[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 95 (Thursday, June 4, 2026)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E529]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                HONORING PEACE EDUCATOR COLMAN McCARTHY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JAMIE RASKIN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 4, 2026

  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to remember the great Colman 
McCarthy, who recently passed away at the age of 87. For decades, 
Colman McCarthy cut a singular figure in Washington, D.C., known for 
both riding his three-speed Raleigh bicycle to work every day and for 
putting his sharp writing to good use challenging militarism, fascism, 
materialism, capital punishment, the war complex, and mindless 
overconsumption. Above all, he was a beloved colleague, active citizen, 
faithful friend, devoted husband, father, grandfather and irrepressible 
teacher who dedicated his life to education for peace and justice.
  Colman was born on Long Island, New York to a family of Irish 
immigrants. All he wanted to do when he graduated high school was write 
and play golf. He had just graduated from a small Jesuit college in 
Alabama with the intention of joining the PGA Tour when he made a small 
detour at a Trappist monastery in Georgia. He ended up staying there 
for five years, where he devoured great volumes of literature and wrote 
stacks of journals. Though he had taken vows as a lay brother, Colman 
could never quite cut ties with the outside world and would jump at 
every opportunity to donate blood at the town's Red Cross, where he 
could devour the newspapers and magazines. One day, the abbot gave 
Colman $50 and an old suit and drove him directly to the airport.
  Soon after landing in New York, Colman got a job as a sports 
journalist. It turned out he was much better at playing golf than he 
was at writing about it. He somehow still found his way to Washington, 
D.C. after he wrote a mildly critical piece about Sean Shriver, then 
the Director of the U.S. Peace Corps. Shriver hired Colman as a 
speechwriter because, he said, there were too many ``yes men'' 
surrounding him. Colman's career returned to journalism when in 1969 he 
became a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, where he set his 
golden pen to opposing the Vietnam War and corruption. In 1985, he 
tired of simply writing about peace and founded the Center for Teaching 
Peace with his beloved wife, Mavourneen.
  Over the next several decades, he taught free classes about 
peacemaking to hundreds of students at the Georgetown Law Center, 
Woodrow Wilson High School, and the School Without Walls before 
settling in at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School in Maryland's beautiful 
8th District. He did not believe in grades, as he was convinced they 
were ``academic violence,'' and perhaps it was this unshakeable 
conviction and his mad love for knowledge that made him so beloved and 
his classes so sought-after by his many students.
  Colman opened every class he taught on peacemaking with the same 
routine. He would pull out a $100 bill from his wallet and tell the 
assembled students that it would be theirs if they could answer every 
single one of his questions correctly, questions like: Who was Robert 
E. Lee? Who was Napoleon Bonaparte? Easy enough. But then the questions 
would get harder. Who was Dorothy Day? What about Emily Greene Balch? 
Jody Williams? Jeannette Rankin?
  The $100 bill would go back into Colman's wallet. But he never used 
this long-practiced routine to embarrass or shame his students, young 
people whom he treated seriously and respectfully. He instead used the 
bit to make a point about our education system. Students have ``been 
well taught about men who break the peace,'' he wrote, ``but know 
little or nothing about women who make the peace.'' He would then offer 
his students singular opportunities to meet legendary Nobel Peace Prize 
winners like Adolfo Perez Esquivel and the singer-songwriter Joan Baez, 
before introducing them anew to Lily Flores, the custodial worker at 
Bethesda Chevy Chase who shared her experience fleeing violence in El 
Salvador to build a new life in the United States.
  Colman inspired an untold number of his students to channel their 
careers into politics for social good. Many of them have become social 
workers or public interest lawyers. A few of his students have run for 
Congress, like my great friend from Massachusetts, Representative Jim 
McGovern. He was cherished by his friends and family alike.
  Colman met the love of his life, Mavourneen ``May'' Deegan Colman, in 
1967. She passed away in 2021. She not only shared his values but put 
up with his various vegan diets and his commitment to freeganism with 
good humor. They had three sons, John, James, and Edward and treasured 
their six grandchildren.
  His radiant legacy lives on within his family and also among his many 
students, who will recall the only homework assignment he ever gave; at 
the end of his lessons, he would command his class to ``tell someone 
that you love them today.'' We in Congress and the country would do 
well to remember it.

                          ____________________