[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 164 (Thursday, November 18, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14826-S14827]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                    TRIBUTE TO GRAHAM STILES NEWELL

 Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, it gives me great pleasure to 
stand before the Senate today and pay tribute to a man who has greatly 
influenced the cultural maturity of my home state of Vermont. Graham 
Stiles Newell will be honored as Citizen of the Year by the Vermont 
Chamber of Commerce on December 4, 1999. Graham has made extraordinary 
contributions to Vermont in many areas throughout his life. And he has 
made his biggest contributions in one area in which I have spent a 
great deal of legislative energy--education.
  Graham Newell probably learned to read before he learned to walk. I 
understand that he first secured a library card at the Saint Johnsbury 
Atheneum when he was in the first grade. Since then, he has been 
passing on his knowledge to anyone willing to learn, and that number is 
larger than you can imagine. After graduating from the University of 
Chicago in 1938, he launched an incredible career in education, one 
that touched three generations of many Vermont families.
  Graham has been a leader in Vermont education in both the 
professional and legislative arenas. In the last seven decades he has 
been a teacher at the Junior High, High School, and College level, and 
will undoubtably keep teaching well into the next millennium. Graham 
began his teaching career at his alma mater, Saint

[[Page S14827]]

Johnsbury Academy, in 1938, and remained on the faculty for nine years. 
From 1945 to 1982 he taught history at Lyndon State College full-time. 
After ``retiring'' in 1982, he returned to the Academy to teach Latin, 
where you will still find him today. He also continued to teach one or 
two history classes a semester at Lyndon State College until 1996.
  Most people consider Latin a dead language, but if you were to enter 
Graham's classroom today you would find it to be as alive and enjoyable 
as ever. A testament to Graham's teaching skills was demonstrated at 
the Academy in 1997, when 47 of his 52 Latin students, over 90 percent, 
made honors on the National Latin Exam, an extremely challenging test 
taken by over 90,000 students across the United States.
  Graham's contributions to education do not end in the classroom. 
While teaching, he also served in the Vermont Legislature for over 25 
years. He was a member and chair of the Vermont Senate Education 
Committee during the 1960s, helping to create Vermont's education laws. 
Indeed, the self proclaimed Ambassador of the Northeast Kingdom has 
positively affected every single student in the state of Vermont over 
the last 30 years. In fact, his influence has even reached students 
outside of Vermont, due to his tenure on the New England Board of 
Higher Education. But Graham always remained supremely faithful to the 
students in his classroom, once even teaching class over the phone from 
the Vermont Statehouse.
  One can look at Graham's education accomplishments alone and see a 
lifetime of work and success. However, his influence has touched many 
in other fields as well. As President of the Vermont Historical Society 
from 1965 to 1969, his many successes included securing a permanent 
home for the organization in the historic Pavilion Office Building in 
Montpelier. He has also served on a number of commissions, including 
the Commission on Interstate Cooperation, the Historic Sites 
Commission, the Commission to Study State Government (or ``Little 
Hoover'' as we called it), the Vermont Civil War Centennial Commission, 
the board of managers of the Council of State Governments, and the 
Education Commission of the States. In addition, the thousands of 
people who check into the Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital each 
year should be thankful to Graham as he is largely responsible for its 
existence. I could go on, but I'm afraid it would take the remainder of 
this session of congress to do so.
  I am thankful for the opportunity to provide my colleagues with a 
shining example of a real Vermont renaissance man. I join countless 
Vermonters in offering my heartfelt congratulations and gratitude to 
Graham Stiles Newell for his many years of hard work and dedication to 
the citizens of Vermont.

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