Claiborne Pell, Creator of Grants for Needy Students, Dies

Former U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell, whose efforts to restructure federal student aid made college accessible for tens of millions of students from low-income families, died this month after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 90.

No other federal lawmaker has opened the doors of college to as many financially needy students as did Senator Pell.

In 1972 the senator, a Rhode Island Democrat, took on the national higher-education associations and some powerful members of his own party when he championed legislation to create a new federal aid program that would provide grants directly to low-income students to help them gain access to college. The college groups had been fighting to get the government to continue providing aid dollars directly to colleges so that they could distribute the funds as they saw fit.

Mr. Pell persevered, and today the U.S. Education Department provides about $13-billion each year to more than five million low-income students.

While the creation of the largest federal grant program for students is considered to be Senator Pell’s crowning achievement, he was also the main sponsor of legislation to create the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The latter program is now the primary source of funds for humanities research in the United States. Both endowments were founded in 1965, and former Congressional aides say they reflected Mr. Pell’s belief that government could play a positive role in promoting the arts and humanities.

Born in New York City in 1918, Mr. Pell served six terms in the Senate, starting in 1961. He retired in 1997, about a year after he disclosed that he had Parkinson’s disease.

He modeled his idea for Pell Grants on the GI Bill, which provided scholarships to members of the armed forces returning from World War II. Mr. Pell, who served in the Coast Guard during the war, used the GI Bill to earn a master’s degree from Columbia University in 1946.

http://chronicle.com Section: Government & Politics Volume 55, Issue 19, Page A20