NEWPORT – Claiborne de Borda Pell, 90, a Democrat who served Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate for six terms, from 1961 to 1997, died yesterday at his family’s Newport home. His death followed a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, which he had made public in 1995, two years before he retired from the Senate.

“Rhode Island has lost one of its greatest statesmen, one who embodied the highest ideals of public service,” said U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin, D-R.I.

Pell was an heir to the Lorillard Tobacco Co. fortune, and came from a long line of lawmakers. His survivors include his wife, Nuala (O’Donnell) Pell, an heir to the founders of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. (now, A&P); a son, Christopher T.H. Pell; and a daughter, N. Dallas Pell. They also were the parents of Herbert C. “Bertie” Pell III, who died in 1999, and Julia L. Pell, a president of the Rhode Island Alliance for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, who died in 2006.

Claiborne Pell was born in New York City in 1918. After attending St. George’s School in Newport, he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in history at Princeton University and a master of arts at Columbia University.

Before being elected in 1960 to the Senate seat formerly held by Theodore Francis Green, Pell served in the Coast Guard during World War II, and later worked in the U.S. State Department as a foreign service officer in Italy, Czechoslovakia and Washington, D.C.

He is best known for his sponsorship of the federal Pell Grants – established in 1973 as the Basic Educational Opportunity Grants – which Gov. Donald L. Carcieri today described as “perhaps his greatest gift to the American public.”

Over the years, the grants have helped millions of low- and middle-income students to earn a college education. Last year alone, the program was expected to distribute nearly 5.6 million grants totaling $16.4 billion, U.S. Department of Education data show, according to Bloomberg News. His main regret, Pell told The New York Times in 1996, was that the “Congress has moved in the wrong direction by creating a terrible imbalance between grants and loans,” leaving students with “overwhelming debt by the time they graduate.”

He also served as lead sponsor for the 1965 legislation that created the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. And he was active in international relations, serving as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1987 to 1994.

Other priorities of his 36-year legislative career – the longest of any senator from Rhode Island – included transportation projects, especially high-speed rail and other mass-transit initiatives; and the environment, especially the oceans. Pell was named to the U.N. Environment Programme’s Global 500 Roll of Honour in 1987, the year that program was established.

After he retired, the state honored his service by bestowing his name upon the former Newport Bridge between Jamestown and Aquidneck Island; while Salve Regina University in Newport gave his name to its Pell Center of International Relations and Public Policy, where Pell sometimes lectured.

And Claiborne and Nuala Pell remained active as advocates and patrons of the arts, serving as honorary chairs of the annual Pell Awards for Outstanding Leadership in the Arts. (READ MORE)

“Senator Pell was a gentleman and champion for those who needed their voices heard, and his work truly made a difference for our state and the nation,” Langevin said in a statement.

“I considered Senator Pell a friend and a mentor, and had the honor of interning in his Washington, D.C., office during my studies at Rhode Island College,” he recalled. “As I began my own career in government, Senator Pell was there – offering advice and support. He is, and always will be, a role model for me as I work to serve the people of Rhode Island just as he did, with courage and integrity.”

“My thoughts and prayers are with the entire Pell Family – especially his beloved wife, Nuala – during this difficult time.”

Other Rhode Island Democrats also mourned the senator’s passing:

“Senator Pell’s career in public service shaped national and international policy over the decades, but he never forgot his first priority was the state of Rhode Island,” said Gen. Treasurer Frank T. Caprio.

“Claiborne Pell was a mentor, example and friend; a uniquely beloved Rhode Island politician; and a champion for artists and scholars and all Americans who see higher education lighting a path to a brighter future,” said U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. “We will all miss him deeply, and long benefit from the works of his farseeing soul. America shares in the loss felt by Nuala and the Pell family.”

Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, a Republican, today ordered the state’s flags lowered to half staff in Pell’s honor until Jan. 12.

The senator’s funeral is set for 10 a.m. Monday, Jan. 5, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Newport, with a reception to follow in the Pell Center at Salve Regina University, where a guest book will be available for signing. And from then until the following Monday, Jan. 12, the public is invited to visit the Rotunda in the R.I. State House, to share their thoughts in a guest book and view portraits of the late senator, including one on loan from Salve’s Pell Center.

“Senator Pell was one of this country’s greatest statesmen,” the governor said in a statement that lauded Pell’s “undying passion to education” and his role as “a great protector of the arts.”

“He served the people of Rhode Island and this country with the highest honor, dignity and compassion,” Carcieri continued. “He was a true gentleman who touched the lives of so many, and will be deeply missed. … Our thoughts and prayers are with Nuala and the family.”

Additional information and an online guest book are available from O’Neill-Hayes Funeral Home at www.onhfh.com. On the O’Neill-Hayes home page, go to the Recent Obituaries column at far right, and click on Claiborne Pell; to submit condolences, go to the Pell obituary, then click on the Sign Guest Book link near the top of the page.