Marlin Fitzwater to deliver ninth annual
Huck Boyd Lecture Sept. 10, 2008

Marlin Fitzwater, press secretary to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, will deliver the ninth annual Huck Boyd Lecture in Community Media at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 10, 2008, in Forum Hall of the K-State Student Union at Kansas State University.

The purpose of the lecture is to recognize the role of community journalists in helping to keep their communities strong. The title of Fitzwater's lecture will be 'Community Media in the White House.'

Fitzwater, 65, began his 40-year career in journalism and public service in his hometown, Abilene, Kan. He writes in his memoir, Call The Briefing: 'I had joined the high school Booster primarily because its ad salesmen could leave school in the middle of the day . . . and visit with local merchants. I never guessed I would love journalism so much.'

After working on several newspapers, Fitzwater moved to Washington, D.C., where he became Press Secretary to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, from 1983 to 1992. He is the only press secretary in American history to be appointed by two Presidents, and one of the few to come from a background of journalism and civil service. He also is among the longest serving presidential assistants in the White House since the Roosevelt Administration.

His first newspaper job was with the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle, where he worked with Howard and Sharon Kessinger, now publishers of the Marysville Advocate. Fitzwater worked his way through college at Kansas State University, graduating with a bachelor of arts in journalism. From 1962 to 1965, he worked as a student for the Kansas State Collegian, the Manhattan Mercury and the Topeka Capital, with his byline appearing regularly on stories about events in central Kansas. In addition, he self-syndicated a weekly column about university activities to a half dozen newspapers in Kansas.

Fitzwater dropped out of college to become editor of the weekly Lindsborg News-Record.

When the News-Record was sold, he returned to college. Fitzwater graduated from Kansas State University in 1965 and served in the U.S. Air Force.

As Presidential Press Secretary, he often spoke of his role as broker between the President and the press, fulfilling his commitment to the belief that the public has a right to know what its government is doing. He gave more than 850 press briefings in six years, winning praise from the news media and the public for his honesty and good humor.

In the post-Cold War era, his White House press operation became a model for many of the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe and Latin America.

He also was a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Transportation and the Department of the Treasury.

Fitzwater published Call The Briefing, his memoir of his White House years in 1995, and Esther's Pillow, a historical novel of a small town in Kansas, in 2001. Today he is working on another novel, Oyster Music, about life on the Chesapeake Bay, and a collection of short stories. He also was a writer and consultant for the television show, 'West Wing,' for three seasons.

He is married to the former Melinda Andrews, and has two grown children.

He was named an Outstanding Civil Servant in government in 1980; received the nation's second highest civilian award, the Presidential Citizens Medal, from President Bush in 1992; served on the Board of the Woodrow Wilson School for International Scholars; and has received numerous other awards and honorary doctorate degrees.

The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications was dedicated in May 2002 at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire. Fitzwater lectures on communications, sponsors a series of fall journalism lectures and regularly counsels students on careers in journalism.

Fitzwater serves on the advisory board of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation and the Franklin Pierce University Board of Trustees. He received the 2004 William Allen White Citation for Journalism from Kansas University, and the 2004 New Hampshire Political Library Award for 'a decade of service with integrity to the Presidency.' He was a member of the advisory board to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center on the Chesapeake Bay.

He lives in Deale, Md., a small fishing village on the Chesapeake Bay.

The Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media, located in the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kansas State University, has sponsored eight previous lectures.

In 1999, Bob Dole, former U.S. senator from Kansas, delivered the inaugural speech. In 2001, the late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon from Illinois urged community journalists to give more attention to international news and to be willing to take strong editorial stances on local and national issues. Bill Kurtis spoke of the lessons he has learned as a journalist in his 30-year broadcasting career in his 2002 lecture. In 2003, Jim Richardson, photojournalist for National Geographic, described ' in words and photos ' how a sense of community is present in towns and villages all over the world.

In her 2004 lecture, Susan Edgerley, metropolitan editor of the New York Times, discussed how the Times' coverage of Sept. 11, 2001 emphasized its community focus. In 2005, Joe Posnanski, sports columnist for the Kansas City Star, spoke about sports and its influence in communities. In 2006, Clara Reyes, publisher of Dos Mundos (Two Worlds) in Kansas City, discussed 'Windows of the World Through Bilingual Print Media.' In 2007, Bill Buzenberg, director of the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C., discussed 'Independent media matter ' to you and the world,' which emphasized the critical need for the public to hear from diverse sources of information.

Page last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008