[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 83 (Thursday, May 13, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S2517]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    REMEMBERING JOHN MICHAEL ELLIOTT

 Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, today I wish to pay tribute to the 
life and career of John Michael Elliott, who passed away suddenly on 
March 12, 2021. It is my honor to reflect on the legacy John built for 
his family and his community. For me and for my family, John M. Elliott 
was a faithful friend.
  Community, heritage, and history were all important to John. Born in 
Girardville, Schuylkill County, PA, on July 8, 1941. John later 
graduated magna cum laude from St. Vincent College, where he played 
varsity baseball. He received the American Jurisprudence Award from the 
Georgetown University Law Center and launched a successful 55-year 
legal career. John Elliott never forgot his Schuylkill County roots or 
Irish-American heritage.
  John was a skilled lawyer who became chairman and CEO of Elliott 
Greenleaf, the law firm he founded in 1990. To John, law was a 
profession as well as a means by which he could advance his greater 
purpose in life: to be of service to others. He was talented and 
tenacious. In 1979, he worked to right a past wrong and won a 
posthumous pardon for Irish immigrant and Schuylkill resident, Jack 
Kehoe. In 2002, he won an age-discrimination case that resulted in the 
largest single-plaintiff jury verdict in the history of the U.S. 
District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. John was 
generous with his legal talents and imparted his knowledge onto the 
next generation of lawyers as a lecturer for the American Law 
Institute, the American, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Bar 
Associations, the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, and the 
Pennsylvania Bar Institute.
  Outside of his law practice and lectures, John remained committed to 
service. He served as chairman of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme 
Court of Pennsylvania, as a commissioner of the Delaware River Port 
Authority and as a member of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission 
and the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board. He was appointed by 
the U.S. Secretary of State to the Commission on Security and 
Cooperation in Europe's Conferences on the Human Dimension in Paris and 
on Democratic Institutions in Oslo and was a Presidential appointee to 
the White House Coal Advisory Commission. He was a steadfast supporter 
of St. Patrick's College in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland, for more 
than two decades. He was recognized twice for his efforts in 1995 when 
Cardinal Cahal B. Daly of Ireland dedicated the Salamanca Archives at 
the college in his honor and in 2001 when Cardinal Desmond Connell 
conferred upon him the Gold Medal of St. Patrick.
  John received many accolades during his lifetime. He was awarded an 
LL.D. by his alma mater, St. Vincent College, and The Legal 
Intelligencer's 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award. His greatest 
achievement and source of pride was his family. Those fortunate enough 
to receive John's oversized holiday card every year were treated to 
references to his children and their families and candid images of each 
one of his grandchildren. The passing of John M. Elliott is a terrible 
loss for his wife, Eileen; his brother Thomas and sister Margaret Mary; 
his children, Jack, Heather, Kirwan, Kyle, and Thomas; his 14 
grandchildren; and the rest of his family and many friends as they 
mourn his loss. His death is also a loss for our Commonwealth. May he 
rest in peace.

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