Robert Siegel, former host of NPR’s All Things Considered, will speak at the William D. Ruckelshaus Center‘s ninth annual Chairman’s Circle Luncheon, noon, Friday, Sept. 13.
The event, which will also honor the center’s founder and chairman Bill Ruckelshaus, will be held at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.
Since 2011, the Ruckelshaus Center has held its Chairman’s Circle Luncheon as a means to express its gratitude to its most dedicated supporters, Chairman’s Circle donors, and as a forum of knowledge for the public on topics relevant to the center’s mission. Over the years, the event has featured noteworthy authors, politicians, journalists, and political analysts, from former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and author and historian Douglas Brinkley.
This year’s event features Siegel, who will discuss “The Role of the Media in a Civil and Democratic Society.” With 40 years of experience in radio news, Siegel anchored the country’s most popular afternoon-drive-time news radio program and reported on happenings all over the globe from a variety of locations across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. He signed off his final broadcast of All Things Considered on Jan. 5, 2018.
Siegel is a recipient of the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication’s Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism, John Chancellor Award, and three Silver Batons from Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University, amongst others.
Honoring Center’s Founder
The event will also honor and celebrate Bill Ruckelshaus as he transitions from chair to chair emeritus of the Ruckelshaus Center.
Ruckelshaus has had a legendary career since becoming Indiana’s Deputy Attorney General and helping to draft the Indiana Air Pollution Control Act at the age of 28. In 1969, President Nixon appointed Ruckelshaus as assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), a post he held until becoming the first administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In 1973, he was designated acting director of the FBI, and later that year, became deputy attorney general. During an event known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” Ruckelshaus and his supervisor, Elliot Richardson, resigned their positions within the DOJ rather than obey President Nixon’s order to fire the Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. In 1983, President Reagan appointed Ruckelshaus for a second term as EPA administrator, in which he served until 1985.
In 2004, Ruckelshaus created the William D. Ruckelshaus Center as a partnership between our state’s two premier research institutions, Washington State University and the University of Washington. The Ruckelshaus Center works to bring the expertise of these two institutions to help community members, business leaders, and government decision makers collaboratively tackle complex, and often, controversial, policy challenges. The Ruckelshaus Center brings people together to sort through information, build understanding, and solve problems to improve communities and the state of Washington.
RSVP to the Chairman’s Circle Luncheon by Friday, Aug. 30. Cost is $150. Visit the Chairman’s Circle Luncheon website or call 206-428-3021 for more information or to purchase tickets for this event.