Cord Byrd: “at the end of this session of Congress, one of the Senate's longest-serving Members will be retiring. Senator Claiborne…”

“at the end of this session of Congress, one of the Senate's longest-serving Members will be retiring. Senator Claiborne Pell's sterling 35-year record--actually it is 36 years this year--of dedicated service to the people of Rhode Island and the United States began in 1960, when he was elected to the first of his six terms. He is the third longest-serving Member of today's Senate, after only Senator Thurmond and myself. Yet Senator Pell's service to the United States and to his own strong principles began even earlier. Senator Pell's life has continued a long and honorable family tradition of service. His father, Herbert Claiborne Pell, was a Congressman and a Democratic State chairman before serving as U.S. Minister to Portugal and Hungary. Other Pell family ancestors include five Members of the Senate or House of Representatives, one of whom, George M. Dallas, also served as Vice President of the United States from 1845 to 1849, during the term of President Polk. Senator Pell began his own lifetime of service when he was just 22 years old. In 1940, after graduating cum laude from Princeton University, he went to Europe to try and help concentration camp inmates. For his efforts, he was arrested not once but several times by the Nazis. He has never ceased his efforts to assist the suffering.”