As sad as we all are, -- as we come together to remember and acknowledge the rich, wonderful life of Penn Kemble -- we can take comfort in the indisputable fact that his was a good life, and that he knew it. When Penn first realized how deadly his brain cancer was, about a year ago at Thanksgiving, he talked about how good his life had been – commenting on his extraordinary family, his love of the work he did, his fellow advocates for social justice and democracy over the years – and, all of this laced with endless testimonials to his wife Mal, whom he truly counted on, loved and completely trusted to take care of him “ 'til death did them part.”

The tragedy for us, and for Penn, is that he had to leave so soon. Sick as he was, he was not a complainer; he did not dwell on dying. Rather, no matter how tired, he wanted to see and talk to people about what was going on and about next steps. So many of you had these conversations with him. They helped keep him alive. At the end of these days, at the end of his life, I believe that what frustrated him most, and he put it this way: “I have so much more I want to do.” From the way Penn nudged, goaded and even brow-beat most of us over the years, we know that he had much more for us to do too.

This program, in this place, with these people and this music is Mal's, together with the rest of our family's, best sense of what would give us memories and messages from Penn that would help us pick up where he left off.

We thank Rector Meg Graham for this place, St. John's Church, a piece of what democracy advocates like Penn call civil society. This place is a model neighborhood institution – it hosts meetings of the Georgetown Association and the local the Advisory Neighborhood Commission; it runs grate patrols for the homeless. It's contribution to democracy and service in our community is what Penn was advocating when he helped found the Institute for Religion and Democracy. It marries people; it celebrates their births and commemorates their life's contributions. Meg baptized my children and hosted our mother, Luella North Kemble's memorial. Penn's ashes will be kept here, as he wished. We thank her and St. John's for all of this.

This program is for our family -- Mal, Penn's sister Sally, brother Grover, me, Penn's nephews Robert and Carl, his nieces Shenny and Sarah, his cousins, Leroy and Margaret. It is for you – all his friends and colleagues too. The program aims for a sense of Penn, from his childhood and young adulthood right up until this fall. My sister knew Penn his whole life, quite simply because she came before him. She witnessed his creative spirit early on -- some examples of it in practice will remain unreported. Rachelle and Carl are lifelong colleagues and dear friends who share Penn's commitments to civil rights, the labor movement, civic education and the political democracy that makes all of these possible. All three of them had their earliest political beginnings in the social democratic movement. My brother, Grover, got his first musical encouragements from Penn. His solo selections, and others we can sing together are songs that reflect Penn's energy and experiences. My Dad used to belt out “Joshua 'Fit the Battle of Jericho” in church and so all the Kemble siblings do, and hope you will too. “Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round” was a standard song for the civil rights marches. Those of you who read the New York Times story on display during the reception of Penn's participation in a slightly crazy blockage of the Triboro Bridge will see it listed as one of the songs they sang as the police tried to figure out how to get them off the bridge before they got beat up by ordinary workers who just wanted to go home. Many of these songs are those Grover led our family, and many of you, in singing at the many songfests Penn enjoyed before he died. The classics are simply among Penn's favorites, culled from many by Mal.

Much will be said here today about Penn's teachings, his intellect, his persistence his very special way of finding people across the political divide who share deep commitment to common principles, his way of energizing them to do something, to do more. I want to mention one very special attribute – one that is about Penn's legacy which means his future.

Penn was a constant recruiter. We joke about his letterheads, the array of 501-C 3' organizations. Each of them takes a special explanation to which only Penn could do full justice. I will spare you my efforts except to say that they are all in some way shape or form about democracy. Penn enlisted many during their adult years to work on things he cared about. But, but what he really loved was finding young people and hoping they would stick for the long haul. He started with the likes of me and I ended up in the labor movement my entire professional life. Penn wasn't the only one in our initial circle of social democrats who did this – Tom Kahn and Don Slaiman did too. But Penn focused on institutions created specifically for this purpose. Many along-termer he worked over is here – some came through Frontlash, the then youth group of the AFL-CIO, others through the U.S. Youth Council. Whatever we do to carry on Penn's legacy he would want us to pay deliberate attention to “the youth,” as they were called.

I watched Penn recently with our own next generation of Kembles – Robert , Carl, Shenny, and Sarah. In their cases he wasn't preaching to them about particular efforts, but about the nature of effort itself – find something you care about deeply, try it, give it your best. If you change your mind later that's OK – you'll learn what it is to try, and eventually you will find what you care about – the cause that wakes you up in the morning. (Speaking for our family I hope that doesn't take too long.)

Finally, I want to say something about Mal. Through this crisis of Penn's illness and death I witnessed a remarkable and powerful love story. She left no stone unturned, questioned any and every doctor no matter how renowned. She is the only person I know who is as persistent as Penn himself and at times even more so. You could see every day how grateful he was to her and how much he worried about the toll his struggle might be taking. Mal did everything she could to save Penn. Knowing this comforted him throughout this past year and in his final days. All of us who loved him are forever in her debt.