[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 3488]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    REMEMBERING LEWIS H. WHITE, JR.

  Mr. COCHRAN. Madam President, when most Americans were celebrating 
annual religious holidays and the beginning of a new year, my family 
was mourning the loss of one of our favorite and most outstanding 
relatives, Louis H. White, Jr. Louis White was the husband of my 
father's sister, Dale White. Their children, Charlotte and Curtis, in 
addition to being my first cousins, were good friends as well.
  Louis White was a member of the fabled ``greatest generation,'' made 
up of those who left homes and families and volunteered to serve in the 
armed services during World War II. He left college at Mississippi 
State University and became an officer in the Army Air Corps. He was 
qualified soon as a pilot of a B-17 and flying combat missions over 
Germany. He and his crew were shot down eventually, and he spent 
several months in a prisoner of war camp before being liberated by the 
Russians as they moved into Germany from the east.
  After the war, after completing his engineering studies, graduating 
from college, he became an outstanding engineer, enjoying a career of 
great success as a paper company executive, where he designed and 
managed the operation of several large paper mills in Florida, Alabama, 
and Texas.
  My parents, my brother, and I often enjoyed visits with him and his 
family during holidays, particularly when they were living on Santa 
Rosa Island, near Pensacola, FL.
  When Louis retired, he was a senior staff project engineer with BE&K, 
an engineering firm in Birmingham, AL, where he was involved for 11\1/
2\ years at high levels of management in the paper industry. At his 
retirement celebration, it was said he should qualify for the 
``Guinness Book of World Records'' because of 52 years of never missing 
a day of work because of illness or the weather.
  His first job, incidentally, was at age 14, when he was a dairy 
delivery boy. He always was dutiful and dependable. In the German 
prison camp, for instance, he developed an exercise routine that helped 
save his life and the lives of those who decided to exercise with him 
every day. He once told me about a Red Cross package that would come 
with an assortment of things that would help the prisoners survive, 
that they included things such as vitamin pills, cigarettes, and other 
things. He would trade the cigarettes for vitamin pills, for those who 
wanted to swap.
  His example of generosity with his voluntary contributions in the 
communities where he lived to the schools his children and 
grandchildren would attend, helping install, personally, the 
infrastructure of cables and wiring necessary for all the classrooms to 
have computers, for example, were marks of his contribution to his 
community.
  The quality of his life, the patriotism he displayed, his courage in 
battle, his survivability under the most difficult and challenging 
circumstances in the prisoner of war camps, his loyalty to his family 
and the level of excellence of his career as an engineer in business 
and industry are worthy of emulation and high praise.
  I extend my heartfelt compassion and love to his wife and family 
members who miss him greatly. We wish them well and thank them for the 
support they gave him throughout his life and his career.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania is recognized.

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