[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 135 (Friday, September 19, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1464]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HONORING JIM REES

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 18, 2014

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Jim Rees, who passed 
away on September 9, 2014, at his home in Markham, Virginia.
  Jim served as president of George Washington's Mount Vernon estate 
for two decades, from 1994 to 2013. I had the privilege of working 
closely with Jim over the years on many important issues, especially 
working to improve historical literacy among young Americans. Jim was a 
tireless advocate of George Washington's legacy, his estate at Mount 
Vernon and the leadership virtues of our nation's indispensable 
founding father. Because of his work building Mount Vernon's endowment 
and revitalizing interest in the estate, Jim was called ``an 
indispensable man to Mount Vernon in his time'' by Barbara Lucas, 
regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, who spoke to the 
Washington Post about Rees' legacy.
  Jim was beloved not only by the board of the Ladies' Association, 
staff and volunteers but also by all those who share his commitment to 
preserving the legacy of the Father of our Country. His passing is a 
loss to the Mount Vernon community and indeed the nation. I 
respectfully submit Jim Rees' obituary from The Washington Post and ask 
my colleagues to join me in honoring Jim's life and achievements.

                            [Sept. 13, 2014]

  James C. Rees, 62, Longtime President of George Washington's Mount 
                              Vernon, Dies

                           (By Emily Langer)

       James C. Rees, who endeavored to keep George Washington 
     first in the hearts of his countrymen, and particularly in 
     the hearts of his country's tourists, as president for nearly 
     two decades of the founding father's Mount Vernon estate, 
     died Sept. 9 at his home in Markham, Va. He was 62.
       The cause was multiple system atrophy, a neurological 
     disorder, said his husband, Kirk Blandford.
       Mr. Rees spent nearly his entire career at Mount Vernon, 
     the stately home 15 miles outside the District in Virginia, 
     where George Washington lived for decades and where he was 
     buried after his death in 1799.
       After working in the development office and as the estate's 
     associate director, Mr. Rees became in 1994 Mount Vernon's 
     executive director, a title later changed to president. He 
     moved into a home on the grounds overlooking the Potomac 
     River and became, he said, the public relations agent for the 
     nation's first president.
       The nonprofit Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, which has 
     independently owned and maintained the property since 1860, 
     credited Mr. Rees with leading fundraising initiatives that 
     brought more than $250 million to the estate. During his 
     nearly three decades with the institution, its endowment grew 
     from $4 million to more than $100 million, according to the 
     group.
       ``It has been said that George Washington was the 
     `indispensable man,' '' observed Barbara B. Lucas, the regent 
     of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, adding that Mr. Rees 
     ``likewise was an indispensable man to Mount Vernon in his 
     time.''
       Mr. Rees's tenure as president coincided with what he and 
     other George Washington enthusiasts feared was a growing 
     ignorance about American history, particularly among the 
     young. Once, Mr. Rees encountered a group of students and 
     began joking with them--``you know, playing off some of the 
     Washington myths,'' he told the Weekly Standard.
       ``I said, `Well, it's a good thing this isn't a cherry 
     tree, or it might be in danger--you never know who might come 
     chop it down.' And there was no reaction. Nothing. So I said, 
     `But I guess we could always use the wood to make some 
     teeth.' Nothing. Blank stares.''
       Mr. Rees led a years-long mission to enliven the visitor 
     experience at Mount Vernon and to invigorate the image of the 
     president who lived there. Washington, Mr. Rees remarked, 
     seemed to be locked in the national imagination as the rather 
     dour-looking gentlemen on the $1 bill.
       ``Washington was athletic, adventurous and risk-taking, 
     known to be one of the finest horsemen of his day and willing 
     to meet challenges head-on,'' Mr. Rees once told the New York 
     Times. ``Some have called him the nation's first action 
     hero.''
       At the Ford Orientation Center, a building opened in 2006 
     with sponsorship from the Ford Motor Co., visitors watch a 
     film described as an ``action-adventure'' movie about 
     Washington's military exploits and personal life.
       The Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center, which 
     also opened at Mount Vernon in 2006, includes theaters, 
     interactive displays and galleries with artifacts from 
     Washington's life, including the bedstead he used during the 
     Revolutionary War, his sword and, perhaps best known, his 
     dentures.
       The teeth in particular represented a departure from what 
     had previously been the organization's conservative 
     presentation of the former president.
       ``We used to be so discreet that we didn't want to display 
     Washington's dentures,'' Mr. Rees told the Times. ``When we 
     finally broke down and showed them, they turned out to be a 
     sensation. That taught us something.''
       Mr. Rees also oversaw the restoration and reconstruction of 
     Mount Vernon's whiskey distillery and gristmill. One of his 
     last undertakings was fundraising for the $106 million Fred 
     W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, 
     which opened in 2013, the year after Mr. Rees retired.
       James Conway Rees IV was born May 5, 1952, in Richmond. The 
     history textbooks he used as a youngster, he often said with 
     chagrin, devoted significantly more space to Washington than 
     can be found in books used today.
       He was a 1974 English graduate of the College of William & 
     Mary in Williamsburg and received a master's degree in public 
     administration from George Washington University in 1978. 
     Before joining Mount Vernon in 1983, he did development work 
     for William & Mary and for the National Trust for Historic 
     Preservation.
       Mr. Rees often reflected on the challenges of promoting 
     Washington in the modern age.
       ``I suppose it has to do with lots of things,'' he once 
     told the Weekly Standard. ``The rise of social history--
     filling up history with all kinds of people who'd been 
     ignored before means there's less room for old heroes. And I 
     suppose it has to do with the end of the great man theory of 
     history, too.''
       ``But there's something else that worries me,'' he 
     continued. ``The qualities Washington possessed just aren't 
     as appreciated as they were. Honesty. Good judgment. 
     Modesty--my God, who in late-20th-century America gets credit 
     for being modest anymore?''
       In 2007, Mr. Rees published a book, ``George Washington's 
     Leadership Lessons: What the Father of Our Country Can Teach 
     Us About Effective Leadership and Character.''
       Survivors include Kirk Blandford, his partner of 29 years, 
     whom he married last year, of Markham; and a brother.
       On one occasion, Mr. Rees was called upon to correct an 
     oversight by Washington, who had borrowed from the New York 
     Society Library ``The Law of Nations,'' Emer de Vattel's 
     18th-century political treatise, and failed to return it.
       By the time the matter came to Mr. Rees's attention, the 
     item was more than two centuries overdue. He returned a copy 
     to its rightful owner.

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