[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 14091]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING TRUETT CATHY

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, today the State of Georgia lost a great 
citizen and America lost a great patriot. Truett Cathy, 93 years old, 
the founder of Chick-fil-A restaurants, passed away this morning. One 
of the great entrepreneurs of all time, Truett Cathy started a 
restaurant called the Dwarf House in College Park, GA, years and years 
ago. He turned it into the Chick-fil-A restaurant, which now has over 
1,800 restaurants in 40 States and the District of Columbia. It is a 
family-owned business. It is not a public corporation. It is a business 
that is built on the principles that Truett Cathy believed in and 
believed in to this day. Truett Cathy's stores are never open on 
Sunday. He is a devout Christian and believes Sunday is a day of rest. 
So he operates 6 out of the 7 days. Everybody who competes with Truett 
Cathy operates for 7 days. But everybody who competes with Truett Cathy 
finishes second in gross sales, second in quality, and second in the 
line.
  Truett Cathy was an extra-special man whose life has been a great 
tribute to all the right things in life that all of us believe in.
  Truett Cathy also gave back to his community probably more than any 
other person I know of. He founded WinShape Homes, WinShape to build 
boys, WinShape to take children who could not find a foster parent, put 
them in a home and turned their life around. He was a prolific writer 
of book after book after book about his belief in life. His greatest 
book is one I gave to each Member of the Senate about 5 years ago: 
``It's Better to Build Boys than Mend Men.'' Because he knew the 
citizens of our country would be better if we had good foundations from 
the beginning. So he tried to make sure all those who were less 
fortunate, who did not have the advantages he or others had, had a 
chance to grow up in a home with a warm and nurturing environment, a 
Christian environment, an environment that was dedicated to the 
principles of this country, and freedom and democracy.
  Atlanta and Georgia will miss Truett Cathy. He is irreplaceable. It 
is said that nobody is irreplaceable. Truett Cathy is. But the legacy 
and the legend he built and his restaurants will go on as a flagship 
for everything that is right about free enterprise and about the United 
States of America.
  On this day on the floor of the Senate, to his family and to his 
legion of friends and to all he stood for and stands for, I mourn the 
loss of Truett Cathy, a great American and a great citizen.
  I urge everybody, when they get the chance, to read the story of his 
life, because it is the story of the American way of life. It is the 
story of principles you are committed to, vision you hope for, taking a 
risk to try and create a reward, and giving back to the community when 
you earn the money from that reward, to see to it you leave this world 
a better place than you found it.
  For America and Georgia today, Truett Cathy has left us. He has gone 
to a much better place. But he has left our city, our State, and our 
country a better place than what he found. May God bless the life of 
Truett Cathy.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
  (The remarks of Mr. Nelson pertaining to the introduction of S.J. 
Res. 42 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced 
Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.

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