[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 10393-10395]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



             REECE DUCA RECOGNIZED FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. LOIS CAPPS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 12, 2000

  Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a distinguished 
constituent, Mr. Reece Duca, for being the recipient of the Lifetime 
Achievement Award of the Alumni Association of the University of 
California, Santa Barbara. Mr. Duca graduated from UCSB in 1966, and 
has been a resident of Santa Barbara for many years. He founded and 
built the Learning Company into an internationally recognized leader in 
the development and marketing of educational software for schools and 
homes across the nation. The Learning Company was recognized by Forbes 
Magazine in 1992 as one the ``best small companies in the world.''
  Reece Duca continues to pursue his passion for educational excellence 
through his involvement with UCSB and Stanford University, and his 
continuing role as an investor and advisor to start-up companies in the 
field of education and educational technology. One of his new companies 
is GlobalEnglish.com, an Internet-based educational technology company 
that delivers English instruction to 115 countries around the world.
  I have known Reece as an active member of the Santa Barbara 
community. He is a person who acts on his principles and makes a 
lasting contribution to the success of those ideals. I also know Reece 
as a committed husband and father, who has been able to draw upon the 
wisdom and insights of his wife and children to improve his businesses 
and advance his goals.
  Reece Duca prefers to describe his recognition as a ``half of a'' 
Lifetime Achievement Award, and knowing his as I do, I am confident 
that there is much more achievement left in this remarkable persons 
life. I consider the opportunity to represent him in Congress to be a 
great privilege.
  Mr. Speaker, please join me in extending congratulations to Mr. Reece 
Duca for all of his exceptional accomplishments.

                          ____________________



                    IN MEMORY OF MARTINA O. MAKINDE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 12, 2000

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, it is with deep sorrow and regret that I 
report to my colleagues the passing last week of an outstanding 
humanitarian in my 20th congressional district of New York who 
dedicated her life to helping the elderly and the sick.

[[Page 10394]]

  Martina Olubukola Makinde was a woman blessed with remarkable 
qualities and a generous heart which enabled her to spend her life 
treating the elderly and the sick throughout the world. As a 
professional nurse, Martina worked with the elderly in numerous nursing 
homes and treated sick patients in hospitals and in other related 
health service establishments.
  Since 1979, Martina served our community and a broader 
internationally-based community. Utilizing her skills in clinical and 
rehabilitative nursing, she worked with patients throughout New York 
and in her native country of Nigeria.
  Martina was born in 1947 in Lagos State, Nigeria. After completing 
studies as a registered nurse in Nigeria and midwife studies in London, 
Martina relocated to the United States in 1977. Due to her love of 
nursing, she returned to school and earned her Bachelor of Science 
degree in Community Health at St. Joseph's College, NY and her Master 
of Science degree in Public Health from Long Island University.
  Before completion of her Masters degree, Martina began her 
humanitarian services by serving the elderly as a Staff Nurse and then 
as Assistant Director of Nursing Services in the Jewish Home and 
Hospital for the Aged in New York. Soon thereafter, Martina decided to 
devote her services to a more under served group of patients as she 
returned to her native country to work with the Lagos State Ministry of 
Health in Nigeria. After gaining a more administrative understanding of 
the nursing/healthcare field, Martina returned to New York, where she 
assumed supervisory positions in the Jewish Home and Hospital for the 
Aged and in the Riverside Nursing Home. Martina finally completed her 
altruistic career as a Clinical Nurse Manager in the Beth Abraham 
Health Services in Bronx, New York where she devotedly served for the 
last 13 years.
  Martina's love for nursing and helping those in need extended into 
her spiritual and personal life as well. As Martina developed 
spiritually, she became an active member of the Redeeming Love 
Christian Center in Nanuet, New York. In her final year, Martina joined 
her pastors in a ``To Israel With Love'' Pilgrimage. The extent of 
Martina's love for others was best displayed in her love for her 
family. She was a remarkable mother, wife, sister and friend. Her 
unconditional love for her husband, Mr. Sahib Ohiwafunsho Makinde, was 
paralleled only to the love of God. Her three beautiful children, 
Omoyeni, Omolewa, and Ifeoluwatobi, were her treasures as she raised 
them with the love and the kindness that only she possessed.
  The memory of Mrs. Makinde is an inspiration to all, her humanitarian 
efforts having helped so many in our world-wide community.
  Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join in extending our deepest 
sympathies to all of Martina Makinde's many loved ones, and to all who 
have been inspired by her remarkable efforts as a mother, a wife, 
friend, and humanitarian.

                          ____________________



                   DEATH TAX ELIMINATION ACT OF 2000

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. MICHAEL N. CASTLE

                              of delaware

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, June 9, 2000

  Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 8, the 
``Death Tax Elimination Act of 2000.'' This legislation pursues an 
admirable goal--a return to the principle of single taxation. Taxing 
the event of death makes little economic sense. It causes small 
businesses and farms to close or partially liquidate their assets to 
pay this tax, which can be as high as 55 percent. In turn, that leads 
to job loss for the employees of the business. Therefore, the benefits 
of this legislation flow to far more people than just business owners 
and their families.
  Unfortunately, some taxes are a necessary evil. No modern, 
industrialized society can provide roads, a judicial system, or care 
for the needs of the poorest among us based on the goodwill and 
philanthropy of individual citizens. Yet, that does not give the 
Federal Government license to tax everything. By phasing out the death 
tax, a business' assets are still subject to taxation, just not double 
taxation. They are subject to capital gains tax when the next 
generation makes an informed, rationale business decision to sell the 
assets. This causes much less disruption in business operations and 
often allows employees to keep their jobs.
  My only hesitation with this legislation is its potential impact on 
the budget. Earlier this year, the Congressional Budget Office 
projected a 10-year budget surplus of $888 billion assuming that 
discretionary spending increases at the rate of inflation. I am 
convinced that conservative economists, such as the Federal Reserve 
Chairman Alan Greenspan, are correct that paying down the national debt 
should be a high priority. This year, the House of Representatives has 
passed $180 billion in marriage tax penalty relief over the next 10 
years, $123 billion in small business tax relief to accompany an 
increase in the minimum wage, and $23 billion in repealing the Social 
Security Earnings limit that punished working seniors. Because the 
first five years of death tax relief in this bill were already included 
in the small business tax relief package, the additional cost of this 
bill is $41 billion. In total, the House has passed $367 billion in tax 
relief, which does not endanger the budget surplus. As this legislation 
moves to the Senate and negotiations with the Clinton Administration 
begin, I will be paying close attention to the budgetary impact of a 
comprehensive tax package, and I will work to ensure we have a 
balanced, fiscally responsible package.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge you to work closely with the Senate and the 
Clinton Administration to arrive at a balanced tax package that 
provides tax relief for our family farms and small businesses.

                          ____________________



A TRIBUTE TO LARRY SHARP, SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY BUSINESS LEADER OF THE 
                                  YEAR

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JERRY LEWIS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 12, 2000

  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I would like today to praise 
the efforts of Larry Sharp, the president of Arrowhead Credit Union, 
who has been named Business Leader of the Year by the San Bernardino 
County Sun for the success he has brought the credit union, and his 
commitment to community involvement for himself and his business.

  Larry Sharp took over financial management of the San Bernardino 
County Central Credit Union in 1982, vowing to turn around within 24 to 
30 months the troubled financial institution that served local 
government employees. Under his management, the credit union turned a 
profit within 18 months.

  During Larry Sharp's 18-year tenure, what is now known as Arrowhead 
Credit Union has grown from 24,000 members with assets of $42 million 
to nearly 100,000 members and assets of $404 million.

  But the credit union is much more than a financial success under 
Larry Sharp. It has become a community asset.

  Under his leadership, Arrowhead Credit Union donated funds to create 
a classroom at California State University, San Bernardino, that helps 
students learn realtime securities trading just as if they were working 
for a broker.

  The credit union has also given free space to create the Community 
Advancement Resource Center, which helps small businesses and start-
ups. The credit union has set aside $250,000 for micro-loans for 
businesses using the center, which is a cooperative venture between the 
university's Center for Entrepreneurship, the Inland Empire Small 
Business Development Center and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

  Arrowhead plans to open a branch this year on San Bernardino's West 
Side, whose primarily African-American and Hispanic residents have not 
been served by a local financial institution since 1984. And the credit 
union has pledged $20,000 a year to the CORE 21 program of the Inland 
Empire Economic Partnership to foster high-tech jobs in the area.

  Mr. Speaker, it is clear that under Larry Sharp's leadership, 
Arrowhead Credit Union has shown the kind of leadership that helps a 
community prosper and grow along with its businesses. I ask you and my 
colleagues to join me in congratulating him on the well-deserved 
recognition as Business Leader of the Year.

[[Page 10395]]



                          ____________________



      DR. FRANK McCONNELL HONORED POSTHUMOUSLY WITH TEACHING AWARD

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. LOIS CAPPS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 12, 2000

  Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to bring to your 
attention that Professor Frank McConnell was posthumously presented 
with the Outstanding Teaching Award by the Alumni Association at the 
University of California, Santa Barbara. Frank McConnell was a 
professor of English at UCSB for over three decades, and enjoyed a 
career that touched the lives of countless students who were inspired 
by his own love of literature.
  As a member of the UCSB community, I knew Frank well, Mr. Speaker. I 
knew him to be passionate about the works he was teaching, engaging 
generations of students with his infectious love of books, writers, and 
their ability to communicate important ideas. There are many stories 
about Frank inspiring students to stay in school to finish their 
degrees, to major in English, and even to pursue a career in academia.
  Frank also wrote a fiction and non-fiction, including a series of 
mysteries featuring a character he readily admitted bore a resemblance 
to himself: ``chain-smoking, hard-drinking, foul-mouthed.'' He was 
awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Professorship, and chaired 
the 1991 Pulitzer Prize fiction jury. Also over the course of his 
distinguished career, Frank was named the Mortarboard Teacher of the 
Year five times.
  Frank McConnell, however, was not a ``typical'' academic. He could be 
flamboyant, colorful, and even eccentric. His classes did not end when 
the bell rang and the period was over. His students would follow him to 
the coffee shop, the student center, or the pizza parlors in Isla 
Vista. He helped make college fun and stimulating at the same time!
  We miss Frank, and extend to his wife Celeste our best wishes for a 
quick recovery. She and Frank would have been proud of Celeste's son, 
Eric Friedman, who was raised from a young age by Frank. Eric received 
the award on behalf of Celeste--and Frank--and was himself a wonderful 
tribute to Frank's life.
  Teachers, as you know well, Mr. Speaker, are among America's most 
important treasures. Frank McConnell was an exceptional gem, and his 
talent contributed in its own modest way to our Nation's greatness. I 
want to congratulate UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang and the UCSB Alumni 
Association for their emphasis on the value of teaching at a first rank 
research university, and for recognizing this exceptional and 
inspirational teacher, Professor Frank McConnell.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to stand and join me in paying 
special tribute to Dr. Frank McConnell.

                          ____________________



                     TRIBUTE TO THE LATE FRED CAPPS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ED WHITFIELD

                              of kentucky

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 12, 2000

  Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I rise with sadness and regret to call to 
the attention of the Members of Congress and the Nation the tragic 
murder of the Honorable Fred Capps of Burkesville, Kentucky.

  Fred was a friend of justice, a dedicated and respected public 
official, and a personal friend. He served with distinction and 
diligence as Commonwealth's Attorney for Cumberland, Monroe, Adair and 
Casey counties in the southeastern tip of the First Congressional 
District from 1994 until his death on June 5, 2000. He was murdered in 
his home shortly after dawn by a gunman who was scheduled to be 
prosecuted by Mr. Capps later that day.

  Heroically defending himself, his home and family, Fred was able to 
arm himself as the intruder shot his way into the Capps' home. Though 
severely wounded, Fred was able to return fire, mortally wounding the 
intruder, probably saving the lives of his wife and two children, who 
were at home during the shooting.

  Fred Capps was an honest, hard-working prosecutor who brought honor 
to America's criminal justice system. His public contributions mirrored 
the way he lived his private life. He was dedicated to his wife 
Catherine and children John Steven and Lynda, to the law, and to his 
community. This tragedy reminds us again of the debt we owe to Fred 
Capps and his colleagues, whose commitment to law and order exposes 
them to the constant possibility of vengeance and violence. They 
deserve our support, our appreciation, and our prayers.



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