[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 77 (Tuesday, May 19, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S5612]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING BRIAN O'NEILL

 Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, it is with a very heavy heart 
that I rise today to inform the Senate of the recent passing of one of 
the most incredible civil servants it has been my honor to know. Sadly, 
Brian O'Neill, the National Park Service superintendent at the Golden 
Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, passed away last week 
following complications from heart surgery.
  To know Brian was to have known an extraordinary human being; someone 
who was completely devoted to his profession, his family, his friends, 
and to the national parks he so dearly loved.
  Since 1986, when he became the superintendent at Golden Gate, Brian 
has been the inspiration and the driving force behind the success of 
one of the largest urban parks in the world. What set him apart, 
though, was not just a talent for the day-to-day management of a 
national park, but his grasp of the principal that a park is far more 
than a circle drawn on a map. He knew early on that, for a park to 
flourish, particularly an urban park, it needed the support of the 
local community, and that the best way to build that support was 
through the building of partnerships--partnerships that were the 
product of personal relationships.
  Brian understood that a single park employee could only produce a set 
amount of work. But if you could turn that employee into an ambassador 
for the park, then others could be brought in to lighten the load and 
advance the cause. That is why Brian often said that what he really did 
was run a ``friend-raising'' business. And with well over 20,000 
volunteers, I would say Brian's instincts were pretty good.
  Too often in what passes for political discourse today the term 
``bureaucrat'' is used as a pejorative. Anyone who would suggest such a 
meaning obviously never met Brian O'Neill. He was, by any definition 
and in the finest tradition of the civil service, the consummate 
bureaucrat; a skilled manager whose talents, whose energy, and whose 
sheer larger-than-life personality will be missed. I am proud to have 
had the privilege of knowing Brian O'Neill.
  Mr. President, I am sure I speak for all my Senate colleagues in 
expressing my sincere condolences to Brian's friends, his coworkers, 
and especially the O'Neill family.

                          ____________________