Chuck Hagel: “I rise, as was noted, to recognize and pay tribute to and remember our dear friend Howard Liebengood. I thought the…”

“I rise, as was noted, to recognize and pay tribute to and remember our dear friend Howard Liebengood. I thought the majority leader's comments concerning Howard Liebengood could have been recited by any and all who knew him. My friendship with Howard Liebengood goes back almost 30 years. When I first became acquainted with Howard and his wife Dee, we would bet on the Kansas State-Nebraska football game every year. I know the Presiding Officer has a passing interest in that game. Howard, each year, would come back for more. These were the days when Kansas State had not defeated Nebraska for many years. But one of the extraordinary parts of this extraordinary man was an optimism, not only about Kansas State football but about life. All that he touched, all he represented, and all who knew him were uplifted by this gentleman, this man who always put his friends first. I recall when Howard and Dee's children were young, I would occasionally go to their home in Vienna for a little chili cookoff. It was not a big group; it was just us. Howard always had the remarkable ability to reach beyond his professional capacity. After all, we are all judged and will be judged by that dynamic at the end of our lives. It will not be for whatever professional accomplishments we have but it will be for what we have done for others and how we are remembered by others, as was noted by the majority leader in his remarks.”