[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 21]
[House]
[Page 29809]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             IN MEMORIAM: HOWARD PETERS RAWLINGS, 1937-2003

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to remember and honor a teacher and 
mentor and a friend, a dedicated husband and father from my hometown of 
Baltimore who rose from modest beginnings to lift up the people of his 
community and the State of Maryland.
  Howard Peters Rawlings spent his earliest years in Baltimore's Poe 
Homes public housing project. However, when he finally succumbed to 
cancer on November 14 of this year, he had become one of the most 
influential and well-respected leaders of the great State of Maryland. 
Pete Rawlings' life exemplified the character and integrity that all 
Americans should seek to achieve in their own lives. That, Mr. Speaker, 
is why I ask that we pause in the work of this great House to reflect 
upon the character of this truly great man.
  Despite the daily hardships of their lives, Pete Rawlings' parents, 
Howard Toussant and Beatrice Peters Rawlings, instilled in him the core 
values for which I rise to honor him today. Pete was born during the 
Great Depression, an age when few Americans expected a lifetime of 
exemplary achievement from any young African American. The young Howard 
Rawlings was not deterred, however. As a matter of fact, he was 
determined to be excellent at everything he did, and he was successful 
at that. His dedication to excellence led Pete to academic success at 
Baltimore's Douglass High School and carried him onward until he earned 
his bachelor's degree at Morgan State University, his master's degree 
in mathematics at the University of Wisconsin, and the experience that 
would make him a master teacher in more ways than one. Yet, Pete 
Rawlings never forgot from whence he had come. He was called to public 
service and rose to chair one of the most powerful committees in the 
Maryland legislature.
  The source of much of Pete's influence can be traced to his 
chairmanship of the appropriations committee in Maryland's House of 
Delegates, the legislative body where I served together with him for 
nearly 14 years. Pete was determined to make his lifelong fight for 
better schools, health care and housing the center of legislative 
debate, and he did succeed. He was a driving force behind the debates 
about reorganizing Maryland's school system, Maryland's higher 
education system, expanding financial support for our public schools, 
extending health care and creating safe and affordable housing for tens 
of thousands of additional families. We who were privileged to know and 
work with Pete understood that his influence did not derive from his 
position of power alone.
  As Dr. Steven Carter once observed, true leaders are defined by their 
integrity. Leaders of integrity have the capacity to discern right from 
wrong and they act upon what they know to be right even if that 
commitment places them in peril. Dr. Carter's insights about integrity 
are exemplified by Pete Rawlings' lifetime of service to the people of 
our community and State. In his commitment to the education of our 
children, health care for all and fair housing, Delegate Rawlings 
consistently followed his vision of what is right, both for the present 
and for decades to come. At times, he was rewarded for his dedication 
by harsh criticism. Yet Pete remained steadfast, knowing that the 
course that he followed was opening the doors of opportunity for many 
people to come. Otherwise, he knew they would be left on the outside 
looking in and left in a state of arrested development. He did not seek 
celebrity or acclaim, but generations to come will remember him as a 
true and faithful servant who kept the faith of the people he served.
  Mr. Speaker, all too often those of us in public life worry too much 
about the next election. A true statesman, however, worries about the 
next generation and children yet unborn. Pete Rawlings was such a man.
  As I close, Mr. Speaker, I am moved to share with you that dying from 
cancer, my friend and colleague continued working from his hospital bed 
until his death. The people of Maryland have lost a great leader and I 
have lost a great friend and mentor. At this difficult moment for 
Pete's loving wife Nina and their wonderful family, I join all the 
people of the great State of Maryland in offering our prayers and our 
gratitude for a life well lived. I thank God that he allowed Pete 
Rawlings' life to eclipse with my own.

                          ____________________