Chaplain, Major Stephen B. Turner,
Members of the Montague Family,
Especially our dear friend Chris Montague,
Distinguished friends of Bob Montague:
All of us gathered here today are extremely lucky to have been friends and colleagues of General Robert M. Montague, Jr. No one has ever surpassed Bob in his loyalty to our country, and in his spectacular success in every position, in war, and in peace, he ever occupied. He was always a paragon of excellence and integrity.
I’ll never forget opening a letter one day at the small offices of Special Olympics where five officers and four secretaries were managing Special Olympics World Tide! The date was September 5th, 1974. The letter was addressed to the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation. In part, the letter said: “I have heard through the Executive Director of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports that your Foundation is seeking an Executive Director for the Special Olympics Program. My experience may interest you.
“I increased voluntary enlistment in the Army more than 25% during fiscal year 1974…”
“Supervised a $40 million advertising account and doubled the number of responses to Army recruiting advertisements…”
“I created the Army Sports Clinic program which sent Army sports stars to more than 250 high school audiences last year”
“I developed the strategy for converting from conscripted military forces to the All-Volunteer Force”
“I developed policies and plans for recruiting instead of drafting 400,000 young people each year into military service”
“I appeared four times before Congress, gave speeches to over 200 civilian groups, participated in over 100 television and radio broadcasts and handled numerous public relations assignments. “
“I have commanded a 5,000 man military unit”
“I obtained my Master’s Degree in Nuclear Physics, concentration on experimental physics and mathematics from the University of Virginia in 1955.”
“In 1947, I graduated first in my class from the United States Military Academy. Previously, I completed three years of work toward a chemical engineering degree at Purdue University”
“I was Captain of the West Point lacrosse team and “AN ALL AMERICAN PLAYER”
“Besides earning letters in lacrosse, I have also earned letters in ice hockey, swimming and golf.”
“I currently play championship tennis and have a low golf handicap”
“I should be glad to discuss further details of my experience in a personal interview”
Attached to the letter was a list of references, persons General Montague authorized us to consult for information about him. The list included the famous General Maxwell D. Taylor; Ambassador Robert Komer, Director of the C.I.A., William E. Colby; Congressman Les Aspin; Chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services and other luminaries.
After reading the letter and attachments several times, I concluded someone is playing a trick on us. A practical jokester is loose. No one could have that record of achievements and references and be applying to us! There were only nine in the total headquarters. But then, I thought, I should at least telephone General Taylor, a close friend of ours, and ask him for his opinion of Bon Montague.
He said to me: “Sargent are you asking me about OUR GENERAL, Bon Montague? Are you telling me that he has applied for a job with Special Olympics?” To which I said, “Yes, that’s the name of the man who has written us. He’s stationed now at Fort Sheridan in Illinois.”
General Taylor then said… “I can’t believe that our Bon Montague wants to leave the Army for any other work. And then he said, “Sargent, isn’t Special Olympics the sports program Eunice started for mentally retarded persons?” I said, “Yes, that’s right. Eunice started it about six years ago…” To which General Taylor replied:
“General Montague is one of the very best officers we have in the entire Army. His record and performance are superb. I can hardly believe Bob would leave us for such a new and small enterprise.” He paused. Then added… “but, if you can get him, you will have one of the best executives and one of the best offices in our entire Army…”
I was stunned! I rushed to tell Eunice what General Taylor had said, and she said, “Well, let’s get General Montague in here. Let’s see what he thinks of us once he sees how small we are! Let’s see if he really wants to work for mentally retarded people…”
Well, the General did come in person to see us. “He came. He saw. He conquered. He was totally sincere. He had no second thoughts about committing himself and his future to such a fledgling enterprise as “Special Olympics”. He was not worried about his salary, his title or the office personnel. Typically, he had already informed himself about Special Olympics, its philosophy, its mission, its personnel, its size. He was ready to go. As soon as Eunice said, “go”, he took off. He kept running, and he never stopped. Every day, and into the night, he worked. Saturdays were no day of rest for him. He was in the office raring to go at 8:00am and never left before 7 or 8 in the evening. Special Olympics with Eunice and Montague grew and grew and grew. And it is still growing while still maintaining its original ethos, its vision, its compassion, its modesty, coupled with its power. Montague was with Special Olympics for fourteen years! And he was as proud of the Special Olympics.
With Dr. Bob Cooke, head of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins, with Herbert Kramer, Vice President of the Travelers Insurance Co. who quit his job to work for Special Olympics and with a few others, Eunice turned “Special Olympics” into a worldwide success with 1,200,000 athletes enrolled today. It’s truly a miracle and Bon Montague was surely one of its most spectacular “miracle workers”.
Why do I overwhelm you today with this story about Bob and Special Olympics? I do so because I believe this story describes one of our great American achievements. Created by my wide and mere handful of patriotic compassionate, visionary citizens, it may well triple, or even quadruple its size in the next twenty years. It may become one of the greatest blessings given by God to our country and to the world.
Bob Montague was the only warrior, the only trained military person, ever to surrender his position as a General with power and money and prestige, to build from the bottom up, an entirely new power structure on earth, a structure based on the 175 million persons with mental retardation, and their parents, and siblings and volunteers.
How visionary Montague was! How unselfish to devote his life to these helpless and isolated people!
Fortunately, his sensitive wife, Chris, rejoiced to see Bob’s compassion and humanistic character shine forth. No longer a warrior Bob had become a savior of human life.
He was a visionary with a heart of gold, a visionary with his feet on the ground; a visionary with his eyes focused on the tiniest problems of the weakest people!
Bob Montague was truly the right man at the right time in the right place. The world will ultimately wake up to the magnificence of his achievements.
In the meanwhile everyone here present can take heart, lift their heads up to Heaven where Bob is already receiving his just rewards. We can thank God for the challenge we have all received to follow Bob’s example to make the world of the 21st Century, the most peaceful, most compassionate, most sensitive in history to the needs of all peoples.
Bob Montague is watching us, everyone of us! We must never disappoint him, or the God who has made us all and gives us the chance to bring to total fruition those marvelous words that “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed, all of them by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness…”
Bob’s sons and daughters, and Bob’s wife all believe in those words. And so did Bob’s Father.
There is a magnificent building at the center of our military Headquarters in Panama. That is “The Montague Building”. It was built and dedicated to Bob’s Father, a distinguished U.S. Army General.
He, and his wife, Mary, gave us Bob Montague, who, like his Father, deserves an imposing building in his own honor.
However, instead of a building of bricks and mortar for our Bob, let us increase his game by helping, as he did more and more persons with mental retardation everywhere on earth. Let his name by remembered in the 150 Nations everywhere Special Olympics operates today. He was a man who gave his best, who gave his all for the weakest, the least powerful people on earth. Can anyone surpoass his record in war and in peace, his record in academic studies and achievements, his records in sports, his unselfishness?
From personal experience I can testify he was a gracious host along with his charming and versatile wife. Most surprising of all was his virtuoso ability as a chef de la maison! Dinner at his home was a memorable experience. Bob kept all of his friends happy and inspired by his family loyalty, his sensitivity to the weakest among us. Who could ask for anything more?
