[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 177 (Thursday, November 15, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2430]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING DR. JAMES D. QUAY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. LOIS CAPPS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 15, 2007

  Mrs. CAPPS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor and congratulate my 
friend Dr. James D. Quay of Albany, CA. Jim is retiring early next year 
after a distinguished 25-year career as Executive Director of the 
California Council for the Humanities. Throughout his career he has 
been a tireless State and national leader of the effort to strengthen 
communities through public practice of the humanities.
  Jim was born and grew up in Allentown, PA, where his family has 
resided for at least nine generations. He first came to California in 
June 1969 on a belated honeymoon with his wife, Caren. They marveled at 
the spectacular coast and the beautiful rolling hills, and were struck 
by how often strangers smiled at them as they passed on the sidewalk. 
When they got on the plane to return home, they felt as if they were 
leaving home.
  Arriving back in the East, Jim immediately applied to U.C. Berkeley. 
After he completed service in Harlem as a conscientious objector to the 
Vietnam War, he and Caren drove to Berkeley, arriving in July 1970. 
They have stayed ever since. The couple has two children, Jesse (1976) 
and Jenny (1981).
  Jim received his doctorate in english literature from Berkeley in 
1981. He taught writing at U.C. Santa Cruz and worked first as the 
Humanist-in-Residence, then as Associate Producer at California Public 
Radio, before being hired to lead the California Council for the 
Humanities in 1983. My late husband, Congressman Walter Capps, was the 
Chairman of the selection committee bestowing Jim with this honor.
  Among his many achievements at the Council, Jim developed the first 
public programs in California to discuss the Vietnam War and its 
domestic aftermath. He supported the creation and expansion of a 
program to strengthen California's community museums. He brought 
Motheread, a family literacy program, to Los Angeles. He formed a 
partnership with Heyday Books to publish important anthologies about 
California and its history. He led a statewide effort to commemorate 
the California Sesquicentennial. And he sparked the development of the 
humanities council's landmark California Stories initiative.
  But Jim is not just a list of accomplishments. He's a good friend, a 
loving husband and father, and a thoughtful, insightful leader. During 
a time of reflection in 1996, he sat down and made a list of 25 things 
that mattered most to him. Here are six of them: ``My wonderful family, 
at table or at play; California, the promise, the people and the place; 
Religious music from almost anywhere; A pint of Guinness, freshly 
poured; Dawn; Acts of forgiveness and compassion.''
  Madam Speaker, I am proud to honor James Quay for his work and for 
his example as a human being and I ask you to join me in wishing him a 
retirement filled with long hikes, long conversations, much music, and 
much good cheer.

                          ____________________