[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 89 (Wednesday, June 13, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4146-S4147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO SHERRIE SLICK

  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I am pleased to follow my colleague 
from Colorado who has come to the floor to recognize a very fine public 
servant who has been with him and the Senate for years. I, too, today 
rise to speak of an Alaskan who has dedicated a quarter century to 
service in the Senate, working as my staff person down in Ketchikan, 
AK.
  I would like to share a few comments with my colleagues on this 
occasion. It is a little bit of a happy occasion, a little bit of a sad 
occasion. I think my colleague from Colorado would agree that when we 
have someone who has dedicated so many years, we wish them well as they 
move forward, but their departure leaves a little bit of a hole for 
those of us who carry on.
  Today I rise to honor Sherrie Slick, who on June 1 began her 25th 
year as a Senate staffer in southeast Alaska based in her hometown of 
Ketchikan. Sherrie plans to retire from Federal service on July 30, 
after, again, a quarter century of service to her State.
  For Sherrie, I think her retirement is very likely a cause for joy. 
It is going

[[Page S4147]]

to give her more time to spend with her kids and her grandchildren, 
more time to devote to the many volunteer and civic efforts in which 
she is engaged in southeast Alaska. But it is going to be a sad time 
for myself and for Congressman Don Young.
  Sherrie provided guidance to the Alaska delegation in Ketchikan, 
Alaska's first city, through a very interesting time. It has been 
somewhat of a turbulent quarter century, one in which the region's 
former economic mainstay, which is its timber industry, has sharply 
contracted, during a period in which the tourism industry has 
significantly grown, and during a period where its prospects of 
supporting major mineral development I think have substantially 
brightened--that is a good spot for us. It has been a period when 
Ketchikan, which is the seventh largest entity in our State, which is 
the only large community that is separated from its lifeline with its 
airport on a neighboring island, has endured somewhat unwelcome 
national attention solely because they seek dependable access by 
bridge.
  Over the years, Sherrie has responded to tens of thousands of public 
and media inquiries and requests for help over everything from Social 
Security checks and visas to immigration documents. She has listened to 
thousands of complaints over access to Alaska public land and to 
objections to many, many Federal regulations--far too many to count 
here. Through it all, I think it is fair to say that Sherrie has been 
that proverbial energizer bunny. She has more enthusiasm, more energy 
than many people combined. She listens patiently, and she works 
tirelessly to help all. She helps those southeast residents and 
visitors deal with Federal agencies, navigate the Federal redtape, and 
then on top of it, all in that extra time, she volunteers to help her 
community and help her State be a better place in which to live and 
raise a family.
  Sherrie's volunteer efforts were recognized by the community when she 
was named Citizen of the Year back in 2005 by the Greater Ketchikan 
Chamber of Commerce. But her accomplishments go far beyond being named 
the Federal Employee of the Year, the Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce's 
Outstanding Chamber Emissary in 1991, its outstanding board member in 
1994 and its chairman in 1996. She has also received the Ketchikan 
Rotary Club's Community Service Award in 1994, received the Ketchikan 
Federal Executive Association's Lifetime Community Service Award in 
2006, received the Ketchikan Visitors Bureau Rainbird Award in 1990 and 
gained its Outstanding Service Award in 2006.

  Ms. Slick, originally from Corvallis, Oregon, has a degree in 
elementary education from Oregon State University and also training in 
business and accounting from Linn-Benton Community College in 
Corvallis. She moved to Ketchikan in 1975. A mother of two, Brian and 
Theresa, she first worked for eight years as the office manager of the 
Ketchikan Credit Bureau before moving to insurance underwriting for 
three years. She later became the assistant sales tax auditor for the 
Ketchikan Gateway Borough for five years and then spent a sixth year 
working as the borough's planning and zoning secretary.
  In June 1988, former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, with encouragement 
from the state's other Senator at the time, my father, Frank Murkowski, 
stole Sherrie away from local government to head the Delegation's 
unified southern Panhandle constituent office. In addition to her 
legislative work, Sherrie has performed a dizzying array of volunteer 
services for her community and state.
  Since 2004 she has been a member of the Ketchikan Pioneers Home 
Foundation, the state's main senior care provider. She was a board 
member of the Alaska State Pioneer Homes Board from 2007 to 2010, a 
board member of the Ketchikan General Hospital Foundation from 2008 to 
2010, served as chair person of the Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce in 
1996, as chairman of Ketchikan Rotary in 2000 and as the Secretary-
Treasurer of the Ketchikan Federal Executive Association. She also was 
the Treasurer and Vice Chairman of Ketchikan Soroptimists, a member of 
the Executive Board of the Alaska Public Employees Association and 
State Treasurer of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough chapter of the State 
Employees Political Information Committee.
  While active in local and state politics, Sherrie also was the 
founding board member of the Ketchikan Soccer League, the vice 
president of the Ketchikan Killer Whales Swim Club, the Co-Leader and 
Day Camp director of the local Campfire Girls program, a Boy Scouts Co-
Leader and Den mother, a leader for the local junior and senior high 
schools' drill teams and for four years was a board member, vice-chair 
and chairman of the Ketchikan Theater Ballet. The latter posts allowed 
her to express her musical loves which include playing piano, organ, 
clarinet and accordion.
  Sherrie, in her ``free'' time, also operated a part-time catering 
company and was a partner in the Alaska Cruise Line Agency, which 
provides lecturers to explain Alaska's history, discuss its scenery and 
wildlife and answer tourist questions about the state during voyages up 
the Inside Passage aboard commercial cruise ships. In that role Sherrie 
has provided factual information to thousands of visitors to the 49th 
State answering such questions as whether visitors to Alaska can use 
American stamps on their postcards. She, in that post, has been a true 
ambassador for the state's tourism industry.
  Through it all, including organizing and staffing literally hundreds 
of federal official visits, congressional field hearings and volunteer 
fundraising events, such as those to aid breast cancer detection and 
treatment, Sherrie has maintained her calm, her poise and her never 
failing sense of humor and graciousness--not to mention her energy 
level. Her dedication to family, community and career is universally 
recognized by friends and associates.
  I can't thank her enough for her service to me during my decade in 
the U.S. Senate, and her service to her fellow Alaskans over the past 
25 years. Her intelligence, knowledge and people-pleasing skills will 
be sorely missed in the future. I hope that all members of the U.S. 
Senate will join me in wishing her well and godspeed in her retirement 
pursuits. She has earned all of her accolades and the true thanks of 
all Alaskans in the Panhandle for a job very well done.
  I am pleased and delighted to have her here with her granddaughter 
enjoying some Washington, DC, hospitality. Again, I cannot give thanks 
near enough to her for all the years of service Sherrie has provided to 
my State.

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