Wednesday, February 2, 2005
Kelly Hutsell
Bill Lacy, director of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, stands smiling in front of a picture of former president and boss Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s presidency is the feature of the 2005 Presidential Lecture Series, which kicks off tomorrow and will last through the end of February.
As a student in 1975 at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., Bill Lacy couldn’t imagine he would someday serve as a political director for the future president and eat dinner with him. Lacy, director of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, recalled how he and a group of 14 other students dined with Ronald Reagan after a speech Reagan gave at Vanderbilt.
“I was very impressed with how affable and easy-going he was,” Lacy said. “He was very interested in hearing what students had to say.”
After serving two terms as director of the White House political department, Lacy is helping students discover what people have to say about Reagan.
The Dole Institute’s third-annual presidential lecture series, entitled “The Reagan Presidency,” begins tomorrow with a lecture by Lou Cannon, a definitive Reagan biographer.
Jonathan Earle, associate director of programming for the institute, said he wanted to start the series with someone who could give a broad view of Reagan’s life and presidency. Lacy had similar ideas.
“Lou was there from the very beginning to the very end,” Lacy said. “He provides a sort of over-arching objective analysis of Reagan.”
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The series will feature three other lectures throughout February. Other lectures will focus on Reagan’s presidential image, foreign policy and presidential campaigns.
Josh Steward, chairman of the KU College Republicans, said he attended some of the events last year and planned to attend all of the events this year.
Steward is most looking forward to the speech on Reagan’s political campaigns, he said.
Previous series included lectures by Pulitzer Prize-
winning biographers and journalists, as well as former presidential adviser and ABC political analyst David Gergen.
For Lacy, the series is part of an idea he has had since he attended Reagan’s funeral last year.
“When I left his funeral I said to my wife, Susie, ‘It’s a shame I have this knowledge and experience and don’t have any way to share it,’” Lacy said. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to be some place where I could pass this knowledge on.’”
And now he is. Lacy helped select the lecturers for the series, many of whom he knows from his work in the Reagan administration.
Lacy said the lecturers included a combination of historians and practitioners. This ensures that people get perspectives from people who write about history and people who participate in it, Lacy said.
Tickets for “President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime” by Lou Cannon are available for free and can be picked up at the Lied Center and Student Union Activities ticket offices.
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