[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9879-9880]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     REVEREND WILLIAM SLOANE COFFIN

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I rise today to remember my friend Rev. 
William Sloane Coffin who passed away in Vermont on April 12, 2006, at 
his home in Strafford.
  Bill Coffin was an extraordinary man who leaves behind a legacy of 
inspired

[[Page 9880]]

service for social justice that few Americans have matched. He 
dedicated his life to speaking out on behalf of those who would 
otherwise be forgotten, to improving the lives of the underprivileged, 
and to calling for justice for victims of discrimination in our 
society.
  As chaplain of Yale University, Bill used that pulpit like none 
before him, to serve not only the Yale community but to inspire the 
entire Nation. While many Senators may remember him best for his moral 
leadership and courageous activism during the Vietnam War, Bill also 
established himself as a dedicated leader for racial and social 
justice. He was a member of the Freedom Riders who rode interstate 
buses in the South to challenge segregation laws. He was a visionary 
and powerful leader in pointing out the hypocrisy of religious and 
sexual discrimination
  Mr. Gary Trudeau, creator of the cartoon ``Doonesbury'' and fellow 
Yale graduate, may have immortalized Bill Coffin in his Reverend Sloan 
character. But that was only one chapter of a lifetime of using his 
ministry to fight injustice. After his long service at Yale, Bill 
became pastor of Riverside Church in New York City where he continued 
to advocate for the downtrodden all over the world. Bill continued to 
be a forceful presence for good long after he left Riverside.
  Mr. President, Vermonters were fortunate to have Bill Coffin as a 
resident of our unique State. Vermonters have a long history of 
independent thought, of standing up for what is right, and Bill Coffin 
set a standard for all of us. I was privileged to know him personally 
and to be able to call him a friend. I know his other friends and 
neighbors felt the same way. We were all made better, and felt better 
about ourselves, when we were in the company of Bill Coffin.
  I ask unanimous consent that a column by William F. Buckley and an 
editorial in the Valley News be printed in the Congressional Record so 
that other Senators may have a further appreciation of this great and 
good man.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                 [From the Valley News, April 14, 2006]

                           William S. Coffin

       The Upper Valley has its share of accomplished and 
     prominent residents, but we can think of few whose presence 
     seemed such a gift as did that of The Rev. William Sloane 
     Coffin, who lived here full time from the late 1980s until 
     his death Wednesday at his home in Strafford.
       The Upper Valley phase of Coffin's life showcased the same 
     devotion to social justice as his earlier chapters as pastor 
     of Riverside Church in New York City and chaplain of Yale 
     University. His focus shifted somewhat--the Vietnam War and 
     black Americans' civil rights while he worked in New Haven, 
     Conn., and New York City; nuclear disarmament, gay Americans' 
     civil rights and the environment while in Vermont--but the 
     larger theme remained constant. He was committed to speaking 
     truth to power, and he did that by talking about the issues 
     of the day with striking clarity and wisdom.
       One of the last op-eds he wrote for the Valley News 
     appeared just a few weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, and 
     reviewing it now, more than four years later, makes us wish 
     it had had more of an impact in guiding this nation's leaders 
     about the topic at hand--how to best respond to terrorism.
       ``What Americans do realize now,'' Coffin wrote, ``is that 
     life can change on a dime. On Sept. 11, we lost, and lost 
     forever, our sense of invulnerability and invincibility. Hard 
     as that may be, let us not grieve their passing; they were 
     illusions.
       ``Today it is the Devil's strategy to persuade Americans to 
     let go of the good to fight evil. I hope we will resist. I 
     hope that first we will present to the world conclusive 
     evidence of whom these hijackers were, from whence they came, 
     and who knowingly harbored them.
       ``Then I hope we shall try to build international consensus 
     for appropriate measures, both to halt the violence and the 
     circumstances that gave rise to it.''
       Here in the Upper Valley, though, we had the opportunity 
     not only to appreciate the power of Coffin's message but also 
     to witness the force of his personality. Whether at a dining 
     room table, behind a church pulpit, at a piano or on a stage 
     at a political rally, Coffin commanded, enjoyed and rewarded 
     attention. The message was difficult to separate from the 
     virtuoso performance of high-spiritedness, humor and insight. 
     Not even a failing body, including the slurred speech left in 
     the wake of a stroke, blunted the force of his personality. 
     Strafford Selectwoman Kay Campbell had it just right when she 
     noted that Coffin, despite his national stature, had a knack 
     for ``treating us like we were all special.''
       Bill Coffin was an accomplished, amazing and fascinating 
     man, and many Upper Valley residents feel blessed not just to 
     have benefited from his wisdom but for the opportunity of 
     seeing him in action.
                                  ____


                 [From Yale Daily News, Apr. 14, 2006]

                    Coffin's Passion Topped Ideology

                      (By William F. Buckley, Jr.)

       It was the routine, when Charles Seymour was president of 
     Yale, that the chairman (as we were then designated) of the 
     News should visit with President Seymour for a half hour 
     every week, mutual conduits for information in both 
     directions. We became friends and he told me at one meeting 
     with some enthusiasm that the student speaker at the annual 
     Alumni Day lunch at the Freshman Commons the day before 
     ``gave the single most eloquent talk I have ever heard from 
     an undergraduate.'' I thought hard about that comment one 
     year later when I was selected to give the annual talk to the 
     alumni, which speech moved nobody at all because the day 
     before, the text having been examined by public relations 
     director Richard Lee, I was asked to be so kind as to 
     withdraw; and I did. (What I did with the speech was stick it 
     into the appendix of ``God and Man at Yale'').
       I didn't meet William Sloane Coffin '49 DIV '56 until some 
     while later, when of course I congratulated him on electing 
     the correct political extremity in the controversies of the 
     day. He was never slow to catch an irony, and his wink 
     brought on a trans-ideological friendship that induced great 
     pleasure.
       The friendship was publicly confirmed by Coffin with an 
     extraordinary gesture. Garry Trudeau '70 ART '73 was lining 
     up speakers for an event celebrating the reunion of his 
     class. His reunion coincided with a reunion of my own class, 
     and he came to me and asked if I would consent to debate with 
     Bill Coffin as I had done for Trudeau's class in freshman 
     year.
       Well, I said, okay, though I knew that Charles Seymour's 
     estimate of successful speakers would certainly prevail yet 
     again. But there was a remarkable feature of that afternoon. 
     I climbed the steps at the Yale Law School Auditorium to 
     extend a hand to Bill Coffin--who brushed it aside and 
     embraced me with both arms. This was a dramatic act. It was 
     testimony not only to Coffin's wide Christian gateway to the 
     unfaithful, but also to his extraordinary histrionic skills. 
     I'd have lost the argument anyway. I have defended my 
     political faith as often as Coffin did his own, but you 
     cannot, in the end, win an argument against someone who is 
     offering free health care and an end to nuclear bombs. But 
     there was never any hope for survival after his public 
     embrace.
       We were always, however lightly, in touch. ``Sweet 
     William,'' he addressed me in June 2003, enclosing a copy of 
     a speech he had delivered at Yale the week before. ``The 
     enclosed speech to the Class of '68, you will be sorry to 
     hear, was received with tumultuous applause. Don't worry, 
     however, you, alas, represent the ruling view. I hope you 
     feel with Saint Paul, `Though our outer nature is wasted away 
     our inner nature is being renewed each day.' Affectionately 
     as always, Bill.''
       I replied ``Wm, I am not surprised your speech was greeted 
     by tumultuous applause. That is what demagogy is designed to 
     do, dear William.'' He replied some months later, enclosing a 
     copy of a page from the Boston Globe in which both of us were 
     quoted. ``Dear Wm, Could it be that in this time and our old 
     age that we might be on the same page? Do let me know, 
     affectionately, Bill.''
       I replied that I had seen his new book Letters to a Young 
     Doubter. ``. . . I think of you often, and did so most 
     directly when I published, a fortnight ago, the obituary I 
     did on William F. Rickenbacker. He is the only other fleeted 
     spirit I ever addressed as Dear Wm, which he always 
     reciprocated with letters address to me as Dear Wm--both of 
     us signing off as . . . Wm. As I am now, anxious to get a 
     note off to you, especially since you have taken to writing 
     books again, instead of reproachful letters to, your pal--
     `Wm.'''
       Our disagreements were heated, and it is through the 
     exercise of much restraint that I forebear doing more than 
     merely to record that they were heated; on my way, heatedly, 
     to record that Bill Coffin was a bird of paradise, and to 
     extend my sympathy to all who, however thoughtlessly, lament 
     his failure to bring the world around to his views.

     

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