[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 67 (Tuesday, May 5, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2648-S2649]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                      REMEMBERING GRETCHEN KAFOURY

 Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, long ago, I decided the most 
complimentary statement one could make about an elected official boils 
down to four simple words: ``That person really cares.'' Those four 
words perfectly sum up Gretchen Kafoury's long record of public service 
in Portland and in Oregon.
  From serving in the Peace Corps during the 1960s to teaching at 
Portland State University four decades later, Gretchen just cared--and 
then cared some more--about helping everyone have a better life.
  Gretchen was the go-to leader in Portland and statewide in the fight 
to help women escape domestic violence. She was our conscience in the 
battle to help people of modest means have more affordable housing. And 
she was a pioneer for equal rights when she organized the campaign to 
force open the doors at the City Club of Portland for women.
  Small in stature, Gretchen Kafoury had the biggest heart in Oregon. 
If you didn't have power or clout or a political action committee--and 
you were talking about justice, Gretchen brought her smarts, her 
energy, and her persistence to your cause.
  I met Gretchen shortly after I graduated from law school at the 
University of Oregon and was starting the Oregon Gray Panthers with 
another admirer of Gretchen's--Ruth Haefner.
  When you visited Ruth's house in Northeast Portland, you would see it

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filled with literature from progressive seniors for good causes. And I 
clearly remember how those progressive seniors thought Gretchen was 
spot on, for example, in developing the first health clinic for 
teenagers at Roosevelt High School.
  Gretchen was incredibly helpful to the Gray Panthers in those days 
when she served in the Oregon Legislature as our State passed a generic 
drug law, home care for seniors, and new rules to stop rip-off artists 
scamming health insurance to seniors.
  Before Gretchen worked to crack down on those scamsters, it was 
common to see seniors with as many as 8 to 10 worthless health 
insurance policies that fast-talking salesmen had sold them. Those 
phony salesmen never stood a chance when Gretchen fought to stop 
business practices that fleeced the elderly.
  When I ran for Congress in 1980, virtually no established elected 
officials were in my corner. Gretchen was one of those folks in a group 
so tiny it could have fit in a couple of phone booths. I had never run 
for public office but--with help and encouragement from Gretchen and 
seniors--I wanted to go to Washington to work on the very issues 
Gretchen championed. I was proud she was in my corner every step of the 
way.
  Over the years when I would see Gretchen at a housing rally, a 
domestic violence conference, or an event to help nurses and other 
health care providers get better care for Oregonians at lower cost, I 
would always see Gretchen and start to smile. That is because her 
caring was so infectious and her passion to help people who needed help 
was so powerful.
  She prompted so many others to become involved in public life, not 
the least of whom are her two daughters, one of whom is Multnomah 
County Chair Deborah Kafoury.
  How lucky all Oregonians were to have Gretchen, and how lucky I was 
that she was my friend.

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