January 5, 2009 Kennedy remembers days at sea with Claiborne Pell Play video

(NECN: Newport, RI) - Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy (D) and other dignitaries gathered this morning to mourn former Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell.

The funeral liturgy took place at Trinity Episcopal Church in Newport, Rhode Island.

"Every summer, Vicki and I sailed from Long Island to Cape Cod, just the two of us on our sailboat, and we always stopped in Newport to take Claiborne and Nuala and often one or more of their children or grandchildren for a sail, and what fun we had," said Kennedy.

"Claiborne Pell was a gentleman and a gentle man," said Kennedy.

Click here to watch the eulogy by Clinton.

Click here to watch the eulogy by Biden.

Click here to watch the eulogy by Reed.

Click here to watch the eulogy by Pell's grandson.

The Democrat died Thursday after a long battle with Parkinson's disease at the age of 90. Pell created the federal education grants that helped millions of Americans afford college. He was first elected to

the Senate in 1960. He sponsored legislation creating the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant program, which passed in 1972 and provided direct aid to college students.

Pell was also the main Senate sponsor of the 1965 law creating the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He participated in the 1945 San Francisco conference that wrote the United Nations charter and served in the U.S. foreign service for seven years.

Pell left office in January 1997 after his sixth term.