[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 176 (Thursday, October 23, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7724-S7726]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Remembering Richard Moe

  Ms. SMITH. Madam President, I rise today to honor my friend and great 
American Richard Moe, whom we lost to Parkinson's disease at the age of 
88 on September 15 of this year.
  Dick leaves behind a legacy that shaped Minnesota and our country and 
my own life and career.
  Madam President, I understand that some of Richard Moe's family are 
visiting us in the Gallery today, and I want to, through the Presiding 
Officer, welcome them to the Chamber.
  From leading Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party at only 32, to 
serving as chief adviser to Walter Mondale in the Senate and the White 
House, to spending 17 years as president of the National Trust for 
Historic Preservation, Dick leaves behind a remarkable legacy of public 
service.
  Dick was born in Duluth, MN--fondly called the San Francisco of the 
Great Lakes, to those of us who love it. He was born there in 1936. He 
became active in Minnesota politics at a very young age, at 24, and 
right out of college, he volunteered to be a driver for Minneapolis 
mayor Hubert Humphrey when he was running first for the Senate. Dick 
was, as I said, Humphrey's driver and reportedly was so nervous driving 
the great man around that he drove Humphrey right into a gate at one 
point--an event that, thankfully, was not a career-ending move for him.
  A few years later, when he was only 32, Humphrey recruited Dick to 
lead Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and there, Dick showed 
really exceptional political intuition and skill, where he led 
Minnesota Democrats to win majorities in the State legislature for the 
first time ever.
  His political and organizing skills caught the eye of Senator Walter 
Mondale, who recruited Dick to come work on the Washington staff, and 
soon Dick became Mr. Mondale's chief of staff and one of his closest 
advisers.
  Among his many accomplishments, Dick continued to show prescient 
political insight by hiring a bright-eyed, young Minnesotan named Amy 
Klobuchar to be an intern for Walter Mondale. Amy will be here to tell 
you the rest of the story.
  I think it is fair to say that Dick loved the Senate, and he believed 
strongly in the power of this institution to do good in people's lives. 
He understood that politics is about making the very most of the power 
that you have, for good.
  One of my favorite stories comes from 1976, when Jimmy Carter was 
considering Walter Mondale to be Vice President. Fritz balked at the 
idea at first. He had heard some of the horror stories about how LBJ 
treated his friend Hubert Humphrey, and he was very negative to the 
idea of the Vice Presidency. But Dick encouraged Mondale to keep an 
open mind, and then he invited Humphrey over to the Senate to talk the 
whole idea through. And Humphrey was really clear. He said: Fritz, you 
will get more done up there in 2 days than you will get done here in 2 
years.

  So Fritz and Joan and Dick, as I understand it, went down to Plains, 
GA, to meet the Carters. Now, Fritz always said that Joan charmed the 
Carters and that sealed the deal, and I am sure that there is a lot of 
truth to that, but after that meeting, Dick told Mr. Mondale that he 
needed to write down on paper what he wanted the job of Vice President 
to be. So the two of them talked, and then Dick drafted a memo that 
laid out the template for the modern Vice Presidency.
  After the election, they presented their ideas to President-elect 
Carter, and Carter agreed. With that memo, what had been a torture to 
Hubert Humphrey was reimagined by Walter Mondale and Jimmy Carter, 
thanks to Dick Moe.
  Vice President Mondale had an office in the West Wing because they 
understood that proximity to the Oval and

[[Page S7725]]

to decision making was essential. Mondale got the information and the 
security briefings and the respect that allowed him to truly be a true 
adviser and trusted confidant to the President, not just a ribbon 
cutter and somebody who was designated to go to funerals. And Richard 
Moe became Chief of Staff to the Vice President and Senior Adviser to 
President Carter.
  Many years later, when Gov. Mark Dayton asked me to be his Lieutenant 
Governor, I consulted my friend Walter Mondale: Did he think this was a 
good idea? Characteristically, Mondale was a little skeptical at first, 
but then he called me down to his office, and he had a mission in mind. 
I came in and I sat down, and Mondale shouted out to Linda, his 
longtime personal assistant--he said, ``Linda, get me Dick's memo.''
  So he handed me Dick Moe's 11-page revolutionary tract on how to 
change the role of the second in command.
  ``Take a look at this,'' says Mondale, in his understated way. ``I 
think it might give you a few ideas.''
  So I used that memo to write my own memo to Governor Dayton so that 
together we were able to transform that role of Lieutenant Governor in 
Minnesota. And I remember saying to Mark: You are no Jimmy Carter and I 
am no Walter Mondale, but I think there are some good things for us to 
take to heart here. And that changed my life.
  I love this story because, at its heart, I was a chief of staff and 
Dick was a staffer, and as a former staff, I appreciate great staff. 
And he was the consummate staffer, Dick Moe.
  But what happens next in his story is how Dick left behind the role 
of adviser and became a principal in his own right. When the Carter-
Mondale ticket lost, badly, in 1980, Dick regrouped. He practiced law 
for a while, and he dedicated himself to his love of American history.
  He wrote a book called ``The Last Full Measure'' about Minnesota's 
famous First Regiment and the Battle of Gettysburg, and this led him to 
leading the National Trust for Historic Preservation, where he served 
as president for 17 years. In that role, he had a significant hand in 
preserving some of our country's most precious buildings and historic 
sites and shaping how cities and small towns preserve the unique Main 
Streets and downtowns that give these communities a sense of place.
  His book ``Changing Places'' changed how downtowns were imagined, and 
he called out how big-box stores were destroying what is precious and 
unique about these communities that we love.
  He marshalled famous historians and grassroots organizers to protect 
the Manassas Battlefield from being overrun by a Disney theme park, and 
he was one of the first people to go to New Orleans after Hurricane 
Katrina to highlight the need to restore the historically Black 
neighborhoods decimated by the storms.
  His fondest achievement was the restoration of a gothic revival home 
that President Lincoln used as a refuge for his family during the hot 
Washington summers of the Civil War. You can all visit President 
Lincoln's cottage in Washington, DC, thanks to Dick. In fact, Madam 
President and Senator Klobuchar, I believe we had a women's Senate 
dinner there ourselves and enjoyed that beautiful place that Dick 
protected and restored for all of us.
  When I came to the Senate in 2018, Dick reached out to me 
immediately, and he became a trusted adviser to yet another Minnesota 
Senator. He gave me wise counsel and in so many ways helped me to learn 
how to be a Senator but maybe most especially around the importance of 
protecting Minnesota's Boundary Waters wilderness area.
  The Boundary Waters is one of the great places on this planet. It is 
a million acres of lakes and bogs and forests and streams. And as Vice 
President Mondale's Chief of Staff when they were in the Presidency, 
Dick helped Mondale and President Carter shepherd through Congress the 
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act of 1978. This was the 
culmination of years of grassroots efforts to protect this place.
  After all these years, Dick was still engaged in protecting the 
Boundary Waters from copper, nickel, and sulfide mining. Dick 
understood the North Country of Minnesota. It was in his history, it 
was in his blood, and he understood the power of leadership to protect 
this special place.
  Madam President, I can tell you, he was relentless. I remember once, 
I took a call from him on New Year's Day morning. I was still in bed, 
and he is calling me on New Year's Day: Starting a new year, Tina. Time 
for us to think about what you can do to help to protect the Boundary 
Waters. Leadership, he said, makes a big difference. And he was right.
  Dick loved Minnesota. He loved this country, and he believed 
passionately in the idea that the U.S. Senate has the power to do good. 
He was steadfast in believing that individual leaders have an 
obligation to do their best and be their best and live up to our 
highest values.
  I can see him sitting across from me in the Senate Dining Room. There 
we were--the elder statesman and junior Senator. He would lean in and 
say to me: Tina, I have been thinking about something that I think you 
could do that would make a big difference. Let me tell you about it.
  Even as Parkinson's took its toll--and it did--he kept at it. One of 
the last conversations I had with him was about a speech he wanted me 
to give on Minnesota's value of civic participation and our collective 
responsibility to work together for the good of all of us.
  After the tragic and wrenching murders of Melissa Hortman and Mark, 
her husband, and the shooting of State senator John Hoffman and his 
wife Yvette, Dick could still see the through line of our Minnesota 
story--from Minnesota's First Regiment sacrificing everything at 
Gettysburg, to Humphrey and Mondale, through civil rights and farmers 
and laborers, to this moment. For Dick, this was the story of regular 
people called on to do the hard work of holding our democracy 
together--not out of partisanship but in the spirit of building a more 
perfect Union.
  So I have yet to deliver the speech that Dick had in mind, but I am 
working on it. And I am missing the inspiration of my friend and mentor 
Dick Moe. We all should have someone like Dick in our corners--someone 
wise, kind, telling us what we need to hear, and pushing us to do 
better and do more for the good of all of us.
  Dick is loved and missed by his wife of 60 years, Julia Neimeyer Moe, 
by his daughter Alexandra and son Andrew, his sister Elizabeth, his two 
granddaughters, and many, many other family and friends, and those 
whose life he expanded by being a part of it.
  May his memory be a blessing to all of us who knew and loved him.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Budd). The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I first want to thank my colleague and 
friend Senator Smith for her beautiful remarks and for her friendship 
with Dick to the end.
  I am sure you hear his voice all the time when you are trying to make 
decisions, and having that kind of person that is so grounded, not just 
in Minnesota but in his values that he brought with him to Washington 
and that he brought with him to the Vice President's office, couldn't 
be more important, and especially at a time like this.
  I just kept thinking, as Senator Smith spoke, about how Dick 
cherished history instead of trampling on it like we have seen right 
now. He understood that you could learn from history and that history 
can teach you lessons that help guide you when you have to make 
decisions in the now.
  As Senator Smith mentioned, Dick was born in Duluth, not actually far 
away from where my dad grew up, in Ely. So there was a lot of good 
stock up there. He was the son of Russell and Virginia Moe, and he grew 
up surrounded by the values that define our State: hard work and 
service to others, and especially northern Minnesota.
  He then goes on to the University of Minnesota and gets his start in 
a big way by running the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and he helped 
to lead that party to victory, time and time again, because, like I 
said, he was grounded in doing the right thing, but he also was a 
mastermind of how to win elections and how to follow up for people and 
get things done.
  That is the path that led him to my mentor, Walter Mondale, whom we 
all miss very, very much. I literally got to see Mondale at his highest 
peaks, when

[[Page S7726]]

he was Vice President and I was an intern in the office, hired by Dick 
when he was Chief of Staff.
  And then I got to see him back in Minnesota, where he was, literally, 
working at the law firm with me, and I saw him in grocery lines, where 
he would engage in long discussions with the clerk at the grocery 
station on how we could get, say, peace in the Middle East or what we 
should be doing about an economic crisis.
  And Mondale had that same thing that drew Dick Moe to him, and that 
was a grounding in the people that you represent.
  So we all know what a great job he did running that office and his 
Norwegian sense of humor--I know those words don't always go together, 
but it was a very dry sense of humor--and just this belief in decency.
  Senator Smith recounted how Dick helped Fritz prepare for that 
meeting with Jimmy Carter. And I had one interesting perspective on how 
prepared Walter Mondale was for that meeting.
  When I actually went to Plains, a few years back, and met with 
President Carter and Mrs. Carter, what they told me, over the pimento 
and cheese sandwiches that the former First Lady made, was that it was 
Walter Mondale that knew that her name was pronounced ``Rosalynn'' and 
not ``Rosalynn.'' And I have a very strong feeling that Dick Moe 
drilled that into Mondale's head when running down there. And Carter 
actually said that really stood out because a bunch of the candidates 
mispronounced his wife's name.
  Among other things, as Tina explained, this was a model that they, 
after getting elected, embarked on, and Dick Moe became Vice President 
Mondale's Chief of Staff. He crafted that 11-page memo that redefined 
the Vice Presidency, giving an active role in shaping policy, and he 
also served on President Carter's senior staff, which was very unique.
  That is when I got to be an intern at that time. I still remember 
writing in, sending in my letter, and interviewing over the phone. I 
have this cherished picture in the Vice President's home backyard that 
Dick Moe is in with all the interns, which included me and Tom Nides, 
who went on to be our Ambassador to Israel. It was quite an intern 
class, and he was there. I remember it was the first time I ever had 
lobster; so it is very memorable to me.
  I was so eager when I got there to do these policy memos that I had 
talked to Dick about and write all of these very smart ideas for them. 
And they, in fact, assigned me to do the furniture inventory of every 
piece of furniture in the Vice President's office and write down the 
numbers on a spreadsheet and make sure that they were all there and 
turn it into some government office. And I literally crawled around on 
the floor for 2 weeks, checking serial numbers on desks and chairs.
  So the first thing I learned from all that is that Walter Mondale and 
his Chief of Staff, Dick Moe, were scrupulously honest, and nothing was 
missing and, second, was to take every job seriously. I often share 
that with young people, including the interns in the Capitol.
  That internship that Dick Moe hired me for was my first government 
job in Washington, DC, and this was my second. So I remind them: Take 
those internships and the people you work with and the relationships, 
even if they are fleeting, that you form as you are meeting people and 
getting to know them, because they are oftentimes the key to your 
future. And never complain about what assignments you get.
  So Dick Moe believed in preparing the next generation of public 
servants. I think Senator Smith's story of that just really says it 
all. And then, in his later years, when he is not feeling as good, he 
takes that time to be such a mentor to her.

  So we talked about the longest serving president for the National 
Trust for Historic Preservation--a 17-year tenure. He led the efforts 
to rebuild so many historic neighborhoods in New Orleans, after 
Hurricane Katrina. Working on restoring President Lincoln's cottage is 
such an amazing thing. To think it had not been restored, but Dick Moe 
knew how important that was.
  I don't think he saw preservation as nostalgia. I think he saw it as 
honoring our country and honoring the Americans that had served.
  There was a lot about that book, ``The Last Full Measure,'' that I 
just love, and it is now recognized as the definitive history of the 
First Minnesota Regiment, which, as we know, fought for the Union in 
the Civil War, before Minnesota was even a State.
  There had been another book, the historical novel ``The Killer 
Angels,'' which, OK, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1975, but 
Dick felt it did not correctly account for the bravery of the 
Minnesotans in the First Minnesota, and he more than righted that 
wrong.
  So that story that I have often quoted around our State about the 
262-member First Minnesota Regiment, which held the line against 1,600 
Confederate troops while desperately needed reinforcements were brought 
in on the Union side, is truly worthy of the book that Dick wrote.
  I went with a number of Senators, including Senator King and a number 
of Republican Senators, to take a 1-day deep dive on the Gettysburg 
battlefield site, Monday. It was led by the head of the War College and 
another veteran member of that War College. And we went to that site.
  We first talked about Maine and the historic story of Maine, and then 
we went to the Minnesota site, which is a very big monument, but it is 
not nearly as much visited.
  The head of the War College, at the time, actually started to shed a 
tear when he told the story because he said, as Dick knew, the story of 
the First Minnesota was a story like no other.
  They asked them to hold the line--262 men, 200--and they didn't 
pause. They went and did it. And we saw that open field. And 215 of 
them were struck down by bullets, an 82-percent casualty rate, the 
highest percentage of casualty suffered by any Union regiment in a 
single engagement in the entire war.
  That sacrifice, which Dick researched and captured, is summed up by a 
Churchill quote:

       Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so 
     many to so few.

  Those ragtag soldiers that didn't even have proper uniforms, that 
were farmers, that were laborers, that were part of a regiment from a 
State that wasn't even a State, stood up when it couldn't be more of a 
difficult burden, and they didn't hesitate, and they did their jobs.
  That is what Dick honored with that story, and it is something I 
think we all should be thinking about right now. What is truly 
sacrificed? What does it mean to be an American? What does it mean to 
stand up for your country?
  So Dick's wife Julia and his kids Alexandra and Andrew, and the 
granddaughters, we send our love and gratitude. Our State is so much 
better and our country is so much better because of Dick Moe. He showed 
us, and clearly Senator Smith, that public service is worth it, that 
this devotion to history is not just some ancient thing in a dusty 
book. It matters to now.
  He showed us that the ties that bind us--whether it is small towns 
and historic preservation of buildings, like Lincoln's Cottage--mean 
something in the now; that history matters. And I think we all need to 
remember that today.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.