[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 31 (Friday, February 26, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E242]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           TRIBUTE TO AL MANN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. DANA ROHRABACHER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, February 26, 2016

  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, America lost one of her greatest sons 
this week. Al Mann, physicist, entrepreneur, executive, and 
philanthropist, spent his more than nine decades on this earth working 
mostly to help others.
  At age seventeen, when America was embroiled in the Second World War, 
Al Mann volunteered for the Army Air Corps, later becoming a pioneer in 
guidance systems for missiles and solar power for satellites. His 
technological advances helped us win that war, saving countless lives 
throughout.
  Afterward, he resisted pleas to continue his extraordinary work in 
military hardware, following his heart and turning his mind toward the 
health of humanity. Al's ingenuity, insight, and resourcefulness 
focused on projects to restore sight to the blind, to bring hearing to 
the deaf, and return mobility to the disabled.
  He did all this while developing a system to deliver insulin to 
diabetics without needles and creating pacemakers that those afflicted 
with heart disease would not need to replace frequently, thus sparing 
them great expense and disruption of their lives.
  It has been my honor and privilege to know Al Mann for many years. As 
he benefited humankind he in turn benefited from a patent system that 
has been the envy of the world; indeed, he warned against politicians 
who would tamper with it to advantage powerful business interests 
against individual innovators like him.
  Clearly, he wanted other Americans to succeed by their good works 
just as he had done.
  Because he was one of the most inspirational men I have ever known, I 
made a point of introducing my children to him so that they, too, might 
live by his example.
  If our country is to know more inspiring individuals like Al Mann, it 
is imperative that we reclaim and protect the conditions that made his 
exemplary creativity possible.

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