[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5163-5164]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  BOY SCOUTS PRESENT SEN. BOB MELLOW WITH DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS AWARD

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. PAUL E. KANJORSKI

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 24, 2004

  Mr. KANJORSKI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize my very good 
friend, the Democratic Leader of the Pennsylvania Senate, Bob Mellow, 
as he receives the Distinguished Citizens Award from the Boy Scout 
Council of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
  I ask that my colleagues pay tribute to him as he is honored at a 
dinner tonight at Genetti's in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Sen. Mellow 
is a lifelong resident of Peckville, in Lackawanna County and he has 
dedicated more than two decades of his life to public service. Thanks 
to his fine leadership in the redistricting process, I am now proud to 
be Sen. Mellow's Congressman.
  Sen. Mellow was first elected as senator from the 22nd district in 
1970, and is now serving a district-record ninth term. He was twice 
elected as Senate president protempore, the third highest 
constitutional office in the Commonwealth.
  Sen. Mellow attended Lackawanna Junior College, the University of 
Scranton and Bethel College in Tennessee, where he received his 
bachelor of science degree in accounting. He also attended graduate 
school at Marywood University and served in the Pennsylvania National 
Guard from 1962 to 1968.
  One of Sen. Mellow's hallmark moves as Senate president protempore 
was opening the Senate to television coverage. This has become a 
permanent part of Senate proceedings and is an important mechanism that 
encourages public interest in our government.
  Sen. Mellow was an early advocate of measures to protect the 
environment, an issue that he and I both hold close to our hearts. Sen. 
Mellow was instrumental in passage of the Hazardous Waste Act of 1980. 
When Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania fell victim to giardiasis in 
the water supply in 1984, Sen. Mellow introduced legislation to respond 
to the outbreak of the waterborne disease. Even as he worked on 
statewide legislation to improve the lives of all Pennsylvanians, he 
also dedicated himself to improving the environment of Northeastern 
Pennsylvania, including a park in Peckville named in his honor.
  Sen. Mellow sponsored a bill that provided early retirement for 
public school and state employees in 1991. He co-sponsored workers' 
compensation legislation in 1993 that lowered insurance costs while 
eliminating abuses in the system and maintaining legitimate injury 
claims. Sen. Mellow and I have worked closely on a number of economic 
development issues important to Northeastern Pennsylvania.

[[Page 5164]]

  Sen. Mellow is president of the Chic Feldman Foundation and a member 
of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Association, the Greater Scranton 
Chamber of Commerce, the state and national societies of public 
accountants, Knights of Columbus and the Italian-American Democratic 
League.
  Sen. Mellow serves on the board of directors of the Old Forge Bank, 
the Lourdesmont School and the advisory board of the Worthington-
Scranton Campus of Penn State. He is also a steering committee member 
of the Colleen Giblin Endowment Fund for Child Neurology Research and 
was honored in 1999 as co-chairperson of the Lupus Foundation of 
America.
  There is no finer or harder-working public servant in Pennsylvania 
than Bob Mellow. Prior to the most recent redistricting, I admired from 
afar his tremendous skill and political acumen he displayed in leading 
the Democrats of the Pennsylvania Senate. Now that our districts 
overlap and I have become more familiar with his activities in his home 
district, I am even more impressed by the degree to which he is devoted 
to the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania and the effort he exerts to 
improve the quality of their lives. He understands above all that 
government must be responsive to the needs of the people and he never 
loses sight of the very real needs of individual constituents.
  In the Mellow household, public service is a family affair. I am sure 
that Bob would be the first to admit that much of his success can be 
attributed to the unwavering support of his lovely wife, Diane. She and 
their daughters Melissa and Tressa are often by Bob's side during 
public events, sometimes even accompanied by Tressa's daughter Hali. 
The entire Mellow family is an asset to Northeastern Pennsylvania, and 
I am proud to have them as constituents and friends.
  Mr. Speaker, as elected officials, our time in public service is 
extremely limited. We can only hope to have an impact as lasting as the 
legacy Sen. Bob Mellow has already attained in Northeastern 
Pennsylvania and throughout the entire state.

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