On the recordOctober 21, 2015
I thank the gentlewoman from California, the chair of the California Democratic delegation, and my dear friend and colleague. Mr. Speaker, it is really, I think, bittersweet this evening because we loved Congressman Don Edwards so much, and it is hard to imagine the world without him. He was the kind of human being that you wanted to have live forever. Instead, his contributions to our Nation, to the State of California, to his community are a record that will be revered for generations and generations and generations to come. There is a lot that has already been said about Don, beautiful things that have been said about Don, how he graduated from Stanford University and Stanford Law School, how he began his professional career as an FBI agent, and how he joined the Navy as an intelligence officer. So he served our country in many different roles, and, of course, the crown of his public service career was right here in the House of the people, the House of Representatives. He was a small-business man in a business that his father owned and that he became a part of during the 1950s, and then, of course, he was elected as a Democrat. In fact, I still have in my office an invitation that Don had sent out. I think it must have been for some fundraiser that he had had, but the cover of that invitation has Don Edwards standing next to a very young President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. Young children and those who helped elect John F.…
