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Chris Van Hollen
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Chris Van Hollen Honors Donald Rollert

Washington, Apr 22 -

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to one of my constituents, Donald Rollert, a veteran and dedicated civil servant who recently retired from the U.S. Government Printing Office.



Donald Rollert was born in Colorado, grew up in Kansas, and graduated from the Coast Guard Academy. During the Second World War, he served as an officer on an LST in the South Pacific and was subsequently stationed in Italy. Before returning to the United States and civilian life, Don married his wife Myriam in Trieste, Italy. He did post-graduate work at Columbia University and worked for several companies as an engineer. While working at Mergenthaler Linotype Corporation in the 1960's, he assumed responsibility for developing one of the first electronic composition systems. When Don came to the Government Printing Office, he continued developing composition software. He is the author of the GPO's current composition program, Microcomp, which is producing the Congressional Record, bills, hearings, and many other government publications including the Federal Register and related publications. As the author of Microcomp, Don Rollert is largely responsible for the GPO's success in the modern publishing world. His hard work, determination, and decision making over the years have made GPO a leader in modern publishing technologies.



A recently published book about the men and women who have served in WWII refers to those people as the ``greatest generation.'' Don Rollert is and deserves to be a member of the greatest generation. Retiring at the age of 82, Don looks forward to spending more time with his wife, children, and grandchildren. He also looks forward to having more time for building models of early sailing ships, traveling, and working at his computer.



I join with his many colleagues and friends in wishing Don Rollert a long and happy retirement.