Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I would like to pay tribute to a great public servant and one of the most honorable figures ever to serve on the Federal bench in the State of Connecticut, U.S. district judge T.F. Gilroy Daly, who died of cancer on Thursday, July 14.

A true giant of jurisprudence, Judge Daly was a former Army Ranger who stood 6 foot, 6 inches and presided over his courtroom with a regal presence. People commonly described Judge Daly as the epitome of what a judge should be. He was known for his impeccable character, his sense of fairness, and his unwavering commitment to the ideals of justice.

Judge Daly brought a wealth of life experience to the court, which shaped his career on the bench. After serving our country in the Korean war, Judge Daly worked as an assistant U.S. attorney, prosecuting organized crime cases in the Southern District of New York. After leaving the Justice Department, Judge Daly held a number of full and part time statewide posts in Connecticut, including deputy attorney general, deputy treasurer, and insurance commissioner.

Judge Daly gained prominence as a trial lawyer and demonstrated his sense of justice in the early 1970s when he took an unpaid leave from his State position to defend a young man who had been wrongly convicted of murder. After a 6-week hearing, he won a new trial for his client, and charges against the young man were eventually dropped after a grand jury investigation cleared him.

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Judge Daly to the Federal bench. he served as chief judge from 1983 to 1988, and he is credited with modernizing the Connecticut court system and significantly reducing the backlog of cases before the court. During his time on the bench, he presided over a number of high-profile trials and earned a reputation among defense attorneys and prosecuters as a stern, but fair-minded jurist. He ruled on numerous complex and potentially volatile issues involving discrimination in municipal hiring, State police interrogation methods, and public corruption.

He was particularly known for handing down harsh sentences to corrupt public officials who came before him. Being a man of such high moral standards, Judge Daly held a particular disdain for anyone who betrayed the trust of the general public. Judge Daly believed that without the people's trust, government cannot function effectively, and his career was dedicated to maintaining the integrity of the Constitution and protecting the rights of the general public.

Judge T.F. Gilroy Daly never lost sight of the fact that law is a public service profession, and his legacy will live on for years to come. He will be remembered as one of the most accomplished figures ever to preside in a Federal court, and he will be sorely missed by the people of Connecticut.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife Stuart, and his four children Timothy, Loan, Matthew and Anna.

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