Senator James M. Jeffords Welcome Center

Senator James M. Jeffords Welcome Center. . , Senator James Merrill Jeffords , Described by his colleagues as fiercely independent, courageous, low-key and down-to-earth, Senator Jeffords was an exemplary Vermont leader. He served in state offices for six years before representing Vermont in Congress for 32 years. Jim was instrumental in obtaining funding for Vermont Route 279 around Bennington and for this Welcome Center., JAMES MERRILL JEFFORDS was born on May 11, 1934 in Rutland, Vermont, the son of Marion (née Hausman) and Olin Merrill Jeffords, a Vermont Supreme Court Justice from 1938-1958, and Chief Justice from 1955-1958. He had one older sister, Mary, who was born in 1932., Jim Jeffords attended Rutland public schools and in 1956 was an NROTC graduate of Yale University. He served in the US Navy on active duty from 1956-1959 and in the Navy Reserves until he retired as a Captain in 1990., He married Elizabeth Daley in 1961 and they had two children, Leonard and Laura. When in state, the Jeffords family lived in Shrewsbury, Vermont., After completing his active military duty, Jeffords attended Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the Vermont bar in 1962 and clerked for Federal Judge Ernest William Gibson, the former governor. He opened a private law practice in Rutland in 1964 and served as the county's State Senator from 1967-68. He was elected Vermont's Attorney General in 1969, a post he held until 1973., In 1974 Jeffords was elected as Vermont's sole Representative to the US Congress and became Senator in 1988. He was a Republican until he changed party status to Independent in 2001. He retired in 2006., While in Congress, Jeffords championed equal access to education and disability rights, co-authoring what would later be known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). He continued this work as Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. He was also known for humanitarian and environmental causes, winning the Sierra Club's highest commendation in 2002. He co-founded the Congres[s]ional Arts Caucus and fought consistently for funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities., When Jim died on August 18, 2014, President Barack Obama said "Jim never lost the fiercely independent spirit that made Vermonters, and people across America, trust and respect him" and that he "voted his principles, even if it sometimes meant taking a lonely or unpopular stance.", "...I grew up a wide-eyed, innocent idealist who went to Washington expecting to actually get something done and to represent the average person rather than the rich and powerful. I just didn't know any better." , An Independent Man: Adventures of a Public Servant, 2003, , James M. Jeffords with Yvonne Daley and Howard Coffin,