of my day to 
do, to return something to the community which has protected and 
educated you.''
  She encouraged young men and women to ``reject the murderous din of 
materialism,'' emphasizing, ``There is more to life than the amount of 
money on your W-2 at the end of the year.''
  Mary Ryan lived by those words, and they defined her own career and 
life.
  In the immediate aftermath of the bombings of the American embassies 
in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998, Mary put on a hardhat and climbed 
through the bombed rubble of the embassy in Nairobi, wanting to know 
the name and background of each of the victims, both American and 
Kenyan alike. She dedicated much of her subsequent work to improving 
the security of our embassies around the world, and offering a more 
compassionate outreach to the State Department's most valuable assets, 
its men and women.
  At a service in honor of one of the Foreign Service Officers who died 
in the Kenya bombing, Mary Ryan spoke these words:
  ``She was a beautiful, beautiful person. We are greatly diminished by 
her loss.''
  That was true of Mary as well. She too was a beautiful, beautiful, 
person, and we will miss her very much.

                          ____________________