[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 21160-21161] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]IN MEMORY OF KEN BACON, PRESIDENT, REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL ______ HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN of massachusetts in the house of representatives Tuesday, September 8, 2009 Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, it was with deep sorrow and shock that I learned of the death of Mr. Ken Bacon, President of Refugees International. Ken was a great man, who accomplished so much in his lifetime, both inside and outside the U.S. government. His wit, focus, passion and vision will be sorely missed by me and everyone who knew him. One of the first actions I did with Ken in his capacity as the new president of Refugees International was an event in 2001 on the need to ban anti-personnel landmines. His background and experience at the Pentagon made Ken an especially authoritative voice in support of the international treaty to ban landmines and on the horror and humanitarian consequences of landmines. I found him inspiring and energizing. In the years to come, we would work together on issues ranging from internally displaced people in Colombia, to the tragedy of Darfur, and the need to ban the use of cluster munitions. I last saw Ken at a breakfast on Capitol Hill on June 17th, where we had a chance to join forces once again to talk about the special needs of displaced women and girls. Ken Bacon helped strengthen and revitalize Refugees International into one of the most internationally recognized voices and advocates on behalf of refugees and the internally displaced. And like all his friends, family and colleagues, I pledge to carry on his work as if he were still right by my side. I would like to insert into the Record the statement on the death of Ken Bacon by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; the August 16th obituary in the New York Times; and the August 15th tribute posted by Refugees International on its web site. Death of Ken Bacon, President of Refugees International (Hillary Rodham Clinton, Aug. 15, 2009) The United States and the world lost a great humanitarian leader with the passing today of Ken Bacon, President of Refugees International. Most Americans remember Ken as the unflappable civilian voice of the Department of Defense, where he served with distinction as spokesperson for many years. But for millions of the world's most vulnerable people--refugees and other victims of conflict--Ken was an invaluable source of hope, inspiration and support. From Central Africa to South Asia to the Americas, Ken shone the spotlight on the causes of humanitarian suffering, and served as an impassioned yet reasoned advocate for the principles of humanitarian protection and assistance. We will miss Ken, but we will be inspired by the contributions he has made and the example he has set. ____ [From the New York Times, Aug. 16, 2009] K. Bacon, an Advocate for Refugees, Is Dead at 64 (By Douglas Martin) Kenneth H. Bacon, a former journalist and Pentagon spokesman who devoted his last years to highlighting refugees' problems and urging policymakers to find solutions, died Saturday morning at his summer home on Block Island, R.I. He was 64 and a resident of Washington. The cause was complications of melanoma, his daughter Sarah said. Mr. Bacon, as an assistant secretary of defense in the Clinton administration, was the spokesman for the Defense Department during NATO's campaign to end the violence in Kosovo in 1999. He then visited his first refugee camp during a trip to the Balkans with William S. Cohen, then the defense secretary. ``I had never seen refugees before, never fully appreciated the sheer magnitude of one million people leaving their homes and needing food, shelter and medical care and then one million people going back home after the war,'' he said in an interview with The New York Times in 2001. ``This fascinated me,'' he continued. ``I knew it was rare for the world to help refugees so completely, and I wondered if somebody could help give the same attention to the refugees in the Congo, Afghanistan and Sudan.'' Mr. Bacon became president of Refugees International, which advocates for assistance to save the lives of the world's 41.9 million people who flee their homes to escape violence, either in their own countries or across borders. The organization also aids the 12 million stateless people living in limbo without citizenship rights. Refugees International helps abandoned refugees receive food, medicine and education; helps displaced families to return home and helps stateless families obtain legal status. It also urges policymakers at the national and international levels to send peacekeepers to protect displaced people. In a biography he wrote for the organization's Web site, Mr. Bacon said the most important thing Refugees International does is push governments and the United Nations to overcome what he called the ``commitment gap'' that prevents the world from ending genocide, human rights abuses and wars. Mr. Bacon wrote and spoke extensively about these issues. In remarks at the Brookings Institution in February 2003, just five weeks before the United States attacked Iraq, he suggested ways to reduce the number of refugees in a war, including choosing targets outside of urban areas. In an article in Newsday in September 2003 he urged the United States to persuade France to contribute peacekeepers to Iraq, because of France's success in peacekeeping elsewhere. At the time, many Americans resented France because of its strong opposition to the American attack. Kenneth Hogate Bacon was born in Bronxville, N.Y., on Nov. 21, 1944. He graduated from the Phillips Exeter Academy and Amherst College, where his father was a political science professor. He earned master's degrees in journalism and business from Columbia. In 1968 and 1969, he was a legislative assistant to United States Senator Thomas J. McIntyre, Democrat of New Hampshire. He then joined The Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau, where he worked for 25 years as a reporter, columnist and editor. From 1968 to 1974, he served in the Army Reserve. Mr. Bacon had covered the Pentagon during the Carter administration and had come to respect William J. Perry, a senior official. When President Bill Clinton appointed Mr. Perry as his second secretary of defense in 1994, Mr. Perry asked Mr. Bacon to be his spokesman. Mr. Bacon joined the Clinton administration as assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, and was promoted to assistant secretary in 1996. He served until 2001, becoming a familiar face on broadcast and cable television news shows donned in his signature bow tie. Mr. Bacon is survived by his wife, the former Darcy Wheeler, and his daughters, Katharine and Sarah; his father, Theodore S. Bacon of Peterborough, N.H.; and his brother, Douglas A. Bacon of Concord, Mass. To Mr. Bacon, being a refugee was something that could happen to anybody at any time. ``Even blue-blooded WASPs were refugees at one time; mine came over from England in 1630, fleeing debts for all I know,'' he said. ____ [From Refugees International, Aug. 15, 2009] Refugees International Mourns the Death of Kenneth H. Bacon Washington, DC.--With grief and a deep sense of loss, Refugees International announces that Kenneth H. Bacon, President of Refugees International, died this morning from an aggressive melanoma that spread into his brain. Mr. Bacon, who became President of Refugees International in 2001 and was only 64 years old at the time of his death, devoted the final years of his life to building the organization into the leading advocacy group on refugee crises. ``Ken Bacon was an extraordinary human being. He led by example and dedicated his efforts to help those most vulnerable--refugees and displaced persons across the globe,'' said Farooq Kathwari, Chair of the Board of Directors of Refugees International. ``We are inspired by his passion, his integrity, his humility, and the dignity with which he faced the inevitable. We will sorely miss our friend and colleague.'' Under Mr. Bacon's leadership, Refugees International doubled in size and grew from an organization that largely sounded the alarm on the latest refugee crisis to a program built on sustained advocacy to transform unwieldy and often ineffective international systems. During his tenure, the organization successfully advocated for increased protection and assistance for displaced people in places like Darfur and Iraq, where he focused much of his own work, as well as in Afghanistan, Burma, the DR Congo, Colombia, and Thailand. Mr. Bacon also launched new advocacy programs on peacekeeping and statelessness. In the last few months of his life, Mr. Bacon turned his passion towards the growing threat of climate displacement. Just a few weeks prior to his death, he and his wife Darcy provided a generous donation to establish the Ken and Darcy Bacon Center for the Study of Climate Displacement. ``Ken's death is an enormous loss--to his family, his friends, and Refugees International. All of us here will miss his leadership, his kindness, and his quiet passion,'' said Joel Charny acting president of Refugees International. ``He never stopped looking for new ways to bring attention to the [[Page 21161]] millions of people who have been uprooted by violence and conflict. The world's most vulnerable people have lost one of their most tireless advocates.'' In 2004, Mr. Bacon made Darfur his primary regional focus before throngs of activists and celebrities began calling for support to the region. In 2005, he accompanied UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to Darfur, and he met with Sudanese President Al-Bashir in 2007 to push for a ceasefire and greater access for relief workers in Darfur. Over the years, he travelled to Darfur four times, wrote op-ed pieces, conducted media interviews and testified to Congress in his trademark bowtie, participated in think-tank working groups, debated the merits of military action with journalists and humanitarian workers and gave advice to the leaders of the grassroots movements that made Darfur a household name. These efforts helped lead to the substantial funding the U.S. has provided for aid to the people of Darfur and to African Union and United Nations peacekeepers in the region. ``Ken would walk the corridors of power one day and then meet with refugees in the most remote areas of Darfur the next. His unique mixture of expertise in the media, military affairs, and U.S. government policy, added to his compassion for vulnerable refugees, made him one of the great voices in humanitarian advocacy,'' continued Charny. ``Ken always saw the best in people. His ability to connect with nearly everyone he met made it possible for him to convince officials at the highest levels of government and the United Nations to make the necessary changes to save lives and protect people from harm.'' In 2006, Mr. Bacon pushed Refugees International to investigate the plight of Iraqi refugees at a time when no one was willing to acknowledge or speak out about this matter. Drawing on the findings of Refugees International's field research teams, Mr. Bacon was a leader in pushing the U.S. government and the UN to recognize the world's fastest growing refugee crisis at that time. His advocacy with senior administration officials and key members of Congress, such as Senator Edward Kennedy, was instrumental in achieving extensive press coverage and policy discussions on Iraqi displacement, the creation of a State Department task force on the problem, a sharp increase in international assistance for displaced Iraqis, and greater numbers of Iraqis being resettled in this country. Mr. Bacon wrote a few months before his death, ``When I came to Refugees International in 2001, I planned to stay for several years and then retire or move on to teaching or writing, but the challenge of the work and the commitment of the staff are too exciting to leave.'' When he thanked people for their support of the organization, he regularly noted, ``We have a lot to do.'' In 1994, Mr. Bacon became Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and Pentagon spokesman. During the U.S. and NATO operations in Kosovo, Mr. Bacon became convinced that the world needed more people working to stop human rights abuses and to assist people displaced by man-made and natural disasters. He became president of Refugees International in 2001 to help further that goal. From 1969 to 1994 Mr. Bacon worked as a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Bacon received his Bachelor's degree from Amherst College, and a Master's degree in Business Administration and Master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1968 to 1974. Mr. Bacon is survived by his wife, two daughters, two grandchildren, his brother and his father. The board and staff of Refugees International express their deepest condolences to his family and friends. A memorial service will take place in Washington, DC in September and forthcoming details will be posted on the Refugees International website. In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family has designated Refugees International for memorial contributions in honor of Mr. Bacon. For more information, go to http://www.refugeesinternational.org/ken-bacon. ____________________