Romano Mazzoli: “it is my sad duty to officially report to the House the passing of our dear friend and esteemed former colleague…”

“it is my sad duty to officially report to the House the passing of our dear friend and esteemed former colleague, Congressman William H. Natcher, the chairman of our Committee on Appropriations. Bill died during the recess period, on March 29, in his 84th year. We who served with him, in my case for 24 years, in the delegation, we knew him to be what everyone knew him to be, an esteemed gentleman, a courtly man, a master of the legislative process of the House, and a devoted American and devoted father/husband/grandfather. When we had the memorial service at the Eastwood Baptist Church in Bowling Green on the 6th of April and when we who were in the congregation--and I thank my colleagues who could attend with us--when we heard the statements rendered by the pastor of the church, Dr. Bridges, by our esteemed Speaker, Mr. Foley, by the President of the United States and by a longtime family friend and boyhood pal of Bill's, only then did even I, who had known him for a long time, realize the full dimension of this human being, the full breadth and the full depth of him as a human being. It is because of that giant reach of this man that his death and his passing leave a tremendous void here in this House and, of course for us in the Kentucky delegation, a particular void.”