Stuart Franklin Feldman (January 20, 1937 – July 11, 2010) was an American

lobbyist In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...

and

social activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in Social change, social, Political campaign, political, economic or Natural environment, environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes i ...

who worked in the administrations of

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

and

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

. He co-founded in 1978 what became

Vietnam Veterans of America Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc. (VVA) is a national non-profit corporation founded in 1978 in the United States that is committed to serving the needs of all veterans. It is funded without any contribution from any branch of government. VVA is th ...

together with Bobby Muller. Feldman was a longtime advocate for greater awareness of the needs of veterans and seeing to it that they were provided with better education, health care and job opportunities. Feldman was born on January 20, 1937, in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

and graduated in 1954 from

Cheltenham High School Cheltenham High School is a public high school in the Wyncote neighborhood of Cheltenham Township, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, located from the border of the City of Philadelphia and from Center City. Serving grades 9 through 12, Chelt ...

. He earned an undergraduate degree in 1958 from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

with a major in economics. He was awarded his law degree in 1961 from the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and oldes ...

. He went to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, where he was employed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the

Appalachian Regional Commission The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is a United States federal–state partnership that works with the people of Appalachia to create opportunities for self-sustaining economic development and improved quality of life. Congress established A ...

and the Department of Transportation. He left the federal government in the 1970s, taking a post as a lobbyist with the

United States Conference of Mayors The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) is the official non-partisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. The cities are each represented by their mayors or other chief elected officials. The organization was founded i ...

.Brown, Emma
"Stuart F. Feldman, lawyer and lobbyist who advocated for veterans, dies at 73"
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', July 15, 2010. Accessed July 22, 2010. Seeing veterans returning from the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

, Feldman saw many that were unemployed and didn't have the skills necessary for work. Feldman lobbied on behalf of a threefold expansion in education benefits available to each veteran under the

G.I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

, increasing the monthly benefit from $100 a month to $300. His efforts led to the development of 1,000 veterans' counseling centers at colleges nationwide, with cash awards paid to those colleges and universities that enrolled veterans and assisted them in gaining employment. Together with

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in Bob Hope filmography, more than 70 short and ...

, Feldman formed "Hope for Education" in 1970, an effort that led to 50,000 soldiers enrolling for G.I. benefits while attending the entertainer's Christmas tour. Feldman helped found Vietnam Veterans of America in 1978, together with Bobby Muller, a veteran who had been paralyzed during his service in Vietnam. A 1977 article in '' Fortune'' magazine stated he "single-handedly... won billions of dollars for veterans programs". Gerald Nicosia, in his 2001 book ''Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans' Movement'' recounted an incident in which Feldman came to testify before the

United States House Committee on Veterans' Affairs The standing committee, standing Committee on Veterans' Affairs in the United States House of Representatives oversees agencies, reviews current legislation, and recommends new Act of Congress, bills or amendments concerning U.S. military veteran ...

, when a staffer muttered that "The last time you were here, you cost us a billion dollars". Mr. Feldman also was successful in bringing the special plight of returning service members to the attention of

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

editorial board editor Philip L. Geyelin and columnist

Colman McCarthy Colman McCarthy (born March 24, 1938 in Glen Head, New York), is an American journalist, teacher, lecturer, pacifist, progressive, anarchist, and long-time peace activist, directs the ''Center for Teaching Peace'' in Washington, D.C. From 1969 to ...

. Geyelin, McCarthy and others in The Post's opinion pages wrote more than 30 columns and editorials pushing the government to take better care of returning troops. "For Stuart Feldman, the people who really scorned Vietnam veterans were not the occasional anti-war protesters, but members of Congress who sent them to war and then willfully looked away when they came home in desperate need of health care and education," McCarthy said Wednesday. "His advocacy was of the rarest kind in Washington: relentless, informed and humane. If there were a medal of honor for valor in defending the rights of veterans, Stu Feldman would surely have earned one." During the 1980-90's, he worked doggedly on establishing a museum in Philadelphia that would educate visitors about the United States Constitution, which led to the 2003 establishment of the

National Constitution Center The National Constitution Center is a non-profit institution devoted to the Constitution of the United States. On Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the center is an interactive museum and a national town hall for constitutional dia ...

, near the Liberty Bell and

Independence Hall Independence Hall is a historic civic building in Philadelphia, where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted by America's Founding Fathers. The structure forms the centerpi ...

. In an article released shortly before the center opened, the '' Philadelphia Daily News'' lamented the lack of credit being given to Feldman, stating that his 1984 proposal was "seminal to the center that's come to be".Naedele, Walter F
"Stuart F. Feldman, prime Constitution Center supporter"
''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'', July 17, 2010. Accessed July 22, 2010. The National Constitution Center opened in 2003, two blocks from the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Mr. Feldman, who helped secure millions of dollars in congressional appropriations for the museum, was a member of its board for 17 years. He also advocated on behalf of a monument dedicated to

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

on the National Mall, which he envisioned would be engraved with the text of King's 1963 " I Have a Dream" speech.Feldman, Stuart F
"Memorializing King's Dream"
''

The Modesto Bee ''The Modesto Bee'' is a California newspaper, founded in 1884 as the ''Daily Evening News'' and published continuously as a daily under a variety of names. Before its purchase by Charles K. McClatchy and McClatchy Newspapers in 1924, it merged ...

'', July 27, 1989. Accessed July 22, 2010. In 1998, the

National Capital Planning Commission The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) is a U.S. government executive branch agency that provides planning guidance for Washington, D.C., and the surrounding National Capital Region. Through its planning policies and review of developmen ...

approved the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, completed in 2011 in

West Potomac Park West Potomac Park is a U.S. national park in Washington, D.C., adjacent to the National Mall. It includes the parkland that extends south of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, from the Lincoln Memorial to the grounds of the Washington Monum ...

next to the National Mall. A resident of

Center City, Philadelphia Center City includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of Philadelphia. It comprises the area that made up the City of Philadelphia prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854, which extended the city borders to be coterminous wi ...

, died at age 73 on July 11, 2010, at the

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) is the flagship hospital of Penn Medicine and is located in the University City section of West Philadelphia. It is consistently ranked as one of the top hospitals in the United States. Histor ...

due to complications of multiple myeloma.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feldman, Stuart F. 1937 births 2010 deaths American lobbyists Deaths from cancer in Pennsylvania Deaths from multiple myeloma University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni People from Cheltenham, Pennsylvania 20th-century American lawyers