Some 360 people gathered at the Belo Mansion Oct.25 to hear Pulitzer-prize winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin (pictured). The author of presidential biographies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, with a forthcoming book about Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, discussed what she has learned about leadership from the historical figures' leadership.
The Dallas Bar Foundation sponsored the event, a fundraiser for the Sarah T. Hughes Diversity Scholarships. The 30-year-old fund was named in honor of the late judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, who President John F. Kennedy appointed to the federal bench in 1961.
The Hughes scholarship fund has provided 47 full, three-year scholarships at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law — for a total of $1.7 million — according to Russell F. Coleman, the 2012 chair of the foundation and a senior vice president and general counsel for Belo Corp.
From studying the “dead presidents,” as she affectionately referred to them, she said she has learned that leaders should relax and restore themselves — whether by reading history like Teddy Roosevelt, watching Shakespeare productions like Lincoln, or enjoying cocktails like FDR.
Kearns even poked fun at herself, noting that televised pundits — among whom she often appears — perhaps have diminished what Teddy Roosevelt dubbed the bully pulpit by providing analysis after presidential speeches. After her speech, though, the audience gave its analysis of Kearns: a prolonged standing ovation.
-- Miriam Rozen
Comments