WS Chronicle

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and presidential historian Jon Meacham will deliver Wake Forest University’s commencement address on Monday, May 15.

Wake Forest’s commencement ceremony is a ticketed event reserved for graduates, their families and guests and is not open to the public. The ceremony takes place on Hearn Plaza at 9 a.m.

A livestream webcast of the ceremony will be available at go.wfu.edu/wfu17.

Meacham is the author of highly acclaimed biographies of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and George H.W. Bush.

Meacham’s most recent book, “Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush,” became a #1 New York Times bestseller. In 2009, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his bestseller “American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House.” His other national bestsellers include: “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power,” “Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship” and “American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation.”

Meacham is currently at work on a biography of James and Dolley Madison.

“Jon Meacham has the ability to analyze contemporary politics through the eyes of an historian,” said Wake Forest University President Nathan O. Hatch.  “There is no better time for us to understand and appreciate how the past informs our future. We are honored he will deliver Wake Forest’s commencement address.”

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Society of American Historians, Meacham is a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University and at The University of the South. He is a contributing editor at TIME magazine, a contributing writer to The New York Times Book Review and a former executive editor at Random House.

A commentator on politics, history and religious faith in America, Meacham is also a regular guest on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” “Charlie Rose” and other broadcasts.

Meacham was the editor

of Newsweek from 2006 to 2010. He is a former editor of The Washington Monthly and began his journalism career at The Chattanooga Times. Meacham chairs the National Advisory Council of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University.

A livestream webcast of the ceremony will be available at go.wfu.edu/wfu17.

Baccalaureate information

Also joining Wake Forest for the commencement weekend will be Baccalaureate speaker Kathy “Killian” Noe (’80), founder of the Recovery Café in Seattle, Washington. She was awarded Wake Forest University’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2015 and was featured in the Spring 2017 issue of Wake Forest Magazine.

Baccalaureate will take place Sunday, May 14, at 9 a.m. in Wait Chapel. Like commencement, baccalaureate is a ticketed event reserved for graduates, their families and guests and is not open to the general public.

A livestream webcast of the service will be available at http://go.wfu.edu/bacc17.

As the founding director of Recovery Café and co-founder of Samaritan Inns in Washington, D.C., she’s helped thousands of people rebuild shattered lives.

The Recovery Café model has been replicated in five other cities and efforts are under-way to launch Recovery Cafés nationwide.