[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 161 (Wednesday, October 1, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S6904]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING H. EDWARD QUICK

  Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I rise to recognize the life and career of 
H. Edward Quick. Ed was a proud Kansan who served our Nation so well 
that in the 1970s and `80s, he was often referred to as ``Missouri's 
third senator.'' Throughout his life and his work, Ed demonstrated a 
deep, unabashed love of our democratic process. He was the embodiment 
of humility, generosity, and hard work. Ed passed away in August after 
a life well-lived and in the company of his loving family. I offer this 
remembrance so that the official Record of our body may reflect his 
many contributions to the public good and to the best traditions of the 
Senate.
  Ed's Senate tenure spanned 11 Congresses--the 91st through 101st--and 
five administrations. He helped Tom Eagleton win his first Senatorial 
campaign and followed him to DC in 1969, leaving behind a near-finished 
PhD to join the Eagleton Senate staff.
  In his new job, Ed reported to my father Doug Bennet, who served as 
Senator Eagleton's first chief of staff, a role then known as 
administrative assistant. Ed generously credited my father as a mentor 
and as an example that served him well when he held that same position 
for Senator Eagleton in the late 1970s and 1980s.
  Ed was a resolute Democrat and intensely loyal to Senator Eagleton, 
but he was also respected and trusted across the aisle. Jack Danforth 
was Missouri's Republican Senator during most of Ed's tenure, and both 
he and his staff felt comfortable seeking Ed's counsel. Perhaps it is 
indicative of how closely the two offices worked together that, during 
Ed's tenure, Senators Eagleton and Danforth started a bipartisan summer 
softball team called the ``Missouri Compromise.''
  Ed was an insightful student of politics and a gifted practitioner of 
the art of the possible. He had a keen sense of the political winds and 
a feel for finding the common ground that drove agreements and produced 
results. He honed his skills relentlessly. Senate coworkers soon grew 
accustomed to seeing Ed loping through the halls of Dirksen in the 
early morning hours, a 6-inch stack of Missouri newspapers under his 
arm. When Tom Eagleton walked into Ed's office and asked, ``What's 
going on in Dunklin County?'', Ed knew. He then would reduce that pile 
of newsprint to clippings he sent by mail to his network of contacts 
across Washington and Missouri.
  When Senator Eagleton retired in 1987, Ed joined the staff of 
Arkansas Senator David Pryor, where he worked with chief of staff Don 
Harrell to expand Senator Pryor's committee chairmanships and 
responsibilities as Senate Democratic Caucus chair. In 1990, Ed was 
nominated by President Bush, with Senator Pryor's support, to serve as 
a Commissioner of the U.S. Postal Rate Commission. To no one's 
surprise, the Senate unanimously approved his appointment to the 
Commission, where Ed served until his retirement in 2005.
  Upon retiring, Ed returned to his Kansas roots: the city of Lawrence 
and the University of Kansas, where he maintained a full calendar of 
classes, community service, and charitable work. He continued to be a 
voracious reader of newspapers, and his wide network of friends, 
family, and former colleagues would regularly find the resulting clips 
in their inboxes.
  This institution and this country owe much to Ed Quick and public 
servants like him, who freely give their time, friendship, and loyalty 
to causes greater than themselves. We extend our deepest condolences to 
the entire Quick family and to all those who knew and loved Bob, as we 
did.

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