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“TRIBUTE TO MARY A. RYAN” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S7411 on July 12, 2006.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO MARY A. RYAN
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, all of us who know Mary Ryan were saddened by her death on April 25. She was a truly outstanding American diplomat and public servant, and shall be greatly missed.
Mary Ryan dedicated her life to public service and to helping others. She joined the Foreign Service in 1966 and went on to serve the American people as a skilled diplomat for 36 years, including service as Ambassador to Swaziland and Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs. She retired as one of the few Americans to achieve the rank of Career Ambassador, and one of the very first women to do so, a major distinction in her profession, but above all, she touched many lives in the State Department. She served as a mentor to generations in the Foreign Service, and many considered her to be the matriarch of America's diplomats.
As Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, from 1993 to her retirement in 2002, she frequently testified before Congress, and provided us with valuable guidance and impressive expertise. Thanks to her leadership, Congress made necessary changes to enable the Bureau of Consular Affairs to improve technology, efficiency and information-
sharing. She worked aggressively to develop the TIPOFF terrorist lookout system, which became the basis of our current terrorism data system. She was recognized as a leader on consular issues around the world.
Mary Ryan exemplified the best in public service. In a commencement address she delivered some years ago at her alma mater, Saint John's University, she said, ``I ask you what JFK asked the youth of my day to do, to return something to the community which has protected and educated you.''
She encouraged young men and women to ``reject the murderous din of materialism,'' emphasizing, ``There is more to life than the amount of money on your W-2 at the end of the year.''
Mary Ryan lived by those words, and they defined her own career and life.
In the immediate aftermath of the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998, Mary put on a hardhat and climbed through the bombed rubble of the embassy in Nairobi, wanting to know the name and background of each of the victims, both American and Kenyan alike. She dedicated much of her subsequent work to improving the security of our embassies around the world, and offering a more compassionate outreach to the State Department's most valuable assets, its men and women.
At a service in honor of one of the Foreign Service Officers who died in the Kenya bombing, Mary Ryan spoke these words:
``She was a beautiful, beautiful person. We are greatly diminished by her loss.''
That was true of Mary as well. She too was a beautiful, beautiful, person, and we will miss her very much.
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