Vernon Jordan '57 to Introduce President Clinton at November 18 Ubben Lecture

October 21, 2011

Also: President Bill Clinton to Deliver 25th Anniversary Ubben Lecture on November 18

63880 October 21, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — Vernon Jordan, the 1957 DePauw University graduate who has served as a key adviser and close friend to President Bill Clinton, will return to his alma mater to introduce President Clinton at his Ubben Lecture on Friday, November 18. The program will begin at 3 p.m. in Neal Fieldhouse, located within DePauw's Lilly Physical Education and Recreation Center (702 S. College Avenue).

Additional information, including details on when doors will open for the event, will be announced soon.

The November 18 event will mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Timothy and Sharon Ubben Lecture Series. Created by a gift by the Ubbens, both 1958 graduates of DePauw, the series has endeavored to "bring the world to Greencastle." Its previous guests have included Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, Tony Blair, 57761 Elie Wiesel, Benazir Bhutto, Gen. Colin Powell, Shimon Peres, Jesse Jackson and F.W. de Klerk. The visitors have included eight Nobel laureates (six of them won the Nobel Peace Prize).

President Clinton will become the first U.S. president to deliver an Ubben Lecture. His speech is entitled, "Embracing Our Common Humanity."

Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a senior managing director of Lazard Frères & Co. LLC in New York. He was previously a senior executive partner with the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where he remains senior counsel.

Jordan has also served as president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League, Inc.; executive director of the United Negro College Fund, Inc.; director of the Voter Education Project of the Southern Regional Council; attorney-consultant, U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity; 68356 assistant to the executive director of the Southern Regional Council; Georgia Field Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and an attorney in private practice in Arkansas and Georgia. (left: Jordan delivers DePauw's commencement address in 1993)

His presidential appointments include: the President’s Advisory Committee for the Points of Light Initiative Foundation; the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on South Africa; the Advisory Council on Social Security; the Presidential Clemency Board; the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission; the National Advisory Committee on Selective Service; and the Council of the White House Conference "To Fulfill These Rights." In 1992, Jordan served as the chairman of the Clinton Presidential Transition Team.

An advisory member of DePauw's Board of Trustees, 44058 Jordan earned his law degree at Howard University Law School and honorary doctoral degrees from more than 60 colleges and universities in America, including DePauw. He is the author of Vernon Can Read! A Memoir and Make It Plain: Standing Up and Speaking Out.

In December 2009, Jordan was one of eight individuals presented with the Du Bois Medal, the highest honor awarded by the Harvard University Institute of Politics' W.E.B. Du Bois Institute. He's also been honored with the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest honor for achievement, the Trumpet Award, and his alma mater's Old Gold Goblet and McNaughton Medal for Public Service.

In his 1993 commencement address at DePauw, Jordan declared, "DePauw expanded my mind, broadened my horizons, lifted my sights, prepared me to serve and to lead and nurtured my growth and maturity. I made lasting friendships here. If I had my life to live over again, I would return to this place."