[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 164 (Wednesday, November 4, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H7629]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING JOHN CUSHING ESTY, JR.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Connecticut (Ms. Esty) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ESTY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate and reflect on the 
life of a great man, John Cushing Esty, Jr., an education leader, a 
reformer, a man of intellect, wit, and joy, a devoted family man, and 
my beloved father-in-law of 31 years.
  John Cushing Esty was the oldest of four boys. He was a ham radio 
operator and built radios. He learned languages, was a gifted student, 
a lover of education and words, and he lived a life devoted to 
excellence in education. He was committed to educational opportunity, 
although he attended some of the most elite private schools in the 
country. But as a leader of those schools, he pushed them into the 
modern era.
  In the Air Force, during the Korean War era, he taught flight 
nurses--hundreds at a time--not, as he said, exactly tough duty.
  As a young dean at Amherst College, I learned about his commitment to 
equal opportunity for all students from none other than my physician in 
the 1990s, a man named Marshall Holley, an African American scholarship 
student in the 1950s, one of three students in his class at Amherst 
College. He got in trouble for having told off a professor, a professor 
who he believed to be racist. He risked losing his scholarship when he 
received a failing grade.
  He was sent to see my father-in-law. My father-in-law, as a young 
dean, said: You know, Marshall, you weren't wrong to tell him off. He 
was wrong to treat you that way, but you were unwise to tell him off 
before you got your final grade. I will fix your grade, but you have to 
be wiser in the future.
  As headmaster of the Taft School in my district, Watertown, 
Connecticut, in the 1960s--a tumultuous time--John Esty led as an 
education leader, but he also led in the cause of what at the time was 
quaintly called coeducation. Much over the objection of many alumni, 
some of the present students and faculty, he pushed for coeducation, 
and successfully so. He did it because he knew that educational 
opportunity and excellence could only happen when opportunities were 
provided for young women as well as young men.
  As a trustee of Amherst College, his alma mater, he successfully 
fought for that institution to become coeducational over the objection 
of, among others, his own father.
  As a reformer, as the head of the National Association of Independent 
Schools, he helped create a program called A Better Chance. That took 
his commitment to equal opportunity for young men and women of 
disadvantaged backgrounds to lead to a national effort in scholarship 
programs around this country.
  One of those examples of A Better Chance scholar is Governor Deval 
Patrick of Massachusetts, who credits his time as A Better Chance 
scholar at Milton Academy having transformed his life from the south 
side of Chicago to become one of this country's leaders. Similar 
scholarships also were adopted in other schools around the country, 
including one Punahou School in Hawaii, whose scholarship student 
Barack Obama graduated in 1979.
  My father-in-law devoted his life to excellence in education, but he 
lived the life as well. Not only did he care about excellent education 
in private schools, but he fought for it in public schools. He served 
on the elected board of education in his town of Concord, 
Massachusetts, and all four of his sons went to public schools.
  He was a man of merriment and wit and joy. He loved learning. We 
first met in 1978 and bonded over an argument over the correct 
pronunciation of a word. In classic John Esty style, he went to the 
dictionary that was in the dining room, and we looked up the word. I 
happened to be right. I don't remember the word. He doesn't, either. 
But I pronounced it correctly, and he knew that we had bonded for life.
  He loved children, especially his grandchildren. He told them amazing 
stories often, getting them so worked up they wouldn't go to bed, but 
they loved his story, especially Jimmy Bond, the young James Bond 
stories, which would have them in delights.
  John, you will be loved and missed by Katherine Esty, your wife of 60 
years, and all four of your sons: my husband, Dan; my brother-in-law, 
Paul, and his wife, Vanda; my brother-in-law, Ben, and his wife, 
Raquel; my brother-in-law, Jed, and his wife, Andrea; the many 
grandchildren: Sarah, Thomas, Jonathan, Marc, Julie, Victor, Jonah, 
Maya, Aliya, and Asher.
  You shared your love of life, of music, of stories, of education, and 
of making a difference with all of us. You lived a full 87 years, a 
committed servant of this great country, a believer in educational 
opportunity, and a gift for joy. You will be greatly missed. Thank you, 
and Godspeed, John Esty.

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