Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 21, 2005|Volume 34, Number 8

Bob Woodward

Noted journalist Bob Woodward to deliver
the Gary G. Fryer Memorial Lecture

Celebrated journalist Bob Woodward will discuss "The Press and the Presidency: What Went Wrong" on Tuesday, Oct. 25, as a guest of the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism at Yale.

His talk, which is the Gary G. Fryer Memorial Lecture, will take place at
4 p.m. in the Law School's Levinson Auditorium, 127 Wall St. It is free and open to the public.

Woodward has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 and is now assistant managing editor there. He has won nearly every American journalism award. The Pulitzer Prize was given to the Post in 1973 for the reporting of Woodward and Carl Bernstein on the Watergate scandal. In addition, Woodward was the main reporter for the Post's 2002 National Affairs Pulitzer Prize-winning articles on the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He also won the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency in 2003.

The Weekly Standard has described Woodward as "the best pure reporter of his generation, perhaps ever." In 2003, Albert Hunt of The Wall Street Journal called Woodward "the most celebrated journalist of our age." In 2004, Bob Schieffer of CBS News said, "Woodward has established himself as the best reporter of our time. He may be the best reporter of all time."

Woodward has co-authored or authored 10 number-one national best-selling non-fiction books -- more than any contemporary American writer. They are: "All the President's Men" and "The Final Days," two books about Watergate co-authored with Bernstein; "The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court," co-authored with Scott Armstrong; "Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi"; "Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987"; "The Commanders," on the first Bush administration and the Gulf War; "The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House"; "Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate"; "Bush at War"; and "Plan of Attack."

His other three books -- "The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat"; "The Choice," on the presidential election; and "Maestro: Greenspan's Fed and the American Boom" -- were national best-sellers for months.

Newsweek magazine has excerpted five of Woodward's books in headline-making cover stories; "60 Minutes" has done pieces on five of his books; three were made into movies.

Woodward was born March 26, 1943, in Illinois. He graduated from Yale University in 1965 and served five years as a communications officer in the U.S. Navy before beginning his journalism career at the Montgomery County (Maryland) Sentinel, where he was a reporter for one year before joining The Washington Post.

The Poynter Fellowship in Journalism was established in 1971 by newspaper mogul Nelson Poynter '27 M.A. Over the years, it has hosted visits by some of the best-known reporters, editors, broadcasters, filmmakers, columnists and critics, among others, in the news media.

The Gary G. Fryer Memorial Lecture honors Yale's former director of public affairs and special assistant to the president, who served 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

University dedicates Malone Engineering Center

Biomedical engineering symposium also marked dedication

Celebrated language-learning program enters digital age

Coach is helping to steer city rowers to victory

Yale offers staff new incentives to car-pool

In Focus: Whitney Humanities Center

Tanner Lecture, related events focus on food and art of autobiography

Grant supports scientist's work related to nanomedicine

Scientists identify gene that plays a role in Tourette's Syndrome

Noted journalist Bob Woodward to deliver the Fryer Memorial Lecture

Show reveals 'journey' of reconstructive surgery patients

Career Fair to highlight jobs in federal government agencies

Troupe to present two nights of one-act operas

Novelist will read from his latest work of fiction

Exhibit traces roots of Tiananmen Square movement

Reparations for slavery to be among topics of conference

Talk, symposium examine how artists 'remade the past'

David Blight is speaker for library's next 'Books Sandwiched In'