[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 78 (Tuesday, May 17, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H2434]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               HONORING DR. FRANCES BARTLETT KINNE, PH.D.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Crenshaw) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life work of Dr. 
Frances Bartlett Kinne, Ph.D. We in Jacksonville, Florida, will be 
celebrating 99 years with our friend, Dr. Fran Kinne, on May 22 of this 
year.
  Dr. Kinne is first in Florida in many ways. In 1979, she became the 
first woman president of a Florida college, Jacksonville University, 
JU. Prior, in 1961, she became the founding dean of JU's College of 
Fine Arts, the first woman in Florida to hold such a position. In fact, 
it was her idea to form the college where she had been a humanities 
professor for several years.
  She was the first woman elected as president of the International 
Council of Fine Arts, and not only the first woman in Florida's first 
rotary club, the Rotary Club of Jacksonville, but she later became the 
first woman president of that club. She also became the first woman 
member of a club in Jacksonville called the River Club. Again, the 
first woman member.
  As you can tell, Dr. Fran Kinne was first in many ways and a role 
model to not only women in Jacksonville, Florida, but all across this 
great country. To those of us who know her well, she is also first in 
our hearts. A tireless advocate for education and young people, Fran 
Kinne always reminded us that life is not about us, life is about 
others.
  She would tell her graduates each year to go out into the world and 
make the world a better place. One of those graduates, Tim Cost, is now 
the president of Jacksonville University.
  So many of her students have made a difference not only in Florida, 
but all across this great land. Last year, at the age of 98, she became 
the Nation's oldest commencement speaker at a major college or 
university.
  The wife of an army colonel, Fran spent years overseas following 
World War II. She was in Germany, she was in Japan, and she was in 
China. While her husband worked, so did Fran. She created postwar 
education programs for children in Japan, and she went to class with 
young German students who accepted her as the caring American that she 
was.

                              {time}  1030

  She numbered among her friends Bob Hope, Winston Churchill, Charlton 
Heston, Billy Graham, and Steve Forbes. Fran Kinne brought Bob Hope and 
Jack Benny together for their only joint appearance, and that was at 
Jacksonville University. She is listed in over 25 ``Who's Who'' and 
similar publications, and six facilities in Iowa and Florida are named 
in her honor. Her autobiography is aptly named ``Iowa Girl: The 
President Wears a Skirt.''
  Never intending to live in Florida, Fran came here with her husband, 
and, thankfully, for those of us in Jacksonville, she never left. She 
was born in Iowa. She was educated at Drake University and graduated 
with a bachelor's and a master's in music education. She remains a 
member of the Board of Trustees at Drake University and is on the board 
of the Mayo Clinic in Florida. Since 1994, she has been the chancellor 
emeritus at Jacksonville University.
  Her infectious enthusiasm for life and positive thinking goes on and 
on. I visited her the other day, and she reminded me: If you laugh 100 
times a day, that is the same thing as 20 minutes of physical exercise. 
She would say: If you keep a positive attitude and if you smile a lot, 
that will add 10 years to your life. Fran and I have always been good 
buddies, and she has been a mentor to me just as she has been to 
thousands of her former students.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask you and Members of this House to join me in 
celebrating the outstanding 99 years and counting of one of Florida's 
most outstanding citizens: my good buddy, Dr. Frances Bartlett Kinne.

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