Stuart F. Feldman

Stuart Franklin Feldman (January 20, 1937 – July 11, 2010) was an American lobbyist and social activist who worked in the administrations of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon. He co-founded in 1978 what became Vietnam Veterans of America 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 and graduated in 1954 from Cheltenham High School.

Seeing veterans returning from the Vietnam War, Feldman saw many who 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, 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, 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.

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. on the National Mall, which he envisioned would be engraved with the text of King's 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech. In 1998, the National Capital Planning Commission approved the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, completed in 2011 in West Potomac Park next to the National Mall.

A resident of Center City, Philadelphia, died at age 73 on July 11, 2010, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania due to complications of multiple myeloma.