[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 44 (Monday, March 22, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S1783]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO STEWART UDALL

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, our country has lost a friend, a patriot, 
and an environmental pioneer, Stewart Udall. Stewart Udall did more to 
preserve and protect the American landscape than probably anyone else. 
He died this weekend. Our thoughts are with his family and many 
friends.
  On my last trip to New Mexico, I had the good fortune of being able 
to sit and talk with Stewart Udall for about an hour. It was a 
wonderful experience for me. I had never met him. I had served with his 
brother in the House of Representatives, but this was the first 
conversation I ever had with him. It was wonderful. He was physically a 
little impaired, but his mind was sharp as a tack. We talked about 
things that had happened or things that were happening. He was in great 
spirits and good humor. That is how I will always remember him.
  The last surviving member of President Kennedy's original Cabinet, 
Stewart Udall served as Secretary of the Interior for nearly the entire 
1960s. In that position for both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, the 
man who asked us to not spoil our natural surroundings left an 
indelible imprint on our land.
  His legacy as Secretary of the Interior includes four national parks, 
six national monuments, eight national seashores, nine national 
recreational areas, 20 historic sites, and 50 wildlife refuges. That is 
hard to comprehend.
  He was a versatile, talented, and very accomplished man. He served 
our Nation in the Army Air Corps, later to become the Air Force. He 
served in Europe during World War II. He was a significantly good 
basketball player at the University of Arizona. He was an All-
Conference guard. He taught students at Yale and wrote books that have 
been read by millions.
  He reached the summits of Mount Kilimanjaro and Japan's Mount Fuji. 
At 84, he was still rafting the Colorado River and hiking in the Grand 
Canyon.
  Before he was Secretary Udall, he was Arizona's Congressman Udall. 
Decades later, as I indicated, I served with his famous brother, Mo 
Udall. Now we are all privileged, we Senators, to serve with Secretary 
Udall's son and his nephew, Tom and Mark. What a great legacy--two 
cousins now serving in the Senate. A lot of people do not know their 
first cousin is Gordon Smith, a former Senator from Oregon. It is an 
accomplished family.
  As a dedicated steward of our environment, Stewart Udall's guiding 
principle was that our resources are not limitless. They are scarce, he 
reminded us, and they should be sincerely treasured, always protected, 
and never taken for granted. The same can be said of Stewart Udall.

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