[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 40 (Tuesday, March 19, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Page S1948]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         REMEMBERING FRED KARL

 Mr. NELSON. Madam President, last week the State of Florida 
lost a dear friend, Fred Karl. I was honored to be asked by Fred's 
family to participate in his service and would like to share with you 
what I shared with them:

       Listen to what some of the people of Florida have said 
     about Fred Karl . . .
       ``His word was his bond . . .''
       ``No one questioned his integrity . . .''
       ``He was always helping others . . .''
       ``He was a legislative reformer who fought but genuinely 
     liked his nemesis, Senator Dempsey Barron . . .''
       ``He was idealistic, but a realist . . .''
       These are the thoughts of Floridians who knew and loved 
     Fred Karl and appreciate his exceptional public service.
       His smooth, lilting baritone belied the fact that he was a 
     tank commander in World War II in the fierce Battle of the 
     Bulge.
       He ran for Governor--as a champion of education--but he 
     couldn't amass the funds to beat Haydon Burns. Education was 
     a passion. No wonder. His mother, Mary Karl, was an educator. 
     Her school, Mary Karl's Vocational School, later became the 
     community college and today is Daytona Beach State College.
       He almost died because of medical mistakes in a hospital. 
     The irony was later, when another hospital got into trouble; 
     it was Fred who rescued them.
       He was a smart savvy lawyer for almost everyone, more often 
     than not turning around their near destruction toward 
     success.
       When Hillsborough County called upon Fred to be their 
     attorney, he was able to restore honesty and integrity to a 
     local government that had suffered from the corruption of its 
     commissioners and judges.
       He has been a blessing to the people of Tampa Bay--just as 
     he has been a blessing to the people of Florida while serving 
     in the Legislature and then on the High Court.
       I remember Fred running for our state's Supreme Court.
       At the time he was campaigning for himself, he was also 
     promoting a constitutional amendment to have justices 
     appointed instead of elected.
       He later recalled ``on one hand, I was saying please elect 
     me to the court, [on the other] I was saying vote for the 
     amendment that does away with this election.'' To Fred, it 
     was demeaning to see our judges out there raising campaign 
     money.
       He would later say: ``Here was somebody aspiring to sit on 
     the Florida Supreme Court and making decisions about life and 
     death and about constitutional matters . . . and I was out 
     glad-handing and back-slapping like I was running for dog 
     catcher.''
       Well there's no doubt, Fred Karl was rare. And he always 
     saw public service as one of the highest callings.
       He was a public servant we could trust--a man who 
     personified honesty and integrity . . .
       So much so, his counsel was sought from the governor's 
     mansion to the mayors' offices to the suites of Florida's 
     newspaper publishers.
       ``There's no higher form of public service than the honest 
     practice of politics,'' Fred said.
       And Fred practiced what he preached!
       And in so doing, he made a magnificent and cherished 
     contribution to Florida's history.
       To so many of us here today, he was our friend. He was our 
     confidant.
       But above all he was a devoted husband; a loving father; 
     and, a beloved grandfather and great-grandfather.
       May the family be granted strength to bear their loss. And 
     let all of us all be forever grateful that Fred Karl touched 
     our lives.

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