Environmentalist, former Vermont legislator dies

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Former Sen. Robert Stafford, a staunch environmentalist and champion of education whose name is familiar to countless college students through a loan program named for him, died Saturday. He was 93.
Stafford, who had been in declining health, was surrounded by family at a Rutland nursing home when he died at 9:30 a.m., said Neal Houston, his former chief of staff.
Stafford served two years as governor, 11 years in the House and 17 in the Senate before retiring in early 1989.
As ranking Republican on the Senate's environment committee, Stafford repeatedly defended the Superfund program to clean up contaminated sites and shepherded bills combating acid rain and automobile pollution.
In 1988, Congress renamed the Federal Guaranteed Student Loan program the Robert T. Stafford Student Loan program. The low-interest loans are now known almost universally as Stafford loans to the millions who qualify for them each year.
Born Aug. 8, 1913, Stafford got a bachelor's degree from Middlebury College in 1935 and a law degree from Boston University in 1938. In his official biography, he listed degrees from the University of Vermont, St. Michael's College and Norwich University, the last one coming in 1970.
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