[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 6, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S21-S23]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO CLAIBORNE PELL

  Mr. REED. Mr. President, this evening I have the privilege of joining 
my friend and colleague from Rhode Island, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, 
to say a few words about our esteemed predecessor, Senator Claiborne 
Pell.
  Senator Pell served 36 years in the Senate--the longest serving 
Senator in the history of Rhode Island. He was elected in 1960, along 
with his friend and young Democrat John F. Kennedy. They brought a new 
spirit, a new vision, new hope to America. He served until 1997, when I 
had the distinct honor and, indeed, privilege of succeeding him as a 
Senator from Rhode Island. He was an extraordinary gentleman, and he 
will be missed by all Rhode Islanders and, indeed, by this Senate.
  I was honored yesterday to be asked by Nuala Pell to say a few words 
at his services in Newport, RI. First, I obviously pointed out that 
Claiborne's public service was sustained and inspired by his wife and 
his family. Nuala and all of their children were the support, comfort, 
and the meaning in his life. We owe them our thanks as well for his 36 
distinguished years of service in the Senate.
  Claiborne Pell was a remarkable individual. He was born to great 
wealth and privilege, but he had an abiding affinity for the average 
guy. I sense that part of that was at a critical moment in his life, 
before Pearl Harbor, when the war clouds were gathering in Europe and 
Asia. He had graduated from Princeton, but he knew he had to serve. 
Because of his prestige, because of his family, he could easily have 
secured a safe posting somewhere. He chose instead to join the U.S. 
Coast Guard as an enlisted cook, to sail the North Atlantic on deadly 
convoy routes bringing needed supplies to Great Britain. There, he 
worked with other young Americans, without pretense, without 
preference. There, he understood the great talent, the great power of 
Americans, that if they had opportunity, if they could better 
themselves through education, they would be extraordinarily important 
to this Nation and they would be able to provide a better life for 
their families. They could, indeed, seize and realize the American 
dream.
  Many people had that experience in World War II, but Claiborne used 
to it shape his entire public life. He served in the diplomatic corps, 
but by 1960 he was committed to serving the people of Rhode Island, and 
he entered the primary against two venerable, well-known, distinguished 
Rhode Island Democrats, Dennis J. Roberts, former Governor, and J. 
Howard McGrath, former U.S. Senator, a former Solicitor General, former 
Attorney General in the Truman administration. Young Claiborne Pell won 
because he struck a cord with the people of Rhode Island, because he 
was able to translate his feeling for opportunity, for the privilege 
that education bestows on every person, to the people of Rhode Island. 
He and Nuala campaigned and won, and then for 36 years they served with 
such distinction, with such honor, and brought such credit to our 
State.
  He is best known as the author of the Pell grant, which provides 
grants to students to go to higher education, but he did so much more 
in the field of education. He was involved in numerous reauthorizations 
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. He labored over these 
provisions to make sure young Americans were prepared for college. He 
was also the author of the national sea grant college grant. Just as we 
have land grant colleges dating back to the Moral Act of the 1860s, 
Claiborne said we should have a sea grant act that would allow the 
sciences of the oceans, maritime sciences, to be taught, to be 
explored, to be investigated on college campuses.
  He did so much. In addition to his dedication to education, he also 
was the creator of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National 
Endowment for the Humanities in 1965. He understood that in the great 
sweep of time, our military power might fade, our economic power might 
fade, but the power of our ideals, as expressed in our literature, in 
our arts, would continue to move the world. And in order to make that 
access possible, not for the well-to-do but for everyone, he created 
the notion of a National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities.
  Thinking back in preparation for my words yesterday, I thought of how 
often his life intersected with mine, starting at 10 years old in 1960. 
I saw the motorcade rushing by my grammar school with John F. Kennedy 
and Claiborne Pell in those final days of the campaign. But in regard 
to the National Endowment for the Arts, my first exposure to theater--
and I was the proud son of working-class Cranstonians in Cranston, RI--
was Project Discover in which Trinity Repertory Company brought 
students in to see an act from Richard the II. That was all part of the 
vision Claiborne had of giving people an opportunity to explore the 
arts, to find their talent. He did it remarkably well.
  Today, these two institutions endure. They provide access for 
millions of Americans to the arts, to the humanities. They have 
encouraged creativity, and all of it is a tribute to Claiborne Pell.
  He was perhaps most recognized in international affairs for his 
staunch support of the United Nations. Yesterday, one of the eulogists, 
President Clinton, pointed out that every time he saw Claiborne Pell, 
as President, Claiborne would take out from the back pocket a worn copy 
of the U.N. Charter which he carried and point out to him the value of 
the United Nations, the value of collective security. He was there in 
San Francisco in 1945 when the U.N. was created. He was there in New 
York City 50 years later for its 50th anniversary.
  But his notion of a powerful America leading the world, not standing 
apart from it, his notion that our values, our system, our commitment 
to human decency would prevail in the face of Soviet totalitarianism 
and other forms of totalitarianism was wisdom of the ages. In his 
service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he not only espoused 
those views, every day he reminded us our destiny would take us far 
beyond what simply a military operation or our economic power might 
because of our ideals, because of our commitment to multinational 
support of creating a world community--a remarkable man.
  He was someone who left and has left an indelible mark on Rhode 
Island and Rhode Islanders. As I mentioned yesterday, I had the 
privilege of witnessing this profound bond so many times. We have a 
parade each Fourth of July in Bristol, RI. It is the largest parade in 
Rhode Island. One hundred thousand people, which is about a tenth of 
the population of our State, gathers for it. It is the oldest 
consecutive Fourth of July parade in our country. To walk in that 
parade is a great honor. But to walk with Claiborne Pell is an 
extraordinary experience. For the first few steps, you pretend the 
cheers are for you, but that quickly fades because, mile after mile, 
people rush up and say: Thank you, Senator Pell. Thank you, Senator 
Pell. Thank you for the help when I needed it. Thank you for the Pell 
grant. Thank you for being the ideal public servant. Then you would see 
parents lift toddlers and say: There goes a great man, Claiborne Pell.
  Well, he has touched us and he has made us so much better. I had the 
rare privilege and opportunity yesterday to say, on behalf of the 
people of Rhode Island, something all of my fellow citizens wanted to 
say as soon as they heard the news, as soon as they realized the great 
light of Claiborne Pell had dimmed; and those are two simple words: 
Thank you, Senator Pell.
  Mr. President, now I would like to yield the floor to my colleague 
and friend, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who is someone who is molded in 
the image of Claiborne Pell, someone who understands, as Senator Pell 
did, that opportunity is the engine that drives

[[Page S22]]

America, that our great skills have to be harnessed to a higher 
purpose. It is such a privilege and pleasure to serve with him. And not 
only that, but he has been a dear and personal friend of the Claiborne 
Pell family for many years, indeed generations. I yield to my 
colleague.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The junior Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Thank you, Mr. President. And I say to Senator Reed, 
thank you.
  I rise in honor of a great friend and mentor. I look around me at a 
room that just this morning was filled with Senators. It was a crowded 
Senate floor, with packed galleries, as a group of bright and promising 
new Senators began their careers, with all that joy and hope.
  Now, as my senior Senator, Jack Reed, and I speak, the room is quiet, 
the galleries are mostly empty, and colleagues are gathering in 
remembrance because yesterday Rhode Island saw the sunset on a Rhode 
Island era with the funeral of our friend, Senator Claiborne Pell.
  I am deeply honored by Senator Reed's kind words, and he has a unique 
position as the successor to Senator Pell.
  It must be an interesting feeling to have served in the Senate for 36 
years, to have loved this institution, to have accomplished 
extraordinary work in this institution, and then to walk away and leave 
your seat to a new, young Senator to replace you.
  Senator Pell had great confidence in Senator Reed from the very 
beginning. He was, indeed, able to assure that there was no primary to 
succeed a seat that was open for the first time in 36 years, and it was 
because of his confidence in Jack Reed that he put in that effort. I 
know firsthand how extraordinarily proud he was of the Senator Jack 
Reed has shown himself to be.
  We in Rhode Island are a little, tiny State, but over the years we 
have had some towering and remarkable Senators. Claiborne Pell, 
obviously, was one. John Chafee was one. John O. Pastore was one. 
Theodore Francis Green was one. Even the gentleman once known as the 
general manager of the United States, Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island, 
was a towering presence. Certainly, Senator Reed has shown himself to 
have joined that pantheon. I probably have another 10, 20 years of work 
before I get there, but I will keep trying. But certainly Senator Reed 
is in that category, and I am deeply honored by his kind words.
  Many in this body knew Claiborne Pell and served with him. I wish to 
say on behalf of Rhode Islanders who watched the service yesterday how 
grateful we are to Majority Leader Reid, Majority Whip Durbin, 
Claiborne Pell's dear friends, Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden, and Senators 
Pat Leahy, Dick Lugar, Orrin Hatch, Chris Dodd, Jeff Bingaman, John 
Kerry, and Joe Lieberman, all of whom honored Senator Pell by attending 
the funeral. Of course, I give special thanks to President Bill 
Clinton, who came to Rhode Island, a place where he is beloved, and 
spoke for his departed friend.
  Senator Pell was there for me in my own career at key junctures in so 
many important ways, and I should give him credit and in front of all 
my colleagues express my deep gratitude for what he did. He recommended 
me to President Clinton for appointment as U.S. attorney. After I 
served my term as U.S. attorney, I ran for attorney general. I served 
with the Presiding Officer, Senator Salazar of Colorado, as an attorney 
general.
  I had a three-way primary for attorney general. Claiborne Pell 
endorsed me in the primary. He actually did a television ad with me. In 
his 36 years in the Senate, he wanted no part ordinarily of primaries. 
For two people he got involved in a primary and endorsed a candidate. 
One was me. The other was Congressman Patrick Kennedy. It is almost 
unimaginable what a difference it made in my fledgling campaign, my 
first bid for elective office in the Democratic primary to have a man 
of Senator Pell's towering reputation stake his reputation on me and 
express that kind of confidence. It is something for which I am 
indebted to him and to his memory and to his family forever.
  To me and to so many people in the Ocean State, Claiborne Pell was a 
mentor and an example, a leader whose vision, grace, and authentic 
kindness left an indelible imprint.
  He was born in New York City in 1918, and he first came to the Senate 
in 1961, after a colorful primary battle, described by Senator Reed, 
that pitted him as an essential unknown against two established 
Democratic powerhouses: Dennis J. Roberts and J. Howard McGrath, 
contending for the seat that was being vacated by Theodore Francis 
Green.
  It did not look good. Pell was the ultimate outsider. He was so much 
the underdog in that race that John F. Kennedy, who was running for 
President at the time--and who knew Claiborne quite well because he was 
a dear friend of Mrs. Kennedy, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, and was in 
Rhode Island a good deal because of her family associations with Rhode 
Island; so he knew Claiborne Pell quite well--he called him the least 
electable man in America.
  At his funeral yesterday, I saw Pell buttons from that race back in 
1961 on mourners' lapels.
  The Providence Journal described the race that ensued as ``the first 
modern political campaign the state had seen.'' Senator Pell invested 
his own money in television ads and polling, and he won the Democratic 
primary. He was the first unendorsed candidate in the history of Rhode 
Island to ever win a Democratic primary.
  He went on to win the general election. He won it by the largest 
margin ever at the time, 69 percent of the vote. To his great 
satisfaction, more Rhode Islanders voted for Claiborne Pell in that 
election than voted for John F. Kennedy--so much for being the ``least 
electable man in America.''
  The fact that John F. Kennedy road on Claiborne Pell's coattails was 
a point Claiborne Pell, in his quiet way, loved to remind President 
Kennedy of whenever the opportunity presented itself.
  Of course, Rhode Island, in that election, got its first look at the 
one-of-a-kind political temperament that was to define Senator Pell for 
the rest of his life: courteous, innovative, and always quietly 
humorous.
  Senator Pell looked back on that election in an interview with the 
New York Times, and he said this:

       I remember my first campaign. My opponent called me a cream 
     puff. That's what he said. Well, I rushed out and got the 
     baker's union to endorse me. Frankly, I think a little bit of 
     humor is sorely lacking now.

  How many people in today's politics being called a cream puff would 
go out and get a baker's union endorsement rather than trying to find 
some other way to hit back?
  Claiborne Pell believed, as he once told the Providence Journal, 
something that is so important:

       [T]hat government--and the federal government in 
     particular--can, should and does make a positive impact on 
     the lives of most Americans.

  He lived by that observation, and certainly Senator Pell's positive 
impact on the lives of the people he served will be remembered for 
generations.
  Two years after taking office, Senator Pell sponsored legislation 
that became the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant, now known, thanks 
to its champion, as the Pell grant. At the time, the Nation's colleges 
wanted Federal aid for themselves, but Senator Pell wanted the aid to 
go directly to students.
  He enlisted in the Coast Guard 4 months before Pearl Harbor, serving 
in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and after that he used the 
GI bill scholarship to get an advanced degree from Columbia University.
  The GI bill showed him the transformative power of a college 
education, and Claiborne Pell resolved then that all Americans would 
have the opportunity for a college education that he and millions of 
veterans had received after World War II.
  So every year in September a new group of students goes off to 
college, and we see anew the work of Senator Pell, enlivening millions 
of young Americans who use Pell grants to pursue their dreams. In 2008, 
this Pell Grant Program was nearly 5.6 million grants, worth $16.4 
billion--all from his idea.
  I am delighted the distinguished Senator from Colorado is presiding 
at this moment because I remember in Rhode Island a few years ago I was 
at an event with a number of Senators, and

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the distinguished Senator from Colorado, now our Interior Secretary 
designate, was present. Senator Pell came to the event. He was very 
disabled, and he came in a wheelchair. I went over to greet him. 
Senator Salazar--I say to the Presiding Officer, you will remember 
this--also came over to greet him. He took his hand, and he told him: 
Senator, my brother and I went to college because of the Pell Grant 
Program. Now here I am standing in front of you as a Senator, thanks to 
the vision and foresight you showed years ago--your vision that every 
American should have the dream of higher education at their disposal. I 
say to the Presiding Officer, you were then in your first term as a 
newly elected Senator.
  It was an unforgettable moment, I say to the Presiding Officer. It 
happened because Senator Pell understood the difference that higher 
education could make in the lives of America's young people--from a 
young Ken Salazar from rural Colorado, to toddlers across this country 
now who will seize the opportunities of America in years to come 
because of this man.
  Senator Pell knew that the arts, too, could transform lives. He 
authored the landmark legislation that gave rise to the National 
Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities. These institutions have 
secured a place for the culture and the arts in the public life of this 
Nation. Over the years they have helped bring poetry, drama, dance, 
painting, sculpture, song, literature, and history to millions of 
Americans.
  Of course, we New Englanders are deeply indebted to Senator Pell for 
his passion for public transportation and in particular for his long 
fight to develop for the Northeast corridor a transit system to support 
the cities of today and tomorrow. As we face the challenges of rising 
energy costs, economic recession, and urban stresses on our congested 
highways, Americans will rely more heavily than ever on systems such as 
Amtrak. Senator Pell's foresight again has served us well.
  Here in the Senate, Senator Pell is remembered for his big ideas. In 
Rhode Island, we remember him also for his gentle, generous spirit. He 
had lived all over the world. He had been honored with medals from at 
least 18 different nations. But Newport, RI, was always home. In both 
his personal and his political life, he was a consistent model of 
civility and kindness to his fellow Rhode Islanders--always, without 
fail--even sometimes at his peril.
  For example, in his final bid for reelection in 1990, Senator Pell 
reportedly insisted on warning Congresswoman Claudine Schneider, his 
Republican opponent, every time he was about to air a new television 
ad. He told his campaign staff that he would not permit a self-
promoting press release to go out, chiding: ``No, no, no, we never 
boast.''
  In a debate I remember watching, he was given two huge political 
softball opportunities. One, he was asked to criticize his opponent, to 
critique her capacity to defeat him and serve in the U.S. Senate. The 
only thing he had to say was she has been a very fine Congresswoman. 
Then he was asked what his most significant legislative achievements 
had been during the previous term that had helped Rhode Islanders. He 
said:

       You know, I really can't think of one right now. My memory 
     is not as good as it should be.

  One would think those answers would be lethal politically, but Rhode 
Islanders loved it and they loved him for it because he was as genuine 
and as authentic as a man could be. I guess one of the great lessons of 
his life is that voters don't want you to be perfect; they want you to 
be you. They want you to be authentically who you are and from there to 
fight for them, and he certainly lived that. For his authenticity and 
gentleness of spirit, Claiborne Pell was beloved by all of us in the 
Ocean State who were privileged to know him or work with him or learn 
from his example.
  We all will miss him deeply. To his wife Nuala, to his children, Toby 
and Dallas, and their families, and to the families of his departed 
children, Bertie and Julie, I know I join my distinguished senior 
Senator and all in this body and indeed all of America in holding them 
in our thoughts and prayers.
  As his family reminded us last week, Senator Pell summarized his role 
as a Senator with seven simple words: Translate ideas into actions and 
help people. Would that all of us could have ideas as big as Claiborne 
Pell's and the strength, grace, persistence, and courage to translate 
them into action.
  I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona is recognized.
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, would it be in order for me, before I begin 
my remarks, to compliment the Presiding Officer for his nomination to 
be Cabinet Secretary, the Secretary of the Interior, and wish him very 
well before the Senate in being confirmed and serving in that position? 
I guess that question doesn't need a response. I certainly hope it is 
in line for me to be able to say that.

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