[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8408-8409]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO RICHARD MOE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize Mr. Richard Moe on 
the occasion of his retirement for the outstanding contributions he has 
made during his half-century career in American politics and the 
preservation of

[[Page 8409]]

our Nation's rich heritage. On May 31st, he will retire as the National 
Trust for Historic Preservation's seventh president after 17 years of 
distinguished work and achievement. He will have been the longest 
serving president since Congress chartered that organization back in 
1949 to protect some of the country's most important historic places.
  His legacy, however, is not just limited to a litany of successes in 
the preservation of our most treasured historic and cultural resources. 
That stewardship alone is an accomplishment beyond measure because of 
the priceless value these places and objects provide us and subsequent 
generations of Americans into posterity. In honoring Richard Moe's 
decades of work, though, I would be remiss if I did not call attention 
to his great devotion to public service as well. Some of those years 
were spent right here in the Halls of the Senate when he worked for our 
esteemed former colleague, Walter Mondale. It would be difficult to 
understand his deep commitment to the Nation and its heritage, a 
hallmark of his presidency at the National Trust, without mentioning 
his dedication to serving the American people through those whom our 
voters have elected.
  A native of Duluth, MN, Richard Moe graduated with a bachelor of arts 
degree in political science from Williams College in Massachusetts. He 
began his career in politics as administrative assistant to Minneapolis 
Mayor Arthur Naftalin in 1961 and then as administrative assistant to 
Minnesota Lieutenant Governor A. M. Keith until 1966. He studied law at 
the University of Minnesota and passed the Minnesota State bar in 1967. 
That same year, he became financial director of the Minnesota 
Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, eventually rising to chairman, the 
second youngest in DFL's history. He held that post until 1972, when he 
joined the Washington office of Senator Mondale and served as his 
administrative assistant. In 1977, Richard Moe became Vice President 
Mondale's chief of staff and a member of President Carter's senior 
staff where he undertook a number of special assignments on behalf of 
that administration. Following those years at the White House, he 
joined the Washington office of the New York law firm Davis, Polk & 
Wardwell and became a partner.
  In 1993, he was selected president of the National Trust and forever 
changed the face of that important organization. Richard Moe's 
leadership there has taken the organization and the historic 
preservation movement into the 21st century. His first goal was to make 
it financially independent and strong. A major portion of the National 
Trust's funding used to come from the Federal Government. This is no 
longer the case. The National Trust now adheres to his more 
entrepreneurial focus on building relationships with private funders. 
As a result, and through two capital campaigns, the organization's 
endowment increased by $200 million during his Presidency.
  He has broadened the National Trust's original congressional mandate 
far beyond the red velvet cords of house museums and brought historic 
preservation into the full and diverse spectrum of the national public 
policy arena. When in 1993 the Manassas National Battlefield Park and 
the surrounding countryside were threatened by an incompatible theme 
park and commercial development, he rallied such opposition to sprawl, 
poor planning, and the loss of our country's open spaces that the 
proposal was defeated.
  He has focused his organization's attention beyond the importance of 
just protecting the historic America we know that was built after 
Jamestown, and called attention to the earlier cultural and historic 
treasures of the first Americans on our great public lands. And as our 
national consciousness has turned increasingly toward protecting our 
environment and conserving precious resources, Richard Moe has led his 
organization's role in fostering a more sustainable country under the 
simple but powerful message that preserving and reusing historic 
buildings is the greatest form of recycling.
  His passionate interest in history and especially the events of the 
Civil War led to a deep and personal commitment to the restoration of 
President Lincoln's Cottage just 3 miles north of this Chamber. Now, 
solely as a result of Richard Moe's vision, this once forgotten ``Camp 
David'' of President Lincoln, where one of our most respected and 
celebrated Presidents lived and worked, is open to the public for the 
first time.
  In the midst of all these accomplishments, Richard Moe wrote a Civil 
War history in 1993, ``The Last Full Measure: The Life and Death of the 
First Minnesota Volunteers,'' and coauthored ``Changing Places: 
Rebuilding Community in the Age of Sprawl'' in 1997.
  In 2007, he was awarded the National Building Museum's Vincent Scully 
Prize, which recognized his leadership in moving historic preservation 
into the mainstream of public policy and expanding the public's 
awareness of our heritage's stewardship. That same year he also 
received the American Historical Association's Theodore Roosevelt-
Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service. Let me add to the many 
acknowledgements such as these my gratitude to Richard Moe and that of 
the entire Senate for his indelible contributions to our American 
political life and for his unceasing care for our national heritage. I 
know that even in retirement, he will continue to serve the people of 
the United States and I wish him well.

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