Former U.S. ambassador to speak at PBSC
Palm Beach State College alumnus and former U.S. ambassador Robert M. “Skipp” Orr will kick off the college’s 2018-19 Honors College Speaker Series.
Orr’s lecture, titled “Course Change: Seven U.S. Presidential Elections that Changed History,” will be held at 2 p.m. Oct. 10 in the Public Safety Conference Center, PSD 108 on the Lake Worth campus, 4200 Congress Ave. The event is free and open to the public.
Orr served as U.S. ambassador to the Asian Development Bank from 2010 to 2016 and was President Barack Obama’s longest-serving appointed ambassador in one post. He was unanimously elected dean of the bank’s board of directors in 2013, the first American chosen for the position.
“We are very excited to have Ambassador Orr speak to our college community and the community at large,” said Roger Yohe, vice president for academic affairs. “As the mid-term elections approach and with 2020 around the corner, we look forward to hearing the insights and ideas of an alumnus of such caliber, who has played an important role serving this country. I can’t think of a better way to enlighten our students and motivate critical thinking about our democracy.”
Orr, who graduated from Atlantic High School in Delray Beach, is back in the area this fall as a distinguished visiting professor at Florida Atlantic University, where he earned his B.A. in history after graduating with an A.A. degree in 1974 from the college, then Palm Beach Junior College.
“The first time I was ever exposed to this topic [presidential elections] was in a course that I took 43 years ago as an undergraduate student. It stimulated a lifelong interest in presidents,” said Orr, who has taught the subject at the university level and has met or known various presidents since Gerald Ford. “I hope the audience comes away with a deeper historical perspective on how our democratic institutions have worked, and how, even in bad times, these institutions have survived.”
Attendees are asked to RSVP by visiting at palmbeachstate.edu/ honors/speakerseries.
For more information about the event, call 561-967-7222.