Hoyer Remarks at Memorial Service Celebrating Life and Legacy of Senator Bernie Fowler

PRINCE FEDERICK, MD - Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) gave the following remarks at a memorial service dedicated to the life and legacy of Senator Bernie Fowler, who passed away last December and dedicated his life to the health of the Patuxent River. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:

"For more than three decades, I have had the distinct honor of getting down on one knee with a tape measure and recording the official reading for the very scientific Bernie Fowler sneaker index. Like a tailor, I carefully pulled the tape up from his muddy heel and up the leg of his denim overalls to mark the river water's highest reach. Let me tell you – it is a deeply, deeply undignified act.

"I was, nonetheless, so proud to have that honor fall to me and would let no one take it away. But how does one truly take the measure of a man? There is no ruler that can stretch the length of ninety-seven years, no simple index to calculate the depth of one's contribution, no scale to fix the weight of a life given to service. We can only begin to do so by figuring the many ways in which someone has added to the world into which he came. So, let us take stock. As a child of the Great Depression, Bernie learned to help others as early as he learned to read or write.

"When money was tight – and it usually was – he helped his family subsist by working as a carpenter, a machinist, and a waterman on the Patuxent River. There were times when the family was so poor that he had to repair his shoes with cardboard and tape. When World War II came around, Bernie could not ignore his sense of duty to his country.

"Although he was exempt from military service because of his important job building revolutionary norten bomb sights, he enlisted in the navy against his parents' wishes. He knew he could never live with himself if one of his brothers were killed in action while he enjoyed the safety of the home front. Starting in 1944, Bernie served as a petty officer aboard a U.S. Navy Destroyer as it peered deep beneath the waves to hunt enemy submarines in the pacific. Just months before the end of the war, he received the crushing news that his eldest brother, Howard Jr., had been killed in action in Europe.

"For a week, he despaired, no longer caring whether he would live or die. He quickly realized, however, that his family would need his strength and support to weather this challenge, so he steeled himself to make it through the end of the war. When he returned home, he opened a small fishing and recreation business called ‘Bernie's Boats' on the banks of the Patuxent. Not only did he find peace on the river, but he also found his partner in life and in service.

"He fell in love with Betty Lou, the daughter of two of his best customers, when she came to town for fishing trips. For sixty-nine years, Bernie cherished his wife's faith, optimism, and compassion. He was heartbroken to lose his Betty Lou four years ago – now, they are together once more. Considering how much the Patuxent gave to Bernie and Betty Lou and their community, it's no wonder he made it his life's work to protect it and the Chesapeake Bay.

"He always said that once ‘the Chesapeake Bay goes, the heart of Maryland stops beating.' For decades as county commissioner and later as a State Senator, Bernie acted as a steward for Maryland's waters and an advocate for the people who depended on them. He became a leading figure in Annapolis during a critical time in our state's history. He did not just serve; he inspired and encouraged others to serve as well, and he was a mentor and a friend to me and so many.

"I admired his humility, generosity, and relentless commitment to conservation. That commitment never wavered – not even in his final years. He desperately wanted to restore Maryland's nature to the healthy state he experienced in his youth so that his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren could enjoy it just as he had. Although the measurement I took at the Patuxent wade-in gradually increased as the years went by, Bernie never saw those waters quite as clear as when he was a child.

"The true measurement that defined Bernie, however, was not the murkiness of a river but rather the clarity of his character and of his vision for the kind of Maryland and the kind of America he wanted to leave us after his ninety-seven years. ‘The ultimate measure of a man,' said Dr. Martin Luther king jr., ‘is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.'

"Whether on the deck of a destroyer in World War II, on the Floor of the Maryland State Senate Chamber, or waist-deep in the Patuxent, Bernie always stood firm and with intention. Although Bernie was not able to see his vision of a restored Patuxent and Chesapeake fully realized in his lifetime, he knew that future generations would be able to do so – as long as they put generosity over greed, comity over contempt, and faith over doubt.

"Tomorrow, we will again walk into the Patuxent River and look for our sneakers. No matter what we see in the waters that Bernie so cherished, surely, we will find his spirit guiding us in this work, which we pledge to continue.

"Bernie and betty Lou will be in our hearts and in our thoughts. We will miss them dearly. But we will keep the faith and keep our sneakers ready. Surely, someday – hopefully soon – we will stand in the river up to our chins, straining our necks upward, and we will see Bernie smiling down on us, laughing with joy and satisfaction.

"Godspeed, my friend."