Television journalist Jim Lehrer P’85 has been selected to deliver the featured address to the Class of 2007 at the University’s 175th commencement on May 27.
Lehrer, whose daughter Lucy Lehrer attended the University, is the anchorman and executive editor of PBS’s “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.” His journalism career has spanned five decades and he has received numerous awards, including the 1999 National Humanities Medal. He has also served as a moderator for 10 presidential candidate debates over the last five election cycles.
According to Lehrer, President Doug Bennet wrote him a letter last year inviting him to speak.
“Because of Doug [Bennet] and Lucy [Lehrer ’85] it was an easy call for me to say yes,” Lehrer said. “It was a delight to [accept.] I was particularly honored.”
Lehrer has known both Doug and Midge Bennet for years, and is also close with William Campbell, who served as the University’s president from 1970-1988. Lehrer currently sits alongside Campbell on the board of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, which operates the world’s largest living history museum in Williamsburg, Virginia. Campbell is the foundation’s president and chairman.
Bennet decided to invite Lehrer to speak after consulting with student government and faculty leadership.
“I admire [Lehrer] enormously for his journalistic values,” Bennet said. “He has an incredibly influential audience.”
In an interview, Lehrer expressed his affinity for the University.
“I loved going to Wesleyan for parents weekend,” he said. “I loved sitting on the hill and watching football games. As a parent, it was comfortable. I enjoyed the spirit of the kids.”
Lehrer has delivered commencement speeches at a variety of colleges and universities over the last two decades, including Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Williams College, and Tufts University.
“I am a big believer in short commencement addresses,” Lehrer said. “People don’t go to commencements to hear the speaker. My function is to raise some issues for people to think about. I always consider it a private communication from me to the graduating class, no matter what school.”
Over the years, Lehrer has developed a stable of signature anecdotes that work their way into many of his speeches. Chief among them is a bus call. Lehrer worked nights as a bus station attendant while attending Victoria College in Texas, and, for good luck, he begins each of his speeches by rattling off a list of destinations as if he were speaking over the PA system at a bus depot.
“I always do a bus call,” Lehrer said. “I haven’t come up with an angle yet. But I can’t remember the last time I made any kind of speech where I didn’t make a bus call. It’s always a challenge to have it make sense.”
While he has yet to begin writing his speech, and he does not consider commencement speeches the proper venue for political commentary, Lehrer mentioned the war in Iraq as a likely subject for discussion.
“I’m not a pundit, and I haven’t made a career of being a pundit,” he said. “But obviously there are things happening. Who knows where we’ll be in Iraq in May. I can’t imagine making a speech that doesn’t mention that there are young people in harm’s way.”
While his May address will offer advice for graduates entering the world, Lehrer had a few words of advice for seniors’ last few months of college.
“My number one advice would be to start thinking, not about what you want to do with you life, but about the magic moments coming in the first few weeks, months, and years after you graduate,” he said. “And think about the magic moments that are coming out of Wesleyan. Just have a Wesleyan moment, something special and magical that you can say, ‘Hey, I did this because of Wesleyan.’”
Born in Wichita, Kansas in 1934, Lehrer received an A.A. degree from Victoria College and a B.J. from the University of Wisconsin. In addition to his notable work in journalism, he is also the author of two memoirs, three plays, and 17 novels, including his forthcoming “Eureka.”
The Feb. 1 issue of the Wesleyan Connection announced Lehrer’s selection, but the University has yet to release the names of the other guests who will receive honorary degrees and awards at commencement.
This May’s Commencement and Reunion weekend will mark the end of the University’s yearlong 175th anniversary celebration, as well as Bennet’s last commencement as the University’s fifteenth president. According to Bennet, the University’s incoming president will be invited to this year’s event.
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