[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 178 (Monday, October 30, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1028]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      TRIBUTE TO THE LIFE OF THE HONORABLE RICHARD CLARENCE CLARK

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 30, 2023

  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and work of a 
great American and former United States Senator, Richard Clarence 
Clark. Dick Clark was born on September 14, 1928, in Paris, Iowa, and 
died peacefully on September 20, 2023, at his home in Washington, D.C., 
at the age of 95.
  Dick Clark enlisted in the U.S. Army after high school and served his 
country in England during the Korean War. He earned a Bachelor's degree 
at Upper Iowa University and his Master's at the University of Iowa. He 
then taught at Upper Iowa University, worked as a volunteer for the 
Democratic Party, and in 1972 he ran for the U.S. Senate. Partly in 
response to his unorthodox campaign tactic of actually walking 1,300 
miles across Iowa to meet the voters, he won the seat. He served on the 
Senate Foreign Relations, Agriculture and Public Works Committees and 
after losing his race in 1978, he was soon appointed Ambassador-at-
Large by President Jimmy Carter and spent most of 1979 serving as the 
administration's coordinator for refugee affairs, working to provide 
aid and housing for tens of thousands of people fleeing wars and famine 
in Southeast Asia. He then worked on the presidential campaign of 
Senator Ted Kennedy and became a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute 
for Humanistic Studies.
  Dick Clark has been described as hardworking, studious, well-liked, 
and a highly respected Senator. He was all these and more. I first met 
him in 1994 when I was invited to participate in my first Aspen 
Institute Congressional Program as a newly elected Member of the House 
of Representatives. This program, initiated and directed by Dick Clark, 
fostered relationships with members of both parties and provided high 
value information on a variety of policies presented by experts and 
discussed by Members. Dick Clark said that ``good policy depends on 
informed policy makers'' and many minds were shaped and policies 
refined as a result of this superb Aspen Congressional Institute. Dick 
was as fine a human being one could ever know . . . a kind man of 
enormous integrity, a beautiful friend and a true patriot.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask the entire House of Representatives to join me in 
paying tribute to this remarkable man, his life and his work, and in 
extending our most sincere condolences to his wife Julie, his three 
children, three grandchildren, and two great-grandsons. We are a better 
and stronger nation because of him.

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