William Ford: “I rise today to join my colleagues in paying tribute to our friend, former colleague and Speaker, Thomas P. ``Tip''…”

“I rise today to join my colleagues in paying tribute to our friend, former colleague and Speaker, Thomas P. ``Tip'' O'Neill, who passed away on January 5, 1994. It has been said that Tip was born to partisan politics. His father was a Cambridge, MA, city councilman who picketed Harvard University for hiring nonunion construction workers. As a boy, Tip mowed the lawns of Harvard Yard for pocket change, never dreaming that years later, on the 350th anniversary celebration of the university, he would deliver the keynote address as its honored speaker. Tip was a graduate of St. John's High School and of his beloved Boston College. He worked as an insurance executive before entering politics. At the age of 23 he was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature, and became its youngest speaker at the age of 37. He took John F. Kennedy's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1952, and was quickly taken under the wing of Representative John McCormack of Boston, later Speaker himself. Tip rose through the House leadership ranks rapidly. He was majority whip in the 92d Congress, majority leader in the 93d and 94th Congresses and Speaker until his retirement at the end of the 99th Congress, setting a record for the longest continuous service as Speaker of the House. In doing so, Tip raised the stature of the office of the Speaker and the entire House of Representatives. Tip was simply a great Member of Congress.”