December 20, 1974
Page 41730
ON THE RETIREMENT OF DR. FLOYD M. RIDDICK
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, as we all know, Dr. Floyd Riddick has retired as Parliamentarian of the Senate. His encyclopedic memory and prodigious knowledge of Senate rules and precedents have been of enormous help to me throughout our association, and I am sure each of my colleagues joins me in formally offering thanks for his efforts over the years.
We are fortunate that we will not lose the services of Dr. Riddick, since I understand he will continue to serve with the Rules Committee in an advisory capacity in the coming year. He has always been accommodating, fair, and helpful to each of us in this body, and I am sure we will all have occasion to seek his guidance in the years ahead.
A much more significant, and more substantial, tribute to Dr. Riddick than any I could offer was delivered to each of us last May. His work "Senate Procedure," which revises and updates the previous edition of 1964, carries on a tradition begun by Thomas Jefferson. In his manual, Jefferson expressed the hope that it would be updated and improved by his successors into a code of rules to provide "accuracy in business, economy of time, order, uniformity, and impartiality."
Dr. Riddick has fulfilled Jefferson's hope, and his document will be a constant source of help to us all.
We owe him our thanks, and wish Dr. Riddick and his wife Margot many years of happiness in retirement.