Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 29-April 5, 1999

Volume 27, Number 26

Noted historian to present talk on
'moral authority' of U.S. presidency

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin will speak on "The Moral Authority of the Presidency" when she delivers the Gary Fryer Memorial Lecture at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6, in the Law School's Levinson Auditorium, 127 Wall St.

Goodwin's talk, which is sponsored by the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism, is free and open to the public.

Goodwin won the Pulitzer Prize in History for her 1993 book, "No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front During World War II." Her other best-selling books on political history are "Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream" and "The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys."

A lifelong baseball aficionado and the first woman journalist to enter the locker room of the Boston Red Sox, Goodwin most recently wrote the 1997 book "Wait Till Next Year," in which the Brooklyn Dodgers figure prominently.

A regular commentator on the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS, Goodwin has been a consultant and interview subject for PBS documentaries on Presidents Johnson and Roosevelt, and the Kennedy family as well as for Ken Burns' documentary on the history of baseball.

A graduate of Colby College, Goodwin earned her Ph.D. in government at Harvard University and was a professor of government at Harvard for 10 years. Her teaching included a course on the American presidency.

The Gary Fryer Memorial Lecture honors the man who served as Yale's director of public affairs and special assistant to the president from 1994 until his death in 1997. He overhauled and directed the University's efforts to communicate its achievements and goals to Yale's constituencies and to the public at large, and advised President Richard C. Levin and the other University officers on a host of issues. Prior to joining Yale, Fryer spent eight years as a top appointee in the administration of New York Governor Mario M. Cuomo.

In establishing the Fryer Lecture, Levin said, "We would hope and expect the Fryer Lectures to focus on the ethical responsibilities of those engaged in government, higher education and communications -- to continue the conversation that Gary always encouraged among his friends and colleagues about how to be honorable, ethical, and effective in all the various modes of public service."

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

'Yale Constructs'--Program will explore future plans for campus facilities
Happy 350th Birthday, Elihu!--Yale will honor the man for whom it is named
Photosynthesis in a test tube? Scientists find a way . . .
Noted historian to present talk on 'moral authority' of U.S. presidency
Bennett will continue efforts to strengthen Yale's libraries
This year's DeVane Medals go to two English professors
League commissioner David Stern to speak on managing 'Global NBA'
Drama student sharing her love of dance in campus classes
Technology's impact on nation is topic of Sheffield Lecture
Coach Dick Kuchen resigning after 13 years at the helm . . .
'Missing' work will be performed for first time in nearly 40 years
Vladimir Petrov dies -- taught Russian at Yale
Grants support innovative new projects using digital media
Campus Notes