The story of United States Senator Robert C. Byrd is a classic American saga of success and achievement. Born in 1917 in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, he was left a virtual orphan by the widespread influenza epidemic that struck down millions in the wake of World War I. Carried to West Virginia at the age of three years by his aunt and uncle to be reared as their own, the future senator grew up in various coal mining communities, mastering life’s early lessons and learning his duties as a miner’s son. He graduated as valedictorian of his high school class in the depths of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Unable at the time to afford college tuition, Byrd sought employment wherever he found an opportunity. He worked during the war years building Liberty and Victory ships in the construction yards of Baltimore, Maryland, and Tampa, Florida. At war’s end, he returned to West Virginia with a new vision of what his home state and his country could be. He was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1946 and the West Virginia Senate, then the United States House of Representatives. Currently, he represents West Virginia in the United States Senate.

The education and training of West Virginia’s and America’s young people have been among his career-long concerns. Inspired by the success of his Scholastic Recognition Award in promoting academic excellence among West Virginia’s high school students, he authored and secured passage of the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholastic Program, a national plan to provide $1,500 college scholarships to eligible graduating high school seniors in every state.