[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 13448]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING JAMES F. VESELY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. DAVID G. REICHERT

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 21, 2009

  Mr. REICHERT. Madam Speaker, today I pause to honor a man who spent 
more than 40 years using his exceptional journalistic skill, integrity 
and ethic to promote civic engagement and help educate his readership 
and many others in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
  James F. Vesely retired from The Seattle Times on Friday, May 15, 
2009. He oversaw the editorial pages at The Times since 2001 after 
holding the position of associate editorial page editor for the 
previous 10 years. During his tenure at the largest newspaper in my 
home state of Washington, Mr. Vesely consistently pushed The Times 
editorial pages and its writers to think independently, write 
accurately and report fairly. And, with an outstanding journalist with 
a lifetime of experience under his belt in the lead, the editorial page 
and its writers did just that. During a tremendously difficult time for 
newspapers throughout our country the editorial pages at The Times 
spoke consistently, accurately and uncompromisingly.
  Before joining The Times in 1991, Mr. Vesely spent much of his career 
in the Midwest, including ten years in Detroit with The Detroit News. 
He also worked as a consulting editor for the Anchorage Times and as a 
visiting editor at The People's Daily in Beijing. In the mid-seventies, 
he was a Journalism Fellow at Stanford University and was a member of 
the National Conference of Editorial Writers for the past 15 years.
  Mr. Vesely's involvement in civic engagement was the true barometer 
of his positive effect on citizens looking to ``get involved'' in their 
communities and government. In 2005, Mr. Vesely took the time to 
moderate a forum I held in the 8th District on Social Security and he 
and The Times Editorial Board hosted, moderated and submitted questions 
at many political debates--races I was involved in and a variety of 
others. Mr. Vesely also offered his time to CityClub, a non-profit, 
non-partisan education organization dedicated to informing citizens and 
building community leadership, in order to facilitate healthy dialogue 
and educational opportunities for people in the greater Seattle area. 
He never rested in educating himself and others to make our corner of 
the country a more informed, vibrant place to live.
  With the retirement of James F. Vesely from The Seattle Times, the 
Pacific Northwest is losing an informed voice of reason and the 
journalism profession is losing a wealth of experience, wisdom and 
generosity. I wish Mr. Vesely the best in retirement. He told The Times 
on May 13 that he was ``plan(ing) to do a lot of fly-fishing''; that 
sounds like a great start.

                          ____________________