[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 1757-1758]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 HAPPY 70TH BIRTHDAY TO T. ROGERS WADE

  Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, I rise to speak for a few minutes about 
a gentleman whose 70th birthday will be celebrated next Monday night in 
Atlanta, GA. He is a gentleman who has deep ties to the Senate. His 
name is T. Rogers Wade.
  He came to the Senate in 1973 as an administrative assistant and 
later chief of staff to Georgia Senator Herman Talmadge. During those 
years, Senator Talmadge was chairman of the powerful Agriculture 
Committee which, in my State of Georgia, is instrumental. Rogers Wade 
is one of those unique people whom all of us, such as the Presiding 
Officer and myself, are lucky enough to have in our offices, somebody 
who supports us, keeps us moving in the right direction, helps us back 
home with our people--in other words, kind of drives our ship of State. 
My chief of staff does. Rogers Wade did it for Herman Talmadge.
  He took those talents and brought them back to Georgia after 1980 to 
do a number of memorable and tremendous things. For example, when he 
first came back he founded a firm called Edington Wade & Associates, a 
public affairs firm that represented many Fortune 500 companies 
throughout the State of Georgia and their locations.
  Following that, he did many other things in Georgia. He founded 
Leadership Georgia, a program today celebrating over 40 years in our 
State, generating new leaders for our State. It is a great program. He 
came to the Fanning Institute of Leadership at the University of 
Georgia and serves on its board. He serves on the board of the Richard 
Russell Foundation. Most importantly, he is a can-do guy who became 
president of something known as the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, 
an organization that is nonpartisan and dedicates itself to opine on 
legislation going through the Georgia Legislature or initiatives coming 
before the people on the ballot to give them an unvarnished, 
nonpolitical, straight-talk expression of what that law or what that 
issue would be. It has become one of the most respected foundations in 
our State and, in fact, around the country. He served as president of 
that foundation from 1997 to 2009 and today is a trustee of the 
foundation.
  One of the interesting things T. Rogers Wade did--a lot of people 
talk about what they want to do to reform education and help kids in 
need. T. Rogers Wade did it. He founded something called Tech High in 
Atlanta, GA, a school in an old dilapidated building that he raised the 
money to rehabilitate. He brought in excellent faculty in STEM math and 
science and opened it as a charter school approved by the State of 
Georgia for the most in need, free-and-reduced-lunch kids in the 
metropolitan city of Atlanta public school

[[Page 1758]]

system. He began attracting those kids to that charter school. So 
successful has Tech High been that Arne Duncan, the Secretary of 
Education, chose it to be one of his first visits after he became 
Secretary of Education under President Obama. It still is a guiding 
light today of what can be done, with a focus on excellence and helping 
kids in need to brighten their future.
  Just recently, with the election of Nathan Deal as the new Governor 
of Georgia, he picked one person out of our State to guide him in his 
transition team. It was T. Rogers Wade.
  T. Rogers Wade has touched the lives of American servicemen by being 
on the board of the USO, Georgia businesses by being on the board of 
the chamber of commerce, and citizens around our State by being the 
president of the Public Policy Foundation.
  Next Monday night, I am going to have dinner with a great Georgian 
and great American. And I rise at this moment on the floor of the 
Senate to pay tribute to T. Rogers Wade on the occasion of his 70th 
birthday.
  I yield back the remainder of my time. I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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