[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 17423-17424]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     HONORING MR. JOHN WERNER KLUGE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 29, 2010

  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the 
accomplishments of Mr. John Werner Kluge, who recently passed away on 
September 7, 2010, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Mr. Kluge's lifetime 
of achievements included being a world-renowned businessman and 
philanthropist, as well as a key contributor to our national security 
during the Second World War.
  Mr. Kluge created Metromedia in 1960, which was the Nation's first 
major independent broadcasting entity, a conglomerate that grew to 
include seven television stations, 14 radio stations, the Harlem 
Globetrotters, the Ice Capades, radio paging and mobile telephones. 
Although his success as a businessman supplied him with vast wealth, 
acknowledged as the wealthiest man in America in 1989 by Forbes 
Magazine, he believed some of his greatest achievements came from the 
benefits society gained from his wide-ranging donations.
  Mr. Kluge gave a total of more than $63 million to the University of 
Virginia throughout his lifetime, which has allowed one of our Nation's 
most prestigious Universities to maintain itself in the top-tier of 
colleges nationwide. His donations to medical programs provided crucial 
aid to disabled and chronically ill children, while his involvement in 
prostate cancer research has led to groundbreaking advancements towards 
containing the disease once being detected. He also believed in the 
need for better end-of-life care, which led him and his wife, Tussi, to 
provide funding to establish professorships in the field at the 
University of Virginia. In 2000, his generosity even reached the 
Capitol through his $73 million donation to the Library of Congress, of 
which he will always be remembered by the Kluge Prize for the Study of 
Humanities.
  But perhaps his most important contribution was one that he is least 
known for. Mr. Kluge enlisted in the United States Army in 1940. In 
1942, during World War II, he was promoted to Captain and appointed as 
the senior officer at the top secret military intelligence post located 
in Fort Hunt Park, along the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The 
top secret post was known only by its mailing address, P.O. Box 1142. 
While there, Captain Kluge led the men and women at the post in 
reviewing top secret documents and performing interrogations of more 
than 4,000 important German prisoners of war. Through the efforts of 
his unit, our military was provided with crucial information that 
helped end World War II and give the United States an early advantage 
in the Cold War. Even more impressive were the tactics he used to 
obtain such information. Rather than physical torture, Captain Kluge 
honored the Geneva Convention by obtaining information from prisoners 
through earning their trust. It was a clear contrast from the approach 
we initially pursued with captured terrorists and suspected terrorists 
at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prisons. Through casual conversation, card 
games, and taking

[[Page 17424]]

walks, he and his unit were able to extract vital information that led 
to the discovery of most of Germany's secret weapons programs that 
included research to develop the atomic bomb, the jet engine, and the 
V-2 rocket.
  Madam Speaker, I wish to commend Mr. John W. Kluge on his lifelong 
accomplishments and contributions to society, as well as for the 
crucial service he provided our country with at a time of war. While he 
was a man of numerous successes, he was also a man of endless 
generosity. He refused to ask for recognition or acknowledgement for 
his numerous charitable donations, but instead preferred the grins and 
smiles from those who knew him well. Mr. Kluge was not only an 
outstanding soldier and American, but most importantly an outstanding 
human being.

                          ____________________