FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Statement on Edmund S. Muskie

LEWISTON, Maine -- Here is a statement by Bates College President Donald W. Harward on the death Tuesday of former U.S. Senator and Secretary of State Edmund S. Muskie, a 1936 Bates graduate and longtime trustee of the college.

"From the day in 1932 when he first set foot on the Bates campus, Ed Muskie projected the intelligence and dignity the nation later was to know and respect so well. The death of Senator Muskie robs the world of an eloquent speaker for the dispossessed, for a clean environment and for decency in public life. His legacy is everywhere we look; and, as former President Jimmy Carter said during the dedication of the Muskie Archives in 1985, ÔEd Muskie should have been president of the United States.Õ Although he fell short of that goal, Senator Muskie never lost the respect of all who knew him, including his political adversaries. Not to be forgotten as we contemplate the public man is his devotion to his family and his college. On behalf of the Bates community I convey condolences to Jane Muskie and their children. We have lost one of the giants of our time."

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