RELEASED: Feb. 24, 2005

DANVILLE, KY—Legendary broadcast journalist Bob Edwards will be the speaker for Centre College’s Press Distinguished Lecture on March 10 at 7:30 p.m. The lecture will take place in Weisiger Theatre at Centre’s Norton Center for the Arts and is free and open to the public.

Edwards, currently host of The Bob Edwards Show on XM Satellite Radio, is best known for his 25-year stint as host of National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, a show that reached 13 million listeners each week—including many of his journalistic colleagues. Juan Williams, senior correspondent at NPR, recalled that Ari Fleischer, President Bush's former press secretary, once told him “in his morning briefings 90 percent of the reporters had questions for the day based on what they heard from Bob Edwards and Morning Edition.” Edwards conducted more than 20,000 interviews for the show, with guests ranging from President Clinton to Hans Blix to Johnny Cash.

“For millions of listeners across the country, Bob Edwards was NPR,” says Cowan Professor of English Milton Reigelman. “His slightly smoky, honeyed voice each morning was as welcome as the first cup of coffee. Bob grew up in Louisville and graduated from St. Xavier High School. He was very pleased to be named the fourth Press Distinguished Lecturer at Centre, in part because his family’s roots go back to nearby Gravel Switch.”

Morning Edition won the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award in 1999, one of journalism’s top honors. In the award notification, the Peabody committee described the progam as “two hours of daily in-depth news and entertainment expertly helmed by a man who embodies the essence of excellence in radio.” A 2004 inductee into the Radio Hall of Fame, Edwards is also the recipient of the 1984 Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for outstanding contributions to public radio.

Edwards is the author of two books, Fridays with Red, a chronicle of his radio friendship with legendary sportscaster Red Barber, and the recently published Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism. Edwards will be available to sign copies of that book following the lecture.

The Press Distinguished Lecture Series is named in honor of Kentucky civic leaders O. Leonard and Lillian H. Press.

Leonard Press, the founding director of Kentucky Educational Television, pursued creative ways for the public broadcasting service to deliver high-quality arts programming throughout the Commonwealth. Lillian Press was the founding director of the Kentucky Governor's Scholars Program and has held high-level posts with the Kentucky Department of Mental Health and the Bureau for Health Services.

The lecture series was endowed through a gift from the late Lucille Caudill Little, a Lexington philanthropist.

Little was a Kentucky native who established a charitable foundation based on family success in the horse and tobacco industries. She played a pivotal role in the founding of numerous nonprofit ventures, including the Lexington Children’s Theatre and Studio Players, the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra and the Living Arts and Science Center. Little previously supported the arts at Centre, where a classroom is named in her honor in the Jones Visual Arts Center.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

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