Cord Byrd: “This week, the attractions of retirement will claim another highly valued Senate staff member. With deeply mixed…”

“This week, the attractions of retirement will claim another highly valued Senate staff member. With deeply mixed feelings, I note the departure of Wendy Wolff. Since 1987, Wendy Wolff has served the Senate as Historical Editor in the Office of the Secretary. Viewers on C-SPAN will not observe Wendy in the Senate chamber or at committee hearings. She fulfills her professional responsibilities away from public view in the offices of the Senate Historian. Yet, it would be accurate to conclude that she has significantly left her mark on Senate history; she has even shaped Senate history. I first met Wendy as she began to prepare the lengthy and complex index to Volume One of my four-volume history, The Senate, 1789-1989. Anyone who has consulted that first volume's index is likely to agree that it is most user-friendly. In 1989, Wendy assumed editorial responsibilities--as well as the indexing chores--for the remaining three volumes in that series. Over the next five years, she handled the countless tasks--many of them deeply challenging--that fall to editors and publishers of encyclopedia-length reference volumes. Ten years ago, in the preface to Volume Two, I offered the following assessment of Wendy's contributions to that project. Her strong editorial hand has skillfully shaped this work from a disparate collection of speeches to what I believe is a carefully balanced and finely coordinated reference book.…”