Jim Lehrer to speak at Maddox Lecture
The Jack Maddox Distinguished Lecture Series, hosted by University of the Southwest, is pleased to announce that Jim Lehrer will speak at its Spring Lecture on March 31, 2009. The lecture will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Tydings Auditorium. Tickets are free to the public, but required for admittance.
Jim Lehrer was born in Wichita, Kan., in 1934. He is a graduate of Victoria College in Texas and the University of Missouri. After three years as an infantry officer in the Marine Corps, he worked for ten years in Dallas as a newspaperman and then as the host of a local experimental news program on public television.
He came to Washington with PBS in 1972, teaming with Robert MacNeil in 1973 to cover the Senate Watergate hearings. They began in 1975 what became The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, and, in 1983, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, the first 60-minute evening news program on television. When MacNeil retired in 1995, the program was renamed The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
Lehrer has been honored with numerous awards for journalism, including a presidential National Humanities Medal in 1999. In the last five presidential elections, he moderated ten of the nationally televised candidate debates.
Lehrer has written 17 novels, including White Widow, Purple Dots, Blue Hearts, Flying Crows and The Special Prisoner. His latest novel, Eureka, was published in October 2007. His newest novel,
Oh, Johnny, is scheduled to be released March 24 and will be available for purchase after the lecture. He also has written two memoirs and three plays. He and his novelist wife, Kate, have three daughters and six grandchildren.
Please contact Laurie Dean at 575-392-6565, ext. 1014 for ticket information.