Dick Lugar: “the thoughts and prayers of my wife Charlene and myself are with Susan today and their four children, as we think about…”

“the thoughts and prayers of my wife Charlene and myself are with Susan today and their four children, as we think about Craig Thomas, our dear friend, our colleague, a man who has been such a wonderful presence in our lives in the Senate. Much has been said, and quite correctly so, about Senator Thomas as a cowboy, and certainly he was, and his rich heritage of experience in the Marine Corps, as he volunteered to serve his country after college. But I want to stress two or three things that perhaps have not come to the attention of Senators in the same way this morning, one of which is that Craig Thomas was a person who was vitally interested in the Far East. He served for a period of time on the Foreign Relations Committee, and during that period of time, as I recall, was either the subcommittee chairman or heavily involved in hearings and in working with our Ambassadors to countries in Asia. For a variety of reasons, because Craig always sought opportunities to serve Wyoming in whatever committee assignments seemed most appropriate at the time, his service on the Foreign Relations Committee was not a long one, but he continued that service by holding breakfasts in his office. I was privileged to be invited to those breakfasts in which famous people from abroad, especially the Far East, were his guests. These are ladies and gentlemen he had met during his foreign travels or during his work in Wyoming in which they might have been of value to his State.”