JOHN P. SAYLOR was a Congressman of exceptional stature. During nearly a quarter of a century of service in the House of Representatives, he rose to stand among the top rank of his party in seniority and earned the high esteem of colleagues on both sides of the aisle. Long before the issues of conservation, natural resources, and environmental quality came to fashion, he was helping to shape wise national policy for these vital concerns. His Pennsylvania constituents came to trust him implicitly for faithful representation of their interest and needs, and we in Washington learned to count on him for unflagging legislative responsibility, independence, and integrity.
Mrs. Nixon joins me in mourning the loss of a former House colleague, longtime friend, and dedicated public servant whose death bereaves all Americans.
Note: Representative Saylor, 65, died in Houston, Tex. He was elected to Congress in 1949 and was senior Republican member of the House Interior Committee at the time of his death.
The White House later announced that Max L. Friedersdorf, Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs, was designated to represent the President in funeral services in Johnstown, Pa., on November 1, 1973.
Richard Nixon, Statement on the Death of Representative John P. Saylor of Pennsylvania. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/255458