[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 11 (Thursday, January 18, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H539]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HONORING THE LIFE OF GENERAL EDWARD L. ROWNY
(Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute.)
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the persevering and
prescient life of American General Edward L. Rowny, who passed away on
December 18 of last year at the age of 100.
Proud of his Polish-American heritage, he attained a century of life
in the Polish tradition of Sto lat, dear general. This valiant soul
served our Nation under five Presidents, of both parties.
He served under the command of General Douglas MacArthur and rose to
be a shining general in his own right, a brave guardian of liberty
through courage, sacrifice, expertise, and wisdom.
General Rowny was born the son of a Polish immigrant and a Polish-
American mother on April 3, 1917. A West Point graduate, he served in
World War II and led a battalion with the 92nd Army Infantry Division,
driving up the west coast of Italy.
He remained a dogged ally of then-occupied Poland and the Polish
people and advanced the return of the remains of Ignacy Jan Paderewski
to Poland in 1992 after the fall of the Berlin Wall 3 years earlier.
He later founded the Rowny Paderewski Scholarship Fund to bring
Polish students to the United States to study American democracy. He
continued to raise funds for it until his dying day.
General Rowny lived to see solidarity bring freedom to Poland and
helped usher Poland into the NATO security alliance.
He was an esteemed arms control adviser under every President from
Richard Nixon to George H.W. Bush.
After being a chief negotiator in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
with the former Soviet Union, he was awarded the Presidential Citizens
Medal.
General Rowny's life and being was imbued with his long history of
fighting for freedom, justice, and democracy, including helping free
his ancestral land of Poland. His accomplishments will not be
forgotten.
Thank you, General Edward Rowny, for your service to liberty. You
have been one of a kind, unceasing in your utter dedication to liberty
at its cutting edge.
``Dziekuje bardzo. Bardzo. Bardzo.'' Thank you very much.
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