[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2016]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  TRIBUTE TO GILDA K. ``JILL'' BEATTY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute and to express 
profound appreciation to Gilda K. Beatty, my office manager of more 
than 33 years who took her retirement at the end of December last year. 
Gilda, best known to everyone who met her as ``Jill,'' began her 
service in my office when I was administrative assistant to my 
predecessor, John Blatnik, in December 1969, where she started as a 
classical secretary: gifted, talented, skilled, energetic, hard-
working. But the day before she started her service in the office, our 
first daughter was born. From that day forward, until after I was 
elected to this House in 1974, and especially following the death of my 
wife, Jo, Jill has been a surrogate mother to our four children, a 
partner in all that I undertook as administrative assistant and as 
Member of Congress, counselor, advisor, keeper of my time, managing my 
schedule in Washington and with my district staff, my travels in the 
district and travels elsewhere throughout the country. Jill's good 
humor, good spirit, and her can-do attitude, made our office a joy to 
work in.
  I have always said of Jill Beatty that she had that exceptional 
ability to say no to people who could then leave saying ``thank you,'' 
a person of whom in another context it should be said she could sell 
ice boxes to Eskimos. She was able to bring people together in our 
office, visitors from our district to Washington, and though herself a 
Pennsylvanian, coming from the coal and steel country of Pennsylvania, 
she related to the iron ore mining area of the eighth district of 
Minnesota in a very special, unique way, so that folks always thought 
she was a Minnesotan, a northeastern Minnesotan, an iron ranger.

                              {time}  1430

  She is, in spirit, certainly that. What was more important to me than 
the friendship, the professional association, the work, the undying 
work ethic that she portrayed throughout those 33 years, was her 
ability to grow in her work and to move from skill to skill; to 
understand the broader needs of our office, and of the relationship of 
this office to the committees on which I served, and now the committee, 
the single Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; and to 
relate our Washington responsibilities to the Eighth District of 
Minnesota responsibilities so as to balance the time, the interest, the 
need, and put them all in appropriate proportion. That is an 
extraordinary balancing act and a challenge at which few succeed, but 
Jill succeeded in a very special way.
  Perhaps her ability to understand the complexities of running a 
congressional office in the computer age, in the era of instant 
communications, compared to the time when she began, when first we did 
not even have fax machines; but when the first one came in, there was 
that old onion skin fax, and no multiple letter production capability; 
to transition from that era to the present takes a very special person 
of adaptability, the willingness and ability to adapt to change, to 
changing circumstances.
  To embrace change and to move ahead of change, that is Jill's 
greatest skill and ability, and it gave me the greatest pleasure to see 
her grow through the stages of evolution of technology that are so 
important for us in the Congress to maintain communication with the 
people in our districts who we represent here in this House.
  Personally, it is her ever-ready good humor; her ability to laugh, to 
laugh at herself, to laugh with others, and to make people feel so 
welcome. Every person who walked in our office, who met with or worked 
with Jill on whatever purpose it was felt as though he or she were the 
only person in the world, the only person in Washington, at that 
particular moment.
  That is a rare and special gift for which I will always be grateful, 
because she made our office in Washington the home in Washington for 
the people from the Eighth District of Minnesota who came here to 
visit.
  We all miss her terribly. We miss her good humor, her creativity, her 
willingness to move to the next horizon. I particularly have 
appreciated her sort of gentle tap on the wrist saying, you are doing 
too much. It is time to back off. You need a little more time. You 
can't do all these things at the same time. I know you would like to do 
all that, but it is not possible, and I am not going to let you do it. 
She was sort of an auntie who takes care of those who need supervision.
  Jill, we are grateful to you for all that you have contributed and 
done, and I particularly, and I know the entire staff joins in, wish 
you all the very best of good health, happiness, and long life after 
Congress.

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