Cord Byrd: “I would like today to pay tribute to one of my most esteemed colleagues on the occasion of his birthday. For, sixty-five…”

“I would like today to pay tribute to one of my most esteemed colleagues on the occasion of his birthday. For, sixty-five years ago, in Salisbury, Maryland, two Greek immigrants named Spyros and Matina Sarbanes gave birth to a child, whom they named Paul. I, for one, have no doubt--although history does not provide confirmation of my conjecture--that within a few days, or perhaps weeks, of this event, young Paul had begun the earnest and impassioned learning that would distinguish him throughout his life. This learning has paid dividends throughout the life and career of Paul Sarbanes. It won him a scholarship to Princeton--from where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa--and earned him a Rhodes Scholarship. Thence, he proceeded to Harvard Law School and a prestigious clerkship with a federal appellate court judge. After conquering such mountains early on, he might have been forgiven for resting on his laurels, but these early triumphs proved to be simply prologue to further achievements. Senator Sarbanes' drive and his intelligence propelled him from a law firm to the Maryland House of Delegates, then on to the U.S. House, and, in 1976, to the U.S. Senate. How wonderfully appropriate that the year in which this country celebrated its bicentennial it should also witness, in the election of Senator Sarbanes, confirmation of the basic American tenet that any man--even the child of immigrants--can rise to the highest levels in this country!”