[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16637-16638]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO GRAHAM NEWELL

 Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, the State of Vermont has lost one 
of its

[[Page 16638]]

greatest teachers, Graham Newell. I wish to honor this remarkable man, 
an important figure in our State's history in government as well as 
throughout its system of education.
  A seventh generation Vermonter who grew up in the Northeast Kingdom 
of Vermont, Newell returned to Vermont to teach after earning his 
degree in classics from the University of Chicago. For eight decades he 
was the quintessential educator, beginning and ending at his beloved 
St. Johnsbury Academy and teaching history and social sciences to 
college students for many years as well, serving as a professor and 
chair of the Social Sciences Department at Lyndon State College.
  Graham Newell was a man who so highly regarded the field of education 
that he entered politics to be its champion in the State legislature. 
First elected to the Vermont House in 1953, and later elected to the 
Vermont Senate, he served as the chairman of both the House and Senate 
Education Committees. Throughout his tenure in the legislature in 
Montpelier, Graham Newell worked tirelessly to ensure educational 
opportunities for students with disabilities. Indeed, Vermont's special 
education bill preceded comparable legislation on the Federal level by 
20 years. He was also instrumental in the formation of the Vermont 
State College system and he authored a fair dismissal bill for 
educators.
  Although Graham Newell was a Vermont delegate to the Republican 
National Convention in 1956 and 1964, he was one of the great 
practitioners of a long Vermont tradition of nonpartisan politics. He 
became involved in government reform, serving on the Little Hoover 
Commission that reorganized Vermont's State agencies, and he was 
appointed by President Kennedy to the National Advisory Commission on 
Inter-Governmental Relations. A founding member of the American Civil 
Liberties Union of Vermont, he championed a strict separation of church 
and State by opposing public busing for parochial schools.
  As the resident Vermont historian at Lyndon State, he was responsible 
for naming all of its buildings after notable Vermonters. And, in a 
wonderful instance of turnabout is fair play, St. Johnsbury Academy 
recently honored him by renaming its foreign languages building Newell 
Hall.
  Above all he valued equality and equal opportunity, principles that 
no doubt derived from his Vermont upbringing, his long study and 
admiration for Roman history and from his work in education.
  Graham Newell taught Latin at St. Johnsbury Academy well into his 
nineties, long after he retired from his professorship at Lyndon State 
College. The indelible mark he made on the communities of St. Johnsbury 
and Lyndonville will not soon be forgotten. These communities need only 
look to the countless students whose lives he touched to see the effect 
he had on them.
  Mr. Newell earned countless awards as an outstanding educator, 
historian and model citizen, including being named the Vermont Chamber 
of Commerce's Man of the Year in 2005.
  It is exemplary citizens such as Graham Newell who have earned 
Vermont its reputation for civic leadership and principled politics, 
for sound reasoning in government, and for rising above partisan 
labels. Today, we honor his memory by recognizing his great 
commitments: to responsible citizenship, to superior education for all, 
to teaching, and to public service, and to shaping a future that will 
be worthy of our past.

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