Ron Johnson: “I join in offering tonight my condolences and my thoughts tonight about Walter Capps. Here was a man who, like me, had…”

“I join in offering tonight my condolences and my thoughts tonight about Walter Capps. Here was a man who, like me, had never held elective office before and yet he seemed at ease coming here to the Halls of Congress. He told me once that he was as thrilled as I was at being here. Walter Capps had, as I had, already a successful career in another job. He was a teacher and professor and, we found out, an author. So this place was new and exciting and yet thrilling to him. Many of us freshmen Congressmen got to know Walter and Lois Capps because even though he counted among his friends some Members of Congress, it was now him, he was coming to Washington as a freshman Congressman, a 63-year-old freshman, older and wiser than many of us, I thought, yet just as exuberant as a kid or teacher who just got his first job. Walter and Lois came together to many of the orientation sessions here. It was the teacher, the professor, Walter Capps, in the classroom learning about his new job, representing the people.”