Lecture series to host legislator Gowdy
FORT SMITH — U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy in April will address the importance of the U.S. Marshals Service in the second installment of the Winthrop Paul Rockefeller Distinguished Lecture Series.
Gowdy, a Republican from South Carolina’s 4th District who is serving his fourth term in the House of Representatives, will speak at 1 p.m. April 20 at the Fort Smith Convention Center.
The lecture series is part of an effort to raise awareness of plans for the construction of the U.S. Marshals Service’s national museum, which will be built on the banks of the Arkansas River near downtown Fort Smith.
U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, a Republican from Rogers, will introduce Gowdy at the lecture series, which is funded by Lisenne Rockefeller, wife of the late Lt. Gov. Winthrop Paul Rockefeller. The series, established in 2014, features leading members of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the federal
government. Gowdy will represent the legislative branch.
“It is an honor to speak at the Winthrop Paul Rockefeller Distinguished Lecture Series,” Gowdy said in a statement Friday. “I look forward to joining Mrs. Rockefeller and Congressman Womack to discuss the importance of civic literacy, knowledge and appreciation of the Constitution and rule of law, and the role the [U.S. Marshals Service] has played in preserving and protecting our republic.”
Gowdy, 52, served six years as a U.S. attorney in South Carolina where he received the highest performance rating for federal prosecutors, according to his congressional website. He also served as a district attorney in South Carolina.
In 2014, Gowdy was named the chairman of the House Benghazi Committee. It spent two years investigating the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
More recently, Gowdy has been appointed to the House Intelligence Committee and been named chairman of the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations. He has criticized the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for sustaining a district judge’s overturning of President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration.
Alice Alt, vice president for development for the U.S. Marshals Museum, said Gowdy’s lecture will address constitutional law, American democracy and civic literacy — topics the museum’s education program “Museum without Walls” will continue to address when the museum opens Sept. 24, 2019.
“Museum without Walls” is an effort to educate students and adults about the country’s oldest law enforcement agency, its role in events throughout the nation’s history and how democracy has functioned in America, said Leslie Higgins, education director for the museum.
“Programs typically cover a variety of marshal-related topics, from an overall history of the U.S. Marshals Service, to specific periods in its history, to the role of the marshals in our government,” Higgins said.
The museum’s staff also goes out into the community as part of the museum’s educational outreach program, which has spread to 20 states.
Several staff members are involved in a project at Fort Smith’s Spradling Elementary School, Principal Robin Dawson said. Museum staff members have gone to the school once a week since school started to help a team of four students research and put together a history project that will be judged in a regional competition next month.
Dawson said staff members from the museum have worked diligently with the students, who enjoy the experience while gaining skills and learning that exceed their grade levels.
“They sit down with them,” Dawson said of the museum staff. “They are very vested in the program. They come in to work, and they come in force.”
Higgins said the museum’s outreach program started in 2009, and in the past year it has sent 500 pieces of multimedia teaching materials to schools.
This month, the museum announced its 2017 springbreak day camps, which will be held from March 20-23. Children ages 6-9 will learn about the marshals of the 1800s, while children ages 10-14 will learn about modern marshals.
The museum will also offer a four-part lecture series scheduled to begin March 7, with former U.S. Marshals Service Director Stacia Hylton speaking about policing in a democratic society.
Other lectures will include retired Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Natzke talking April 3 about federal law enforcement training; Ferguson, Mo., Police Chief Delrish Moss and retired Deputy U.S. Marshal Richard Bowden speaking May 1 about law enforcement and race relations; and a panel discussion June 5 that will include local, county, state and federal law enforcement officials talking about the future of law enforcement.
Other outreach programs have included the Gallery Lecture Series that focused on topics covered in the museum’s galleries; activities for Descendants Day in June and Constitution Day in September; and “An Evening with George Washington,” in which historical re-enactors portraying Washington and Thomas Jefferson visited Fort Smith.
Gowdy’s appearance will be the second installment in the Winthrop Paul Rockefeller Distinguished Lecture Series. It follows the inaugural lecture by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2015. Approximately 2,000 people attended that event, including 700 schoolchildren from four area districts.
Lisenne Rockefeller sponsored the lecture series in her husband’s name because he was an avid supporter of law enforcement, and her gift of $100,000 is allowing that legacy of support to continue.
“We were overwhelmed by the positive feedback we received from the inaugural Winthrop Paul Rockefeller Distinguished Lecture Series,” Lisenne Rockefeller said in a statement Friday. “We are looking forward to continuing this lecture series in my late husband’s honor with Congressman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina.”
Alt said about $35 million of the $60 million needed to build, equip and operate the U.S. Marshals Museum has been raised. The 50,000-square-foot museum will include three permanent exhibit galleries, a temporary exhibit gallery, the Samuel M. Sicard Hall of Honor that recognizes those killed in the line of duty, and a National Learning Center.