(The Late) Sen. Robert T. and Helen Stafford
"He gave the nation a lifelong lesson in civility and decency, in the finest tradition of his beloved Vermont," fellow Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy said on the Senate floor following Stafford's death at age 93.
It is therefore fitting that the man after whom the federal guaranteed student loan program (the Robert T. Stafford Loan program) was renamed in 1988 should now be a namesake of a similar endeavor in his home state: the Helen K. and Robert T. Stafford Scholarship. The strong identification of the senator's name with the cause of education inspired support from many quarters, including his former staff members in Washington, D.C.; and at a Christmas gathering in 2007, the Staffords themselves decided to make a family contribution to the scholarship, which the younger family members insisted be named for both parents to honor their shared dedication to higher education.
"Dad would be proud," says Dinah Stafford, one of the Staffords' four daughters. "If money was available anywhere, he would want it to go to education for Vermonters."
Indeed, the Staffords themselves have been on the receiving end of financial assistance for education."We have four children and five grandchildren who have benefited from education loans," says Helen Stafford, who lives in the apartment near Rutland that she shared with the senator in his later years. "My husband was active in the field of education, and we inherited his interest."
While Senator Stafford served as chair of the Senate Education Committee, his other great cause was the environment. He chaired the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee from 1981 to 1987 and quite publicly stood up to President Ronald Reagan (politely, of course) when the latter sought to lower clean air standards. The family thus decided to designate the Stafford Scholarship for students planning to study either environmental science or special education.
Across the nation, millions of students know Robert T. Stafford's name from the title on their federal loans. His legacy speaks more quietly in his home state, which is how he would have liked it.
