Senator Dan Sullivan shares stories about Chike’s character and his commitment to helping others

Last week, the Chike Springer Foundation kicked off its Veterans Initiative with the Fight Lymphoma Dinner Party. The event occurred at the Capitol View at 400 in Washington D.C., and it featured Senator Dan Sullivan (AK) as a guest speaker.

Senator Dan Sullivan proudly spoke of Chike during the event, painting an inspiring portrait of someone who was heroic yet humble and found fullness in life through his commitment to helping those around him. Chike served as a staff assistant and legislative correspondent on Team Sullivan. Senator Sullivan stressed the importance of funding research that caters to diverse communities, including Active Military Members and Veterans, speaking with emotion as he regaled stories about Chike's humble character and how he led a full life.

"I'll never forget when I brought Chike into a meeting with General Mark Milley, who's currently the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and at the time was Chief of Staff of the Army. And I honestly remember thinking, Chike, this job could be yours someday. That's the kind of talent, inspiration that he exhibited. Now, we all know, tragically, that that day never came. And everyone who knew Chike, including everyone in my office, was absolutely heartbroken and devastated, shocked when we learned of his diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2019. It literally did not seem possible that a young man with so much life in him and so much strength in him could be suffering from something so pernicious. But we knew he would fight. He did fight. We saw it, the courage of that fight, to the very end. And throughout that, he continued to be this incredible example for all of us, including me, because he was going through hell and yet continued to be this strong, positive force in our office and our lives every day. But he did not go gently into that good night. He wanted to leave a legacy to help others. And working with Lyndsay he has succeeded."

Senator Sullivan also discussed the importance of funding diverse research. It was an honor to hear Senator Sullivan reflect on his time with Chike. His words were powerful and inspiring.

Read the Full Transcript

{Senator Sullivan]: It's great to be here. It’s wonderful to be here. It's so bittersweet to be here, as we all know. And I want to begin by thanking Lyndsay and the foundation for asking me to say a few words about Chike, and his loyal, smart, incredible life, incredible wife and the Chike Springer Foundation. You know, it's great to see so many members of what I like to refer to as Team Sullivan. Chike was a big part of that, big part of that. We're all a big part of that. By the way, the biggest member of Team Sullivan is my wife, Julie. And, we need, for my staff, we need to update the bio. We've actually been married going on 29 years, so we're proud of that. Thank you.

So, listen, I, I know that many of us here, all of us here, I think were lucky enough to know Chike and from one or more or many parts of his very incredibly full life. And I think that's something we all want to celebrate tonight, something I want to talk about. A full life, too young, of course, but most people don't do in a lifetime what he did in his life. And that's really important.

He was a son to his mother, Gloria, and his late father, Oliver. Chike was a brother. He was an uncle, a devoted husband, an army spouse, a friend, and a great, great member of our team. He was also a patriot, serving in the Army for a time with the first Stryker Brigade Aviation Task Force at Fort Wainwright in Alaska, and then as a first lieutenant in the Army Reserve. And he was a warrior and a fighter, but also a wonderful, wonderful person.

Chike joined my office in 2017. Soon after, he and Lyndsay had moved to Washington, D.C., from Alaska, where he first served as a staff assistant and then as a legislative correspondent. He worked with our defense team, excuse me, and then with our Veterans policy team part-time when he started, decided to go back to college to explore a career in medicine. Think about that. I mean, already medicine, Army, senate, incredible wife, and I mean, this guy was making a lot happen. Excuse me. He quickly became one of the favorites in the office. Certainly one of my favorites; I’ve got a lot of favorites so don't take any offense for some of my former staffers here, but an incredible guy.

We all basked under his beaming, infectious smile, his quick laughter and his mischievous and very generous spirit. We all admired him for the devotion he had to his duty and to helping literally everybody he came in contact with. And there are not a lot of people in this world like that. Everyone he came in contact with, particularly Service Members and Veterans.

I'll never forget when I brought Chike into a meeting with General Mark Milley, who's currently the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and at the time was Chief of Staff of the Army. And I honestly remember thinking, Chike, this job could be yours someday. That's the kind of talent, and inspiration that he exhibited. Now, we all know, tragically, that that day never came. And everyone who knew Chike, including everyone in my office, was absolutely heartbroken and devastated, shocked when we learned of his diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2019. It literally did not seem possible that a young man with so much life in him and so much strength in him could be suffering from something so pernicious. But we knew he would fight. He did fight. We saw it, the courage of that fight, to the very end. And throughout that, he continued to be this incredible example for all of us, including me, because he was going through hell and yet continued to be this strong, positive force in our office and our lives every day. But he did not go gently into that good night. He wanted to leave a legacy to help others. And working with Lyndsay, he has succeeded.

You know, when you think of the foundation that we're focused on supporting tonight, a lot of us work in government and in government, we can and do allocate much funding for research to combat diseases, to get the best doctors focused on treatments, especially cancer. But as we all know, especially in our country, government agencies can only do so much. The government is, in a sense, a blunt instrument. To beat cancer, we need an all-encompassing effort. We need all large nonprofits. We need government. We need research institutes. We need smaller, more nimble organizations like the Chike Springer Foundation, started and run by people who are closest to the illness and who understand, unfortunately, because of their own personal experience, the gaps in funding in research and focus.

The Chike Springer Foundation, under Lyndsay's leadership, is doing just that. The goal of the foundation is to change the way we approach cancer research, to make it more individualistic, more equitable, more nimble, and more effective for patients like Chike, who have rare forms of cancer. And, of course, we wouldn't expect anything else, and it's also to expand research for Active Military members and Veterans. So how about a round of applause for that amazing thing?

Well, I just want to thank Lyndsay, Chike’s family, and everybody who's made that happen. So I want to do a little bit of reflection on Chike in our office and what we felt about him, and I know we're all talking about this, you know, shortly after this tragedy happened, when we lost, Chike, a few members of my staff who work closely with him in our office wrote a few words about working with him. And I thought we might all want to hear some of that and some of my own reflections.

Here's one titled Chike Springer, The Man, The Myth, the Legend. Quote, “Chike acted as a reluctant mentor to me shortly after joining the Sullivan, Team as the eager intern with 1,000 questions. He was always on my team, rooting for me to excel and never worrying about his own status in our office. But a simple eyebrow raise or a smirk from Chike was worth a thousand words."

Here's one from a young single man. When I read this, I'm like, “Are you guys sure you want me to read this tonight?” I guess it's okay, right, Amanda? A young, single man who's always in Chike’s shadow in more ways than one, Quote, “I can't count how many times a cute girl would walk past me and Chike in the hallway, openly gawking at Chike.” Connor, I think you wrote this. I’m going to continue with Connor’s words, “the girl completely ignoring me while Chike ignoring the girl completely. Thank God Lyndsay married him early, so I never had to compete with him when he was single.” So that's good, that's good honesty coming out of my office.

This is from our legislative director, Erik. Anyone who, any of you who know Erik is a magician in terms of getting legislation done on the Hill. Best legislative director of the Senate, by far. Quote, “As I reflect on Chike, the enduring characteristic that comes to mind was his understated confidence. Chike was a capable member of our team, very capable. He was also clearly a capable person in other aspects of his life outside of the office. But he was humble. Humble. Carried with him an unassuming confidence.” So I think it's just a perfect description of Chike and a characteristic, to be honest, that we need more of. Then he talked about the legendary Team Sullivan versus Team Cruz basketball games. So for those you don't know, Senator Cruz and my office frequently have competed against each other in basketball. And you want to talk about something. This is very ugly basketball, especially for me and Senator Cruz. Here's Erik continuing, “The only room for improvement I saw with regard to Chike, at all, was his basketball skills during the first Sullivan versus Cruz office basketball game. But then again,” Erik noted, “Baseball was Chike's game, not basketball.”

Until recently, I didn't know he was such an accomplished collegiate baseball player. Again, a life in full, that most people never achieve in their whole life. An achievement many others would likely tell, but Chike was the type of person who was not going to brag. Never felt the need.

By the way, Team Sullivan did kick Team Cruz's ass in basketball. And I will tell you, the ugliest players on the court during those very aggressive basketball dust ups were number one, Ted Cruz. Number two, Dan Sullivan. So we were really the bad guys out there. The rest of the team was really good.

Finally, this is from Amy, who worked closely with Chike on the defense team. Quote, “He always showed a positive attitude and his bright smile during the peaks and valleys of medical treatment. But the characteristic I value and admire most about Chike was his humble spirit. It is a quality we should all strive to emulate wherever we serve.”

And I will tell you this from my own observations about Chike, super hard-working, super patriotic, and incredibly accomplished. But as everybody else has been saying, incredible humility, commitments, service, strength, generosity, patriotism. These are not words that combine often to describe one person, but they are Chike Springer to a tee. And I think that's why you see so many people here so focused on doing more with his memory to help others.

Let me just close with one other word, and it's used a lot, but I think it's very apt. And that word is hero. Chike didn't live nearly long enough, but the years that he was with us were heroic years. I think personally, again, think about the arc of what he achieved and did in his life and what he was aiming to do. That is an incredible life in full at such a young age. And I think he exhibits a legacy of someone that we can all say was incredibly heroic, including the way in which he fought this disease to the bitter end.

I was able to visit Chike’s gravestone at Arlington National Cemetery right before Veterans Day last year. He is resting among many, many military legends and other heroes who are buried there. But he's also among people who served our country and left their mark both on and off the battlefield. A few examples not too far from his gravestone: Senator Mike Mansfield, the longest-serving majority leader in history. Bruce Wilhelmy, a cousin of mine who played a critical role during the Cuban Missile Crisis is buried there. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who served in the Civil War and was wounded three different times in the Civil War, is also resting at Arlington with Chike. He could have been speaking about Chike when he wrote the following very powerful words, “At the grave of a hero, we end not with sorrow at the inevitable loss, but with the contagion of his courage and with a kind, desperate joy, we go back to the fight.”

So that's what we're going to do. We're here tonight to remember Chike. We're here tonight to muster up courage. We're here tonight to go back to the fight and use his untimely, way too early, death in the memory of a really incredible young life well lived to do more to help others who are afflicted with the same disease. I can't think of anything more heroic.

Lyndsay, thank you very much for your great efforts, for your incredible spirit, tenacity, grace, and like you, we miss Chike very much.

Semper Fi.