[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 30, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1601]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO FATHER PAUL TIPTON

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 29, 2008

  Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, on May 25, my friend, Father Paul 
Tipton, passed away. He was an incredible man with an irreverent sense 
of humor who accomplished great things.
  I first met Father Tipton in 1989. He was the President of the 
Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and I was a staffer for 
Congressman Joe Moakley (D-MA). On November 16th of that year, six 
Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were murdered by 
members of the U.S.-backed Salvadoran Armed Forces. A cover-up ensued 
and there was a strong sense that the truth would never be known.
  Father Tipton organized the Jesuit community in the United States--
including all the Jesuit college and university Presidents--to put 
pressure on the U.S. and Salvadoran governments and demand truth and 
justice in this tragic case. He worked closely with Congressman 
Moakley, who headed a special task force that was established to 
investigate these crimes. His no-nonsense style and his tough talk 
earned him the nickname ``Father John Wayne.'' He wouldn't give up--and 
ultimately he helped find the truth.
  Father Tipton dedicated his life to helping people and making the 
world a better place. In addition to his work in El Salvador, he was a 
champion for education and making sure that everyone who wanted an 
education could afford to get one. He was a great man and a great 
friend. I miss him.
  Madam Speaker, I would like to ask unanimous consent to insert Father 
Tipton's obituary, which appeared in the Washington Post on Sunday, 
June 1, 2008, into the Record.

                [From the Washington Post, June 1, 2008]

           Paul Tipton; Exposed Jesuit Deaths in El Salvador

                         (By Patricia Sullivan)

       Paul Smallwood Tipton, 69, who, while president of the 
     Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities helped expose 
     the assassination of six Catholic priests, their their 
     housekeeper and her daughter by the Salvadoran army, died of 
     cancer May 25 at Georgetown University Hospital. He lived in 
     the District and Lusby.
       Rev. Tipton had just started at the association when he 
     received a call telling him that the sole witness to the Nov. 
     16, 1989, murders of six Jesuits and two women at Central 
     American University in San Salvador was detained and 
     interrogated by Salvadoran officials, the U.S. State 
     Department and the FBI. He flew from Washington to Miami and 
     took custody of Luisa Cerna, the housekeeper and her husband.
       He became active in the case, writing letters that accused 
     the U.S. ambassador of attempting to discredit her.
       ``The reason we Jesuits in the United States are very angry 
     is that the mistreatment of the Cernas effectively has 
     neutralized the only witness who has come forward, and it 
     means probably no other witness will come forward,'' he told 
     the New York Times at the time. ``This particular institution 
     is a voice for peace and justice, and pursuing the people who 
     pulled the triggers is a very personal matter for us.''
       Rev. Tipton later made several trips to El Salvador with 
     U.S. Rep. Joe Moakley, the Massachusetts Democrat who led the 
     congressional task force investigating the killings. The 
     revelations led to a cut in U.S. foreign aid to the 
     Salvadoran government, resolution of the country's civil war 
     and election of a new government.
       Rev. Tipton was born in Birmingham Ala., and began studying 
     to be a Jesuit priest in 1958. He attended the University of 
     Virginia and graduated from Spring Hill College in Mobile, 
     Ala. He taught at an El Paso high school, while attending 
     graduate school at the University of Texas at El Paso.
       In 1968, he joined the staff of U.S. Rep. Richard C. White 
     (D-Tex.) and did further graduate work in theological studies 
     at Woodstock College in Maryland, Union Theological Seminary 
     in New York and Catholic University. He was ordained a Jesuit 
     priest in 1971 in New Orleans.
       The following year, he was named the president of Spring 
     Hill College, where he worked for 17 years. While there, he 
     and a crew of students raced a 40 foot sloop, ``Holy Smoke,'' 
     in a 180-mile overnight trip in the Gulf of Mexico in 1983. 
     Halfway through the race, an intense storm with near-
     hurricane strength winds generated 20-foot waves. Rev. Tipton 
     and his crew headed home but almost a third of the 29 boats 
     had major problems. The Coast Guard responded to three Mayday 
     calls and one sailor drowned.
       Rev. Tipton, who was chairman of the offshore committee of 
     the Gulf Yachting Association, which had sponsored the race, 
     found two of the missing crews the next day on a barrier 
     island according to a contemporaneous article in the New York 
     Times.
       He worked at the association of Jesuit Colleges and 
     Universities in Washington from 1989 until 1996, overseeing 
     the legislative activities of the 28 Jesuit postsecondary 
     schools in the United States.
       When Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School caught fire 
     July 8, 1993, Rev. Tipton helped lead nuns out of their 
     monastery into the courtyard, then joined other priests in 
     rescuing priceless vestments, chalices, and paintings. With a 
     friend, Davis Feickert, he removed a massive 1821 painting of 
     Jesus, Mary and Martha in prayer, donated to the Sisters of 
     Visitation by Charles X of France.
       By 1996, when he became president of Jacksonville 
     University in Florida, Rev. Tipton had left the Jesuits and 
     become a diocesan priest. He returned to Washington in 2000, 
     working as a counselor to the secretary of labor. In 2001, he 
     started the Provident Consulting Group to provide services to 
     nonprofit and faith-based organizations a group he ran until 
     his death.
       In 2003, he became president of St. Mary's Ryken High 
     School, a Catholic college preparatory school in Leonardtown, 
     where for the next two years he developed a long-range 
     financial plan, recrafted the misson statement and increased 
     annual giving by 100 percent.
       He was a member of numerous education and civic boards.
       He had no immediate family survivors.

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