The Honorable Dick Thornburgh to Replace Best-Selling Author Bebe Moore Campbell as University of Pittsburgh Honors Convocation Speaker Feb. 24

PITTSBURGH-Best-selling author and Pitt Trustee Bebe Moore Campbell is handling an emergency that makes it impossible for her to deliver her scheduled address at the University of Pittsburgh. Campbell was to speak during Pitt's Honors Convocation Feb. 24.

Former U.S. Attorney General and Pennsylvania Governor The Honorable Dick Thornburgh will speak at the University's Honors Convocation at 2 p.m. Feb. 24 in the Carnegie Music Hall, 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. He will address the issue of responsibility among high achievers.

Thornburgh, a Pitt trustee who earned a law degree at Pitt's School of Law in 1957, served as attorney general in the cabinets of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and as under-secretary-general for administration and management for the United Nations. He also was Director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Thornburgh was a founding member of the National Organization on Disability, and he played a major role in the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act. His disability rights advocacy earned him the 2001 George Bush Medal. In 2003, he and his wife, Ginny, received the Henry B. Betts Award from the American Association of People with Disabilities, and the award funds were used to help establish Pitt's Thornburgh Family Lecture Series in Disability Law and Policy.

In 1998, Thornburgh donated the Dick Thornburgh Archival Collection to Pitt's University Library System. He received an Honorary Doctor of Public Service degree from Pitt in 1984 and a Pitt Bicentennial Medal of Distinction in 1988; he was named a University Legacy Laureate in 2000.

While a student at Pitt, Thornburgh was a member of the Order of the Coif and an editor of the University of Pittsburgh Law Review.

Thornburgh-along with Pitt alumni J. Roger Glunt, president of Glunt Development Co., Inc., and Jayar Construction Co., Inc., and Stephen R. Tritch, president and chief executive officer of Westinghouse Electric Company-will be named a 2006 Distinguished Alumni Fellow at Honors Convocation. The award recognizes outstanding professional achievement and service to the community on the part of Pitt alumni.

The University holds the Honors Convocation annually to recognize undergraduate, graduate, and professional student academic achievement; student leadership; and faculty and staff accomplishments.

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