October 5, 2011 marks the tenth anniversary of Mike Mansfield’s passing. This anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on Mike Mansfield’s life and to remember his role in many of the most important domestic and international issues of his century. In a eulogy delivered at Mike Mansfield’s October 2001 funeral at Arlington National Cemetery, his friend and former Senate counsel Charles D. Ferris (Member, Mansfield Foundation Board of Directors and Partner, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo) recognized Mike Mansfield’s many achievements:
“He was at the helm of the Senate at the height of fundamental achievement—the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the passage of Medicare, federal aid to education, the 18-year-old vote—all deeply controversial….Each time, Mike Mansfield’s leadership was the hinge of history. He was the man without whom the achievements might well have been different….He was the strong gentle wind that set the climate of the Senate. He was the essential chemistry of the Body….As our Ambassador to Japan during both the Carter and Reagan Administrations…he remained himself and defined diplomacy.”