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I am Henrietta Fore, the Administrator of 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 with here with us. Undersecretary Pat Kennedy, thank you for coming. Dir. General Harry Thomas, thank you very much for coming. Acting Assistant Secretary Linda Thomas-Greenfield, thank you very much for coming. Acting Assistant Secretary Greg 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 importantly the family. Mike Marcy, Cousin, is here representing the family. Thank you very much for coming Mike. Family Friends - John Erickson, Jennifer Shoji, and many of friends from Buffalo, colleagues from Washington, from Sudan, from USAID and other governmental agencies. We thank you all for honoring John in his memory, so thank you very much. John Granville represented the best of the spirit of USAID: a love of country, a spirit of adventure, intelligence, compassion, and 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 the rule of law. He worked with energy and imagination to make this aspiration a reality for women and men in Sudan. He promoted peace, leading by the example of his keen and sincere understanding. His life was all to short, but it was abundant in generosity. Religious leaders have said: If you want peace, work for justice." Certainly that was the 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, "The consummate professional" and "an incredibly dedicated individual." These were common themes throughout the remarks. John's personality and infectious good will 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 work. John's sacrifice reminds us that our nation and its instrument for foreign assistance, the U. S. Agency for International Development, are a force for peace and prosperity in the world. We are moved beyond words at this tragedy, but 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. |
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