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- 10/21/08: Remarks by Henrietta Fore, Administrator, USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance at the White House Development Summit
- 10/08/08: Remarks by Henrietta Fore, USAID Administrator and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance at The President's Freedom Agenda
- 10/01/08: Remarks by Henrietta H. Fore, Administrator, USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, at the Ceremony Marking the Full Operational Capacity of Africa Command (AFRICOM)
- 09/25/08: Remarks by Henrietta H. Fore, Administrator, USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, at 2008 Millennium Development Goal Malaria Summit, New York - "U.S. Leadership in the Fight Against Malaria"
- 09/22/08: Remarks by Henrietta H. Fore, Administrator, USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, at the White House Symposium on Advancing Global Literacy - "U.S. Commitment to Advancing Global Literacy"
 RSS Feed for Recent USAID Speeches and Testimony
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Remarks by Kate Almquist, USAID Assistant Administrator, Henrietta Fore, USAID Administrator, Mosina Jordan, Counselor to USAID and James Kunder, USAID Acting Deputy Administrator at the John Granville Memorial Service
John Granville Memorial Service
Friday, January 4, 2008
Dulles, Virginia
(Bagpipes, marching orders.)
KATE ALMQUIST: Good afternoon. I'm Kate Almquist, assistant to the administrator for Africa for the U.S. Agency for International Development. And I want to thank you all for coming here this afternoon to receive John Granville, our dear friend and colleague from Sudan, back here with us. I think this is by far the hardest job that I've ever had and I can't tell you how much we all appreciate the presence of our USAID and State Department leadership and, in particular, our Sudan team and family to be here with us at this moment.
We had a very similar sendoff in Khartoum when we departed there yesterday evening with our USAID and embassy family honoring John on his departure there. And we really are touched that you're here.
I want to recognize the escorts that have traveled with me and with John back here. And I'm not sure where they got lost to in the crowd here, but Faisal Sultan, Andrea Tracy, and Susan Quinn, who were some of his closest friends and colleagues and are undertaking to escort John all the way back to his family in Buffalo along with me. So we are - our thoughts are with them as well as we go through this time.
We're also mindful of the - of A.R., our Sudanese colleague who was also killed earlier this week. And we remember him as not only an employee, but a father and a husband to a young family. He loved his job at USAID; he served proudly and his loss is also felt tremendously by our colleagues in Sudan and by his family and I want to acknowledge and recognize that today as well.
Both A.R. and John gave their lives in service of the United States and will be truly missed. Many of us have worked directly with John and witnessed firsthand his devotion to making life better for people in Sudan. We know that he also touched people's lives in countless other environments and he truly cared about those who worked for him.
I personally had the pleasure and honor of working with John for the last several years. He's been an integral part of our Sudan team and his intelligence, his enthusiasm, his persistence, the dedication, and passion that he brought to his job wherever he was, whether based in Nairobi and more recently, based in Khartoum makes us all very proud and honored to have known him, to have worked with him. He was more than a dedicated employee; he was truly an honorable person and a true and dear friend to many people here with us today. And I want to acknowledge him and recognize that as well.
I think we should all be proud of the person that he was and the work that he did. He really epitomized, I think, what this agency and the United States government are trying to do for and with the people of Sudan. And he gave the ultimate sacrifice in that cause. And it's something that I think touches us all very deeply and we're grateful to his family, in particular, for his service in that cause.
At this time, I'd like to give our administrator, Henrietta Fore, the opportunity to share some thoughts. Thank you very much.
HENRIETTA FORE: I'd like to join in with Kate Almquist to thank you all for being here. I am Henrietta Fore and I am the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development and the director of United States foreign assistance. We are particularly proud to have many of our colleagues from the Department of State here with us. Undersecretary Kennedy, thank you for coming. Director General Thomas, thank you very much for coming. Acting Assistant Secretary Thomas Granville, thank you very much for coming. And Acting Assistant Secretary Starr, thank you very much for coming.
We have a diplomatic security honor guard who are here honoring with us today. We are appreciative of your presence. And the family, most important, the family - Mike Marcy, cousin, is here representing the family. Thank you very much for coming, Mike. And family friends, John Erickson and Jennifer Schoji and many other friends, who have come from Buffalo, who have come from Washington, who are colleagues from U.S. Agency for International Development and other governmental agencies. We thank you all for honoring John and his memory. So thank you very much for being with us today.
John Granville represented the best of the spirit of the United States Agency for International Development: a love of country, a spirit of adventure, intelligence, compassion, and an abiding desire to make a better world for the less fortunate. We are here to welcome home John, our colleague and our friend and to bid him farewell. John Granville was a commissioned officer in the United States Foreign Service. As a diplomat and as an international development officer, he worked hard and he worked well at the grassroots of society and politics.
He cultivated not the potentates, but the simplest of citizens. In remote villages in Sudan, he offered practical methods to nurture democracy and just governance based on a rule of law. He worked with energy and imagination to make this aspiration a reality for the women and the men in Sudan. He promoted peace, leading by the example of his keen and sincere understanding. His life was all too short, but it was abundant in generosity. Religious leaders have said, if you want peace, work for justice. Certainly, that was a motto by which John Granville lived. In the places in Africa that he so dearly loved, peace and justice will be his legacy.
Two days ago, I asked his colleagues to record their memories of John. And they wrote: "a consummate professional," "and incredibly dedicated individual." These were common themes in their remarks. John's personality and his infectious goodwill were also cited. Many of you, as his close colleagues in the Africa bureau and in the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance were also fortunate to be rallied by John's sense of humor and the antics of his dog, Cooper.
A colleague in Nairobi and then in Sudan said that he was the glue of the place. These remembrances paint the picture of who John Granville was and what he will always mean to us. Your presence here today shows how much you, his colleagues, valued his life and his work. John's sacrifice reminds us that our nation and its instrument for foreign assistance, the United States Agency for International Development, are a force for peace and prosperity in the world. And we are moved beyond words at this tragedy, but we are buoyed by his spirit. Our highest honor to him is to renew our commitment to the values that he lived by and to love our work as John loved his work. Thank you.
MOSINA JORDAN: Hi, I'm Mosina Jordan, the counselor to the United States Agency for International Development. USAID is a very dynamic and vibrant agency known worldwide for its commitment to improving the lives of the people and the places where we serve. Without dedicated and talented staff, we could not successfully accomplish our mission. In our daily routines, we sometimes lose sight of the magnitude of the mission and the dignity and talent of those who have been drawn to serve it. John Granville was one of more than 1,200 USAID Foreign Service officers located around the world and over 80 countries.
We often forget the hardships our USAID employees face in some of the most remote, poorest, and hostile regions of the world and the sacrifices they and their families make serving the cause of human advancement by carrying out the economic and humanitarian assistance programs of the United States of America. We honor the humility, humanity, and courage of John Granville, serving on the front lines of freedom, helping the spread of democracy, delivering a powerful promise, a better life for millions of people in need.
John not only made a difference, but he also made the ultimate sacrifice for the cause of freedom and the building of better lives for the people of Sudan. John, may you rest in peace.
JAMES KUNDER: I'm Jim Kunder, acting deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Would you please join me now as we send our prayers to the family of John Granville, who was on a mission of peace and compassion? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice's sake for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
I would like to now invite John's family and friends to come individually to offer your thoughts and prayers before his remains, sign the book of condolence, and then please exit to my right to conclude our ceremony today. Thank you.
(Bagpipes.)
(END)
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