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Edward M. Kennedy was the third longest-serving member of the United States Senate in American history. Voters of Massachusetts elected him to the Senate nine times: a record matched by only one other Senator. The scholar Thomas Mann said his time in the Senate was "an amazing and endurable presence. You want to go back to the 19th century to find parallels, but you won't find parallels." President Barak Obama has described his breathtaking span of accomplishment: "For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health, and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts." He fought for and won battles on voting rights, education, immigration reform, the minimum wage, national service, the nation's first major legislation to combat AIDS, and equality for minorities, women, the disabled and gay Americans. He called health care "the cause of my life", and succeeded in bringing quality and affordable health care for countless Americans, including children, seniors and Americans with disabilities. Until the end he was working tirelessly to achieve historic national health reform. He was an opponent of the Vietnam War and an early champion of the war's refugees. He was a powerful yet lonely voice from the beginning against the invasion of Iraq. He stood for human rights abroad (from Chile to the former Soviet Union) and was a leader in the cause of poverty relief for the poorest nations of Africa and the world. He believed in a strong national defense and he also unceasingly pursued and advanced the work of nuclear arms control. He was considered the conscience of his party, and also the Senate's master of forging compromise with the other party. Known as the 'Lion of the Senate', Senator Kennedy was widely respected on both sides of the aisle for his commitment to progress and his ability to legislate. Senator Kennedy was Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Previously he was Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and served on that committee for many years. He also served on the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Congressional Joint Economic Committee. He was a leader of the Congressional Friends of Ireland and helped lead the way toward peace on that island. He was a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Virginia Law School. He lived in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, with his wife Vicki. He is survived by her and their five children Kara, Edward Jr., and Patrick Kennedy, and Curran and Caroline Raclin, and his sister Jean Kennedy Smith

Jan Schakowsky is a Democrat member of Congress who represents the Ninth District of Illinois. Born in Chicago in 1944, Schakowsky grew up in that city's Rogers Park section. After graduating from the University of Illinois in 1965, she worked briefly as a schoolteacher. In 1969 she established National Consumers Unite, a consumer-advocacy group that led a campaign to imprint freshness dates on food packaging in stores. From 1976-1985 she worked as a director of the Illinois Public Action Council, another consumer-advocacy organization. In 1985 she became Executive Director of the Illinois State Council of Senior Citizens, where she was employed until 1990. In 1990 she was elected to the state legislature. Schakowsky today is a member of the Democratic Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives. The Almanac of American Politics describes her as "an outspoken progressive, one of the leftmost members of the Democratic Caucus." Schakowsky is a close political ally of fellow Progressive Caucus member Nancy Pelosi and was an early backer of the latter's successful bid to become House Minority Leader in 2002. Pelosi rewarded Schakowsky with an appointment to the powerful position of Chief Deputy Minority Whip and a seat on the Democratic Steering Committee (which allocates committee assignments to House Democrats). In 2003 Schakowsky condemned the influence that "private power" had gained over the media. She joined Global Exchange founder Medea Benjamin at a "Take Back America" conference to propose tight government limits on the consolidation of broadcasters such as Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News Channel, and other enterprises. In 2004 Schakowsky co-sponsored a bill to ease restrictions on U.S. trade with the Communist dictatorship in Cuba.

During his lifetime, Reinhold Niebuhr was one of the best-known Christian intellectual in the United States. Ordained as a minister in the German Evangelical Synod of North America in 1913, Neibuhr pastored a middle-class congregation in Detroit for 13 years. In 1928 he began a career-long association with New York's Union Theological Seminary, serving as professor of Christian ethics (1928-60) and dean (1950-60). Niebuhr neither created nor defended a particular belief system as much as he worked to apply Christian morals to contemporary political and social problems. His theological stance has been described as "Christian realism," and most of his work was devoted to reconciling the concept of perfect love with a world in constant violent conflict. A prolific writer and a popular, engaging lecturer, Niebuhr became a national celebrity and influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. and policy makers in the administration of President John Kennedy. His books include *Does Civilization Need Religion?* (1927), *The Nature and Destiny of Man* (2 volumes, 1941-43) and *Faith and History* (1949). He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.

Born in Argentina, Golijov grew up in Eastern Europe and moved to Israel in 1983 to study with Mark Kopytman at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem. He moved to the US in 1986, where he earned his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, studying with George Crumb. Golijov has been Associate Professor of Music at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, since 1991, and also serves as a faculty member at the Boston Conservatory and the Tanglewood Music Center. Golijov's impressive list of commissions is quite long and includes the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the Kronos Quartet, the Spoleto USA Festival, Lincoln Center, the Boston Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival. His most well-known work, "La Pasin Seg?n San Marcos" ("St. Mark's Passion"), was commissioned by Helmuth Rilling to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach's death. Premiered in 2000 by the Schola Cantorum of Caracas, the piece has subsequently been performed in the US and recorded on the Hnnsler label. Golijov has served as composer-in-residence at Music from Marlboro, Spoleto, Merkin Hall in New York City and the LA Philharmonic's Music Alive series.

Kenneth Feinberg is a Washington, D.C. attorney specializing in mediation and alternative dispute resolution who was appointed Special Master of the U.S. Government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Originally from Brockton, Massachusetts, he received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1967 and a law degree from the New York University School of Law in 1970. Before founding his own firm, The Feinberg Group, in 1993, he was a founding partner at the Washington office of Kaye Scholer LLP. Feinberg has served as Court-Appointed Special Settlement Master in cases including Agent Orange product liability litigation, Asbestos Personal Injury Litigations and DES Cases. Feinberg was also one of three arbitrators who determined the fair market value of the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination and was one of two arbitrators who determined the allocation of legal fees in the Holocaust slave labor litigation. He is a former Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia University and currently serves as Lecturer-in-Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, the Georgetown Law Center, and the University of Virginia School of Law.

Leonard P. Guarente is an American biologist best known for his research on life span extension in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. He is currently at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he is Novartis Professor of Biology. Guarente is recognized as the leading proponent of the hypothesis that caloric restriction slows aging by activation of Sirtuins. Leonard Guarente has written an autobiography titled *Ageless Quest: One Scientist's Search for Genes That Prolong Youth*. The book was published in 2003 by Cold Spring Harbor Press.

Benedita Souza da Silva Sampaio, was born on April 26, 1943 in Praia do Pinto, in Rio de Janeiro to Ovidia da Silva out of wedlock, despite the fact that Ovidia was married to someone other than Benedita's father. Benedita da Silva is also known as Bene' and is an African-Brazilian politician. Throughout her life, Benedita faced prejudice and racism for her humble and African origins, but she has overcome those barriers by becoming the first female and black governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro. Moreover, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva nominated her Secretary of State as well.