[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 6] [Senate] [Pages 7507-7508] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]TRIBUTE TO JANE WINKLER DYCHE Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I wish to pay tribute to a distinguished Kentuckian who is a leader in her community as well as a good friend. Jane Winkler Dyche is an accomplished attorney in her hometown of London, KY, as well as the master commissioner for the Laurel County Circuit Court and an active volunteer for many local causes. Dyche, the daughter of educators, originally trained as a teacher, earning a degree in home economics education from the University of Kentucky. She worked for 13 years in food and nutrition across Kentucky before earning her law degree at UK. She is now in her 21st year of practicing law. Dyche is well known in the region for her service on the board of the Kentucky Bar Association, including a stint as president. She served on the board of the Kentucky Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company and is a dedicated volunteer for Kentucky Educational Television. Dyche also works on behalf of the Laurel County Public Library and the God's Pantry Food Bank. Jane and her husband, Robert, have two children, Robert and John. They currently practice law together in the house that her husband grew up in, accompanied by their office dog, Stella. I want to commend my good friend Jane Winkler Dyche for her commitment to her community and to Kentucky. For many years, she has been a devoted supporter of worthy causes and a fixture in the Commonwealth's legal circles. Still an educator at heart, she continues to share her wisdom with others every day. An area publication, the Times-Tribune, recently published a profile of Jane Winkler Dyche. I ask unanimous consent that the article be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: [From the Times-Tribune, May 15, 2016] Tri-County Profiles: London Attorney Considers Herself an Educator in all Things (By Christina M. Bentley) ``As a lawyer, I still teach people,'' said Jane Winkler Dyche, Laurel County attorney and master commissioner, a position in which she assists the Laurel Circuit Court in the enforcement of judgments. ``I'm just teaching the jury, or I'm educating the judge in my version of the case,'' she said. Dyche was raised by educators. Her father, Thomas Winkler, was a teacher and school administrator in the Bell County School System and her mother, Mildred, was a career nurse who, at the request of the Pineville Community Hospital, started the Pineville School for Practical Nursing, which was later absorbed into the Kentucky Community College System. Both the Winklers were WWII veterans--Mildred served as a nurse in the Women's Army Corps--and met when Thomas Winkler was being repatriated from his service in the Army Air Corps. ``They were incredible people,'' Dyche said. ``I was very blessed to have parents who saw the importance of education . . . I think being the child of a forward-thinking woman, someone who actually started this hospital nursing program . . . very little I do could begin to be close to touching or hitting milestones like she did. I mean she was really very forward-thinking, and there was really the expectation of `you need to do the best you can do.' They encouraged free thought and travel. They dragged us about a lot. That's something I think--that wanderlust, the opportunity to see things, new things, it's a huge world. I think sometimes I see that folks' vision is not as wide as it needs to be. It's a big world. It's a BIG world, and if we're too quick to close our eyes or our ears, we're going to miss out on so much.'' Dyche herself has been very open to new opportunities in her life. Like her father, she trained as a teacher, getting a degree in home economics education from the University of Kentucky and going on to work for 13 years with the Cooperative Extension Service as an area extension agent for foods and nutrition, a job in which her primary role was to train others. ``I was an area extension agent, which is really different (from being a county extension agent),'' Dyche said. ``I eventually actually worked from Harlan to Harrison (counties). I had no supervisory capacity, but I trained. I taught people how to teach. I taught the paraprofessionals how to teach the material to the low-income families, and to do that I made home visits with every single one of the assistants I taught twice a year, so I went in the homes with them . . . I think that's where we're losing things now. I think that there aren't enough people willing to say, `Okay, if you want to change, how do we help you do that? Tell us what we need.' How do we make that happen? You can't do it by just giving people stuff. We've got to help people do with what they have.'' She met her husband, London native and fellow attorney Robert Dyche, during her work with the Extension Service, and said that that's how she made her way to London. The couple have two children, Robert, who has an undergraduate degree from Centre College and an MBA from the University of Cincinnati and now works in Atlanta, and John, who is a 2016 graduate of Georgetown College. The elder Robert Dyche is a former district court judge and also served on the Court of Appeals. She said the law was something she, too, had always been interested in, so she took advantage of the opportunity granted her by the Extension Service to take study leave in 1992. ``I grew up in a little town where there were some good lawyers that I admired. It was something I wanted to do. Once Robbie got an 8-year term on the Supreme Court, our family had at least one steady job, and that gave me the freedom to try something new, and he was supportive in that. So I went back to UK and came home on weekends. It was an adventure,'' Dyche said. She is now in her 21st year of practicing law. ``I love to practice law,'' she said, ``It's very interesting. I think sometimes it's sort of like a muscle, you know--the more you use it the stronger it gets. And I think to some degree our energy is the same way. If you don't exercise, you don't feel like exercising. That's how I start my day: do my Bible reading and do my exercises. It's pretty simple.'' Dyche's legal career has been very varied and has offered her opportunities to serve her profession outside the courtroom as well. [[Page 7508]] ``I've had a chance to do a lot of different things. I practiced with a firm'' when I first got out of law school ``and I office-shared with a lot of more experienced lawyers because I didn't feel like, especially with a family, that I needed to be by myself, so there were other lawyers who were very instrumental in providing nurture to me during that time'' and I had an opportunity to begin serving on the Kentucky Bar Association board of governors,'' she said. Dyche was asked to take on the unexpired term of a departing board member and went on to serve as the president of the Kentucky Bar Association, shortly after her husband retired from the Court of Appeals and the two went into practice together, occupying as office space the house that Robert Dyche grew up in, which he and his siblings didn't want to part with after his parents' death. ``Robbie came here to practice law as I was beginning my president-elect and president duties with the KBA and he really made it possible for me to take the time that those volunteer positions take because you travel statewide,'' Dyche said. ``And I had the opportunity to meet a lot of people and to preach the gospel of ethical lawyering. Also during that time, I served on the board of directors of the Kentucky Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company, a mutual insurance company formed by Kentucky lawyers to serve Kentucky lawyers for our professional responsibility, or professional malpractice, insurance, and that was very interesting. The things you learn!'' In addition to her service to the profession, Dyche has also spent most of her life as a dedicated volunteer to a number of causes, beginning with Kentucky Educational Television. ``(KET) was really my first big volunteer activity as a young bride coming to London, Kentucky,'' she said. ``Leonard Press, who actually started KET, knew my father through Daddy's work with the school system. He could see how public television, especially educational television, could reach into the hills and hollows of southeastern Kentucky because it was such a challenge to bring educational material to people who really needed it, and it was during the time in the '60s of (the Work Experience and Training Program). KET could bring educational programs in where others could not, and my fascination with that program and with the television programs that were offered ``caught my eye as a young adult when they were looking for volunteers here in southeastern Kentucky. I had an opportunity to work for many years as a very active volunteer with them'' I did a lot of Friends of KET activities and was president of that board and then served on their foundation board for a number of years as well, so I guess that kind of got me hooked on how exciting volunteering can be.'' Dyche also continues to support the Extension Service and Laurel County Public Library. She served on the Site-Based Councils of both North Laurel High School and London Elementary School when her children were students there. ``There's just all this stuff you get a chance to do if you keep your eyes open to opportunities to serve, and I think that's incredibly important that we keep our eyes open for those opportunities ``If people want to serve, if they want to volunteer, they will find something. There's something out there for you to do,'' she said. Most recently, Dyche's spirit of community service has found its outlet in God's Pantry Food Bank. ``(God's Pantry) picks back up on my interest in people who are at risk nutritionally,'' Dyche said. ``There are hungry people here, especially during the downturn in the economy. A number of years ago, I was contacted by representatives of God's Pantry Food Bank in Lexington, and just the other day, we had a `Business After Hours' at our warehouse here in London that opened in December of 2013. Since July 1 of 2015, over 3 million pounds of food has been distributed from there. Last month, this warehouse distributed more than the Lexington one did. I'm all for God's Pantry. This is an agency that is five-star on Charity Navigator for the fifth or sixth year in a row. I think that's really important that people check to see what they're working on. You give them a dollar, they'll turn it into $10 worth of food ``We're really excited that we continue to grow our agencies in this area.'' Dyche sees the common thread between all of her activities, however, to be teaching people, and she said that is both the hardest and the most satisfying part of her work, whether it's in the classroom or the field, the courtroom or the boardroom. ``Teaching people things that they're unfamiliar with and explaining that something may not work out well. That's tough. That's really difficult,'' she said. ``But I like the teaching bit, whether it's teaching about volunteer causes that benefit lots of people or explaining to a client a concept that is new to them. I like smart clients. I like to work with people who are interested in learning how this happened, why this happened, and how we go forward. We've been incredibly blessed to get to work with a lot of interesting folks over time. So I'm still a teacher.'' For all her work and community service, however, Dyche still finds time to garden and cook, and she's a voracious reader. She also teaches mahjong to a group every week at the Laurel County Public Library. Hers is a busy life, but she said she feels a responsibility to keep it that way. ``I think if God has blessed us--and I think God has blessed almost everyone--I think we in turn have the opportunity to give back,'' Dyche said. ``God gives us all the same number of hours in a day. It's how we choose to use them.'' ____________________