[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 81 (Tuesday, June 2, 2009)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages E1269-E1270] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] TRIBUTE TO RICHARD PROTO ______ HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO of connecticut in the house of representatives Tuesday, June 2, 2009 Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, it is with special and personal gratification that I introduce into the Congressional Record for the Nation and the people of my District, especially in my home town of New Haven, Connecticut, the enormously gratifying and important tribute that was paid to Richard Proto on May 18, 2009, by the United States National Security Agency. who died last July after a hard-fought bout with cancer, was recognized by the NSA with the naming of the ``Richard C. Proto Symposium Center'' within the NSA compound at Fort Meade, Maryland. It is only the second time the NSA has formally named one of its facilities. Richard was born and raised in the Fair Haven section of New Haven, a graduate of the city's public schools--Strong, Fair Haven, and Wilbur Cross High School--and the son of Matthew and Celeste Proto, both active in the political life of our community at the same time as my own parents. Like many of the children of immigrants--Richard's mother was born in Italy and immigrated with her parents in 1916 at six years old, and both his grandparents were immigrants from Italy as well--his parents encouraged education, broadly defined, and a commitment to public service as a way of ensuring more fairness in the Nation they now called home. Richard was educated at Fairfield University, where he received his bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1962 and at Boston College, where he received his master's degree in mathematics in 1964. He then joined the NSA. His contribution to the Nation--he served at NSA for thirty-five years; its Director of Research from 1994 to 1999--was described by the current Director of Research, Jim Schatz, in these terms during the ceremony: Richard was ``Universally regarded as one of the Agency's most visionary thinkers. He influenced NSA unmatched by anyone else in recent history . . . Nearly twenty years ago, when large scale networking was still in its infancy, Richard anticipated the emergence of cyberspace as a battleground for national defense, and committed himself to ensuring NSA was prepared. . . . [His] life was a celebration of intellectual power dedicated to the service of his country. He was an exemplary American . . . NSA and the Nation owe him a debt of gratitude.'' Senator Barbara Mikulski (Maryland), in her capacity as a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, in a letter following Richard's death, wrote that ``By any definition of the words, Mr. Proto was a warfighter and a patriot. He set high standards of performance at NSA and inspired others to conform to his expectations. He dedicated his life to the security of this Nation and has left a contribution that will endure for decades.'' During his career, Richard received the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Service and the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal. Since his retirement in 1999, he remained as an adviser to the intelligence community, the national laboratories, and the Institute for Defense Analysis at Princeton, until his death. Richard's family was present and participated in the ceremony, including his brother, Neil Proto, also a New Haven public school graduate and now a lawyer in Washington, D.C. and a professor of public policy at Georgetown University, and his sister, Diana Proto Avino, an educator and mathematics consultant in the public school system in Clinton, Connecticut, and formerly a nationally-recognized teacher of the year. Richard had been raised in New Haven among twenty-six cousins, four of whom made the journey from Connecticut. Richard was truly a product of his community and his Italian-American heritage. He was a member of the famed 1958 Wilbur Cross team that won the New England High School basketball championship in the Boston Garden that captured the soul of our community when I was a teenager. Mr. Proto also was the founder of the Antonio Gatto Lodge of the Sons of Italy in Laurel, Maryland. I am personally gratified to recognize Richard; a wonderful American who exercised his [[Page E1270]] responsibility when the duty was his; who helped ensure the safety of our men and women soldiers in the tumult of combat; who rose to the highest rank of a dedicated public servant from the neighborhoods of New Haven, and who never lost sight of his origins and their values; the son of an immigrant insistent on defining America in its highest ideals. ____________________