[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 107 (Tuesday, June 25, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E832]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING DR. ROBERT VARTABEDIAN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. SAM GRAVES

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 25, 2019

  Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Madam Speaker, I proudly pause to recognize 
Dr. Robert Vartabedian. Dr. Vartabedian is retiring as the President of 
Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri, after an 
exceptional career and distinguished tenure at Missouri Western State 
University.
   Dr. Vartabedian has taught at universities across the country. While 
each was a very different institution, there was one common thread to 
each of them--Dr. Vartabedian has made each of them better. If you set 
foot on the Missouri Western campus during his time there, even if you 
somehow managed to not see it, you could not have helped but felt it. 
That unspoken `thing' where a new level is being achieved, a new 
standard is being set, a new normal is being cemented into place. Of 
course, you can point to Craig Field at Spratt Stadium, the Craig 
School of Business Center for Entrepreneurship, the Kit Bond Science 
and Technology Incubator, the Walter Cronkite Museum, or the sea of red 
that comes with the Kansas City Chiefs training camp. While he deserves 
credit for those things and they will remain as reminders of his time 
here, they are not his true legacy. His true legacy is in his students. 
The next generation of entrepreneurs and thinkers. The new leaders for 
northern Missouri, the new educators who will carry along his legacy 
even further. Those students, those lives he has touched directly or 
indirectly are his true and lasting legacy.
   Madam Speaker, I proudly ask you to join me in recognizing Dr. 
Robert Vartabedian upon a well-earned retirement. I wish him the very 
best and a well-deserved rest. I am honored to represent him in the 
United States Congress.

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