[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 21731]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



         ANNOUNCING THE DEATH OF THE HONORABLE EDWARD P. BOLAND

  (Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I have the sad responsibility 
this evening of reporting to this Chamber that a very distinguished 
former Member of this institution, Edward P. Boland, died on Sunday 
evening.
  Ed Boland served in this House for 36 years with distinction as a 
member of the Committee on Appropriations and as a chairman of the 
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He served in an 
institution that he revered. He represented the people of western and 
central Massachusetts with distinction. He was a patriot of the highest 
order and an individual who loved the notion that politics had meaning 
in American life.
  In addition to that, for all of us that are gathered here tonight, 
just two quick lessons that have stuck in my mind for a long period of 
time as one who even served as an intern for him many years ago.
  Mr. Speaker, in 36 years, Eddie Boland had one fund-raiser, and he 
was mad that he had to go to it. In 36 years, Mr. Speaker, Eddie Boland 
had one press conference when he announced that he was retiring. He 
would not issue a press release, and when members of the national press 
over the Boland amendment attempted to secure his favor, he simply said 
he would report to the hometown paper and to the people back home what 
he was doing, and that was about the size of it.
  This institution mourns his passing. He was a great confidant of Tip 
O'Neill and of President Kennedy, as well as the Kennedy family, and 
this institution could not have had an individual who carried its 
reputation in better form.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 
Markey), the dean of the Massachusetts delegation.
  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Springfield, Mr. 
Boland's successor in Congress.
  Eddie was elected as a State Representative in 1932 when Franklin 
Delano Roosevelt was elected President, and left in 1988 as George Bush 
was about to be elected President. He carried the same values 
throughout all of those years, and he came to be known, for all of 
those who are still here who served with him, as a legislative giant.
  He lived with Tip O'Neill for 24 years as roommates in an apartment 
here in Washington, for the first 24 years of his career, before Tip 
brought Millie down when he was elected Speaker; and they said for 
those 24 years, the only thing that was ever in the refrigerator were 
cigars and orange juice.
  In a lot of ways, with his passing, for Massachusetts politics, 
passes an era as well, that Tip O'Neill and John McCormick and Eddie 
Boland span the years in representing.
  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, 50 years without having lost 
an election, a terrific wife in Mary and four wonderful children, this 
institution tonight mourns his passing.

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