Funeral for R.I. Sen. Claiborne Pell set for Monday
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NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) -- A funeral service has been set for former Rhode Island Sen. Claiborne Pell, who created a grant program that helped millions of young people afford college. Pell's funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Trinity Episcopal Church in Newport. A reception will follow in the Pell Center at Salve Regina University. Burial will be private. There are no visiting hours. Pell died Thursday at his Newport home. He was 90. The quirky, blueblood represented blue-collar Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate for 36 years. He sponsored legislation creating the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant program, which passed in 1972 and provided direct aid to college students. The awards were later renamed Pell Grants. By the time Pell retired, they had helped more than 54 million low- and middle-income Americans. 
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Let us not forget that the Pell Grants also created lucrative professorial jobs for millions of middle- and upper-income Americans. Pell Grants kept quite a few liberal arts types out of the soup lines in the same way that the Works Progress Administration (WPA) aided the Great Unwashed.
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Claiborne Pell was a real working Senator in every sense of the word, unlike a great many who sit in that house today.
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I interned for Sen. Pell in Washington while a student at URI over forty years ago. Although I was only a lowly gofer, the Senator was exceedingly gracious and friendly. Proudly hanging on my office wall is a photo of Senator shaking hands with his grinning intern.
I was a VISTA volunteer in San Antonio, Texas in 1970 when the dreaded letter from the Selective Service arrived. Knowing the Senator's well publicized opposition to the Vietnam War, I contacted his office for assitance and was told to report for my physical and, if I passed, to call him back and he would try to help. Thanks to a brilliant letter from Dr. Maurice Adelman, my pediatrician, I failed my physical and was able to continue my work for VISTA.
Living now in Texas I have had frequent occasion to compare the works and legacies of two men, both of whom were born to wealth and achieved political office in Washington. One fought for his country, stood up for the poor and middle class, supported a clean environment and protested against injustice. The other...did not.
Thank you Senator Pell for a life well lived.
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Being a poor kid from RI, I was always very proud that one of my homestate senators was the namesake for the Pell Grant. Rest in peace, senator!
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En Nombre de la comunidad Mexicana en el que reside en el estado de Rhode Island, damos nuestro más sentido pésame a familiares, ya que el Sen. Claiborne Pell, es y siempre será recordado por su apoyo a la educación y su liderazgo en las políticas bilaterales que afectaron positivamente a Rhode Islan y a los Estados Unidos.
Sin duda es y será Orgullo a lo nuestro el H. Sen. Claiborne Pell y que descanse en paz.
Muy sinceramente.
Con la amistad y el respeto de siempre.
Julio César Aragón
Presidente de la Asociación Social, Cultural y Deportiva Mexicana de R.I.
Comité César Estrada Chávez of Rhode Island
Miembro del Buró de Asesores Políticos (BAP)
julio885@cox.net
1(401)274-1038, 1(401)440-9405
Providence, Rhode Island
16 Pembroke, Ave. 02908
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I worked for Senator for several years and they were some of the best years of my life. He was gracious and Senate will not see anyone like him again. We have lost a great one.
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