[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 117 (Thursday, August 2, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5951-S5952]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  REMEMBERING PHILIP PENDLETON ARDERY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to an 
honored Kentuckian and a man of great accomplishment who leaves behind 
a towering legacy of service with his passing. Mr. Philip Pendleton 
Ardery of Louisville, KY, passed away on July 26, 2012, at his home. He 
was 98 years old.
  Mr. Ardery's life story reads like a well-written novel of action, 
suspense, and drama or several novels, given how much living he packed 
into his 98 years. A war hero, philanthropist, author, public servant, 
and committed flag bearer of New Deal liberalism, he made such a 
profound impact on my hometown of Louisville, the Commonwealth of 
Kentucky, and our Nation that I feel compelled to come to the floor and 
say a few words about his passing.
  I have great admiration and respect for Phil and his remarkable life. 
That may surprise some, given that he and I did not have a lot in 
common with respect to our political or ideological views. I am certain 
that much of what I have done in my career in public life did not 
please him one bit. Having said that, every American, no matter where 
you stand on the political spectrum, has to recognize the extent of 
Philip Ardery's commitment to service. Service was the watchword of his 
life, be it service to State, Nation, or those less well off than 
himself.
  Phil was born in 1914 in Lexington, KY, the son of William 
Breckinridge and Julia Hoge Spencer Ardery. Later in life, he moved to 
a farm on the Paris-Lexington Pike. His youth in Bourbon County forever 
left an imprint on him, and he loved to share his love for the area 
with others.
  Phil graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Kentucky in 1935 
and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1938. Also in his Harvard Law 
class was Phil's boyhood friend from Bourbon County, Edward F. 
Prichard, Jr.
  After law school, Phil joined the Army Air Corps, and during World 
War II he became a B-24 squadron commander. Phil flew a full combat 
tour of 25 missions, dropping bombs on Norway, Austria, Crete, Italy, 
France, Belgium, and Holland. He then volunteered for one more mission 
on D-day and commanded a division of about 200 pilots. For his bravery 
in uniform, Phil was awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying 
Cross, and the French Croix de Guerre. He later wrote a book about his 
war exploits, called ``Bomber Pilot: A Memoir of World War II.''
  While still training as a pilot in Texas, Phil met the woman who 
would become his wife, Anne Stuyvesant Tweedy. Together they had four 
children. They married on December 6, 1941, the day before the attack 
on Pearl Harbor.
  After the war, Phil practiced law with a focus on representing the 
electric cooperatives bringing power and lights to rural Kentucky. A 
loyalist of Franklin D. Roosevelt's, he would remain committed to the 
ideals of New Deal liberalism for the rest of his life. He ran for 
office a few times, including in the Democratic primary for a Senate 
seat in 1946 and in the general election for the House of 
Representatives seat from Kentucky's Third District in 1956. He lost 
both those races, but did win a race for Jefferson County Fiscal Court 
in 1958.
  Meanwhile, Phil's longtime friend and Harvard Law School classmate 
Edward F. Prichard, Jr., was having quite the political career in 
President Roosevelt's administration. Known in Kentucky as ``the boy 
wonder,'' it was a near certainty that Prichard would run for Governor 
or Senator someday, and almost surely win.
  But a dramatic twist that would ruin the two men's friendship caused 
that not to be. Prichard came to Phil and confessed to him that he had 
participated in a crime. Phil took Prichard to Phil's father, who was a 
Bourbon County circuit judge at the time, to relate his story. This 
chain of events eventually led to Prichard's conviction of stuffing the 
ballot box in the State's 1946 election. He was sentenced to 2 years in 
Federal prison.
  In yet another book Phil wrote, a memoir titled ``Heroes and Horses: 
Tales of the Bluegrass,'' Phil wrote that it was not Edward's crime in 
and of itself that created the rift between the two friends, but his 
public denial of wrongdoing. ``That put [him] in the position of making 
my father appear to be a liar,'' Phil wrote. ``So Prich and I had to be 
enemies.''
  This story does, however, have a happy ending. Although friction 
remained between the Ardery and Prichard families, in 1976, Prichard 
finally admitted his guilt in a newspaper interview. In 1984, Ardery 
reached out to his old friend, who was by then blind due to diabetes. 
Phil paid the expenses for the two men to visit Harvard for a 
celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of their former law 
professor, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter.
  After watching a friend's son struggle with schizophrenia, Phil 
helped found what has become Wellspring, a network of 19 facilities 
that provides housing and rehabilitation to people with severe and 
persistent mental illness. Wellspring has helped more than 6,000 people 
over its 30 years in existence, thanks in large part to millions of 
dollars raised by Phil.
  Phil also helped found the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, a 
national mental health research group that has awarded roughly $300 
million in grants to scientists around the world in the past 25 years.
  Phil served as the first commander of the Kentucky Air National 
Guard, and led it during the Korean War in England, where he served as 
a NATO wing base station commander. He retired with the rank of major 
general in 1965. As a pilot in London, he met and befriended famous 
names like Edward R. Murrow and T.S. Eliot.
  Phil's many philanthropic activities also include service as director 
and president of the Frazier Rehab Center, as a director of the Jewish 
Hospital Health Care Systems, and as a member of the Kentucky Horse 
Park Foundation, the Kentucky Humanities Council, and the executive 
committee of the Kentucky Historical Society. He was the chairman of 
the American Heart Association and the Kentucky Heart Association.
  I know several members of the Ardery family well, and I want to 
convey my and Elaine's deepest condolences to all those who knew and 
loved Philip Ardery. We are particularly thinking today of his wife, 
Anne; his son and daughter-in-law Joseph and Anne; his son and 
daughter-in-law Philip and Cecilia; his daughter and son-in-law Julia 
and William; several grandchildren; and many other beloved family 
members and friends. Phil was preceded in death by his son Peter.
  As I hope I have made clear, Philip Ardery packed an amazing amount 
of success and accomplishment in his long and rich life. We can be 
grateful that such a devoted public servant was granted so much life on 
this Earth to do his good works. There is no doubt that thousands of 
people--from the rural Kentuckian who needed electricity, to the 
beneficiaries of his charitable work, to the many whose lives were 
saved thanks to his service in uniform--have reason to be thankful for 
Mr. Ardery.

[[Page S5952]]

  I would ask my Senate colleagues to join me in commemorating his 
commitment to service and in extending sympathies to the Ardery family. 
The Commonwealth of Kentucky will be proud to remember the life and 
deeds of Mr. Philip Pendleton Ardery.

                          ____________________