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S'uhday, January 8, t989 ■ The Clarion-Ledger'/ Jackson Daily News Will
Tributes, landmarks to Stennis dot the state
File photo
President Richard Nixon joins U.S. Sen. John C. Stennis at the April 1973 dedication ceremonies for the Stennis Center air technical training area at the Meridian Naval Air Station.
U.S. Sen. John C. Stennis has been honored many times for his service to the state and the nation. Air, sea and educational facilities bear the name of Mississippi’s longest-serving senator. Among the landmarks:
■	On Aug. 8,1969, a new jet-age airport in Hancock County was named Gulf Cen-tral-Stennis Field.
■	In 1973, Secretary of the Navy John Warner (now a U.S. senator from Virginia) announced a new naval training complex at the Meridian Naval Air Station would be named in honor of Stennis. President Richard Nixon joined Stennis at the April 1973 dedication ceremonies for the Stennis Center air technical training area.
■	In May 1973, the University of Virginia Law School honored Stennis by naming a chair for him.
■	Also in May 1973, the first John C. Stennis Scholarships were awarded in political science at his alma mater, Missis-
,y sippi State University.
■	On July 1,1977, the John C. Stennis Institute of Government was established at Mississippi State University to bring about more effective government through research, training and service, and to promote greater citizen involvement in the political process. The Institute was created and its programs are supported largely through an endowment created by friends and admirers of Sen. Stennis. A June 23,1988, gala retirement tribute to Stennis in Washington raised more than $1 million for the institute on the Stark-ville campus.
■	In 1977, the first Stennis Chair in Political Science was established at Mississippi State Univeisity. Morris “Bill” Collins was first holder of the chair — from 1977 to 1987. This year, Charles Washington assumed the Stennis Chair and
Stennis says:
Upon learning in 1973 that President Nixon was .entrusting him to verify the president’s summary of the Watergate tapes, which featured Nixon’s conversations with top White House aides:
“If I am called on to listen to the tapes and certify as to their content, I will consider it a call to duty and render the best service I can.”
became director of the Stennis Institute in Starkville.
■	In August 1985, the John C. Stennis Industrial" Park was dedicated near De-Kalb. At the 122-acre Stennis Industrial Park, Stennis joined state officials in December 1988 to break ground for Mississippi’s first industrial incubator to boost home-grown businesses in east-central Mississippi.
■	In April 1988, the Stennis Seabee Complex at Gulfport, a U.S. Navy facility, was dedicated.
■	On May 20,1988, President Ronald Reagan signed an executive order to rename the National Space Technology Laboratories in Hancock County the Stennis Space Center, a facility that owes its existence to Stennis. A bronze sculpture of Stennis will be on display at the NASA facility near Bay St. Louis. Lt. Gov. Brad Dye originated the idea and suggested it to U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, who in March 1988 introduced legislation to name the 13,500-acre complex in honor of Stennis. NASA endorsed the plan. It was called the Mississippi Test Facility in the 1960s and changed to the National Space Technology Laboratories in 1974.
■On June 23,1988, at an evening of tribute to Stennis in Washington, President Reagan announced to a crowd of more than 1,000 dignitaries that the next nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will be the USS John C. Stennis.
■ Early this year the John C. Stennis Center for Public Service Training and Development will open at Mississippi State. The center was created by Congress to attract more students to public service
careers and to make training and development opportunities available to people already in public service.
Rex Buffington, Stennis’ press secretary, has been named executive director of the center funded through earnings on a $7.5 million endowment appropriated by Congress.
■
This report was compiled by Jackson Daily News staff writer Andy Kanen-giser.
Remembrances from:
Ted Stevens
John Stennis has been my friend for the 20 years I’ve represented Alaska in the U.S. Senate.
Serving with Sen.
Stennis on the Appropriations Committee, particularly on the Defense Subcommittee, I have Stevens been as much a student as a colleague. His wisdom and his patience have meant much to many of us.
He has shown us all, all Americans, a dedication to the armed services and to the Constitution that is rare.
The hallmark of his dedication to the men and women in the armed services has been his special commitment to our young enlisted personnel.
Sen. Stennis didn’t travel to military bases to be feted by generals and admirals or to receive accolades as chairman of the Armed Services Committee and the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. I’m sure he enjoyed the great respect he was shown by those who were the leaders of our armed forces. But he also enjoyed spending time with the enlisted men
and women.
I had the privilege of traveling with Sen. Stennis to my home state, Alaska, where the military faces special challenges.
As he did whenever he traveled to military installations, Sen. Stennis insisted on meeting with enlisted men and women.
You would have thought every one of them was from Mississippi, because he expressed such deep interest and concern.
I can still see him sitting there, listening intently, asking questions, making sure those young men and women felt comfortable in the presence of a U.S. senator.
John Stennis has always viewed and performed his responsibilities to the armed forces as a special trust. That trust was well tended during his years in the Senate.
I am fortunate to count him as a friend and as a mentor. As an American, I am grateful for all he has done to assure the safety of our nation.
■
Ted Stevens has served as a Republican U.S. senator from Alaska since 1968.
Remembrances from:
Ray Mabus
I am a child of the Stennis era, being born a year after he went to the U.S.
Senate. He and my father are almost exact contemporaries, having been born less than a year apart in almost identical towns in Mabus Mississippi. They shared other things as well: Absolute honesty and courage.
He has been universally recognized for his fairness, judgment and wisdom. His greatest legacy may be that he has set standards for all public officials to follow. His leadership has been an inspiration to not only his colleagues, but the people that he represented in Mississippi.
When Sen. Stennis took office, he set a goal for himself. It has become “Classic Stennis” for its simplicity and directness. The senator said: “I want to plow a straight furrow right down to the end of my row.”
One of the many hallmarks of his illustrious career has been his stead-
fast support of farmers and his contributions to Mississippi in terms of capital improvements, military installations and contracts. He has also been instrumental in the creation of government programs such as the Appala chian Regional Commission.
It is not a coincidence that his office is adorned with several plaques bear-ing slogans. One reads, “Look ahead.” Another says, “Mississippi comes first.”
These are philosophies that he takes quite seriously, and the citizens of Mississippi and America have been the beneficiaries.
Sen. Stennis once said: “Making a living is the main problem of virtually all Mississippians, and I will never forget it. Every legislative problem must be looked at from that point of view. ”'u
His words are ones that I and other public servants would do well to live by.
Sen. Stennis can retire knowing that he has plowed a straight furrow, and we are all indebted to him for it.
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Ray Mabus has served as governor of Mississippi since 1988.
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