[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 16 (Tuesday, January 28, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H1433-H1434]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      A QUIET LEGACY OF CONVICTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
South Carolina (Mr. Gowdy) for 5 minutes.

[[Page H1434]]

  Mr. GOWDY. Mr. Speaker, one of the most enjoyable parts of our job is 
speaking to children at schools, and you get some tough and interesting 
questions. A couple of months ago, a precious child at a school in 
upstate South Carolina asked me who was the most famous person I had 
ever met. That is a very good question, I told the child. I have met 
President Bush; I have met President Obama; I have met John Lewis; I 
have met Paul Ryan; I have met Bono, the lead singer of U2; I have met 
McGruff, the Crime Dog--I have even met Tim Scott--but I told the child 
the most famous person I had ever met was his teacher, and we all 
smiled and laughed.
  But it did get me thinking, Mr. Speaker, that we are surrounded by 
fame. We fly into an airport named for Reagan. We work in a town named 
for Washington. We pass monuments to Jefferson and Lincoln and Dr. 
King. The buildings we work in are named for famous people, and within 
those buildings are statues and portraits of still more famous people. 
We are surrounded by fame, Mr. Speaker, and it is easy to forget that, 
while those people made contributions to our country, the country was 
built, is being built, and will continue to be built by average, 
ordinary women and men who lead quiet lives of conviction and courage--
average folks doing above average things, ordinary folks doing 
extraordinary things. That is the essence of who we are as a people, 
and while there may not be a monument or a portrait dedicated to those 
ordinary men and women, there is something even better, and it is 
called a legacy. So, in honor of those women and men, Mr. Speaker, who 
lead quiet lives of conviction, I want to honor a man who was just like 
them.
  Bruce Cash was a pharmacist in my hometown of Spartanburg. He was 
buried last week--way too soon, in my opinion, but such are the ways of 
the Lord. He was a pharmacist, so we saw him when we were sick, and 
more importantly, we saw him when our children were sick. He was 
compassionate, and he was kind, and he acted like you were the only 
person he was taking care of that day. He was active in his church, 
doing everything from driving a bus on choir tour, to being chairman of 
the Board of Deacons, to taking his vacation time to chaperone other 
people's children while they went and sang to prisoners in prisons.
  He was a devoted father and husband. He and his wife, Kitty, had six 
children and scores of grandchildren; and when you walked into his 
pharmacy, Mr. Speaker, you didn't see his business license, and you 
didn't see his pharmacy license--you saw a picture of his children. He 
wanted to quietly signal to you that that was the most important thing 
in his life.
  I would tell you, Mr. Speaker, to look up Bruce Cash on the Internet, 
but you are not going to find much. In fact, he never even bothered to 
change the name of his pharmacy. He left on his pharmacy the name of 
the man who owned it before him.
  He had the quality that best defined the Lord Jesus that he believed 
in, which is humility. He didn't want to talk about himself; he wanted 
to talk about you. He didn't want to tell you his opinion; he wanted to 
ask you your opinion. He didn't want to talk about his illness; he 
wanted to talk about your illness. He didn't want to talk about how 
life had dealt him an unplayable hand of cards; he wanted to talk about 
grace and hope and things that last beyond our lifetime.
  In conclusion, Bruce was humble, and he believed it was more 
important to live a sermon than to preach one.
  So I want to thank you, Bruce, for setting an example of average, 
ordinary people building this country, and the next time a child asks 
me who the most famous person is I have met, I will tell him it is you.

                          ____________________