Awards and honors

Pell received dozens of honorary degrees and awards from many groups over his long career. Here he is early in his Senate career receiving a medal from the Sovereign Order of Malta.
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

A poignant letter to Mom

Even as her health failed and she neared death, in 1972, Claiborne Pell's mother wrote to her son -- and she to him. This undated letter from Claiborne to Matilda (likely written in about 1970) shows his feelings for her. Pell writes:
"Rarely do I find it easier to write than speak, but this is one time since I get so choked by emotion when I try to say these thoughts... you have been a wonderful mother... I could not respect or love a parent more than I do you."
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

Researcher extraordinaire

I am pleased to welcome Linda Henderson, longtime friend and colleague, onto the project. Linda, most recently the Library Director at The Providence Journal, has been an instrumental help in all of my non-fiction books. She will be assuming a major role in A VERY DIFFERENT SENATOR: Claiborne Pell's Senate Foreign Relations Committee accomplishments, notably the period when he was chairman. I could not be happier -- and I recommend Linda to anyone with a need for informed, thorough, accurate and speedy online or offline research. Read her credentials here!

Letters from Mom

Until her death (in 1972), Pell's mother, Matilda (Bigelow Koehler) wrote frequently and proudly to her senator son. This letter is from the summer of 1968, when Pell's opposition to the Vietnam War and other factors fueled talk of Pell as a Vice Presidential candidate -- talk he did nothing to quash.
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

'Liberal namby-pamby,' `idiot' and `coward'

Dating back to the Kennedy Administration, during which he toured Southeast Asia and came back with a cautionary tale, Pell was in the forefront of the opposition to the Vietnam War. History, of course, proved him right -- and many of his constituents, and other Americans, backed him during the 1960s and early '70s.
But not everyone, of course.
In this unsigned and undated letter, the first page of which I'm posting here, someone slammed Pell. Don't you love the courage of those who send hate-filled anonymous letters? Real spine and conviction... not to mention getting right. Ah, not.
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

Ford, Carter, Nixon

Starting with FDR, a friend of his father, Claiborne Pell knew many presidents. Here he is with Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon, in an undated photo likely taken in the late 1970s, during Carter's term in office.
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library

A Veterans' Day visit

Accompanied by Nuala, I visited Claiborne Pell's grave this morning to see his stone, newly erected. Nuala shared some recollections at the cemetery, and on the drive there and back to Pelican Ledge. I always enjoy her company, and always insightful and often humorous observations and reflections.
It is, of course, Veterans' Day, and Pell was a veteran of World War II and the Coast Guard, which he joined in 1941 -- and in which he remained, on active and then reserve status, until mandatory retirement at the age of 60. He was a captain when he retired, well into his Senate career.
Julie and Bertie, two of the Pells' two children, are buried with Claiborne. And not far away, Nuala's mother, and Claiborne's mother and stepfather, lie in rest.
Pictured here:
-- Claiborne's stone. The second white stone in the distance is that of Nuala's father, Ollie O'Donnell.
-- Facing the church, the back of Claiborne's stone. Julie and Bertie's stones are just beyond.
-- Not far away, the graves of Matilda, Claiborne's mother; Cmdr. Hugo W. Koehler, Matilda's husband and Claiborne's stepfather; and Hugo "Hughie" Koehler, Matilda and the commander's only child, Claiborne's half brother.
On my way back. I stopped by another grave, that of Eileen Slocum, another prominent Newporter and friend of the Pells. Eileen is the central character in my documentary BEHIND THE HEDGEROW.

Biography roots

As early as 1980, when he contacted a literary agent, Pell was interested in a biography -- or autobiography -- of him. Several subsequent attempts fell through. Ironic that the book is finally being written, without him to read it. Family members and former staff all agree that he would have enjoyed reading the story of his life. After all, as we have previously reported on this blog, he wrote what was likely the first draft of his story when he was all of 13 years old.
Note Pell's degree of self-awareness about his quirky side, which co-existed with his pride in achievement: ''My personality and approach are a bit oddball, but nevertheless have survived in this very real and rough world of politics for four Senate terms, the last of which I won by 75 percent of the vote.''
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

Yachting with Jackie and JFK

In these undated photographs (most likely 1962 or 1963), Pell is seen with Jackie Kennedy, wife of the late president, and with JFK. Probably Newport Harbor.
Images courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

Early writing, precocious child

In this letter from September 1924, Claiborne writes to his mother, who is in New York, from Newport -- where he was probably staying with his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Edward M. Padelford. I say probably because I have read many of Mrs. Padelford's letters, and this is her handwriting on the envelope, postmarked Sept. 18, 1924.
Claiborne at this point was not yet six years old!
Images courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

Foreshadowing...

In late December 1939, when he was 21 and in his last year at Princeton, Pell spent a few days in the nation's capital touring and studying. "I really liked Washington a lot and the people also," he wrote to his father, who was in Lisbon. Pictured here: both sides of a postcard of the Library of Congress he also sent Herbert. "Have had an interesting A.M. studying here, Love," he wrote.
Images courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, New York.

Clay Pell's grandfather and great-grandfather

Are shown here, in a 1928 painting by Olive Bigelow Pell, Claiborne's stepmother. This is the ten-year-old Claiborne with his father, Herbert Pell. The painting, along with many other Pell-family paintings, photos and framed documents, hangs on the wall of Clay Pell's house, which I visited yesterday.
I think the painting speaks eloquently to the father-son relationship, in which lie many of the clues to Senator Pell later in life.
By a fire in Clay's library, I learned more about the late senator, the late senator's father -- and Clay's dad, the late Bertie, Claiborne and Nuala's first child, named for Herbert. All in all, a fine and productive Sunday afternoon.
Image courtesy of Clay Pell.