George F. Will to headline Ivy Tech’s O’Bannon Institute next spring

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 12, 2011

George F. Will to headline Ivy Tech’s O’Bannon Institute next spring

Bloomington, Ind. – Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, George F. Will, will headline Ivy Tech Bloomington’s ninth annual O’Bannon Institute for Community Service next spring. The O’Bannon Institute will take place over the course of three days, from April 25-27, 2012.

Will headlines the Institute’s fundraising dinner on Thursday, April 26 at the Bloomington Monroe County Convention Center, with proceeds benefitting the Ivy Tech Bloomington Center for Civic Engagement.

Will is today’s most widely read columnist. His newspaper column has been syndicated by The Washington Post since 1974. It currently appears in 400 newspapers in the United States and in Europe.  He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1977 for commentary for his columns. Altogether, eight collections of Will’s Newsweek and Washington Post columns have been published, the most recent being One Man’s America. He became a founding panel member on ABC television’s This Week in 1981. Will currently lives and works in Washington.

The O’Bannon Institute launched nine years ago by Ivy Tech’s Bloomington campus is an annual opportunity for the community to come together to discuss topics related to nonprofits, education and political and civic service. Previous speakers at the Institute include former U.S. Senators, Pulitzer prize-winning authors, Governors, political advisers and columnists, a presidential candidate, and former First Lady of the United States, Laura W. Bush.

Details about the ninth annual O’Bannon Institute for Community Service will be posted online as they become available at http://obannon.ivytech.edu.

Speaker Full Bio:

George F. Will is today’s most widely read columnist. His newspaper column has been syndicated by The Washington Post since 1974. Today it appears twice weekly in approximately 400 newspapers in the United States and in Europe. In 1976, he became a regular contributing editor of Newsweek magazine, for which he provides a bimonthly essay. In 1977, he won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary for his newspaper columns. Altogether eight collections of Will’s Newsweek and Washington Post columns have been published, the most recent being One Man’s America. In 1990, Will published Men At Work: The Craft of Baseball, which topped The New York Times best-seller list for two months and was most recently reissued on April 13, 2010 as a 20th Anniversary special edition with a new introduction (paperback). In 1998, Scribner published Bunts: Curt Flood, Camden Yards, Pete Rose and Other Reflections on Baseball, a best-selling collection of new and previously published writings by Will on baseball. Will was a member of Major League Baseball’s Blue Ribbon Panel, examining baseball economics.

In 1981, Will became a founding panel member on ABC television’s This Week. Will was born in Champaign, Illinois, educated at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, Oxford University and Princeton University, where he earned his Ph.D. He has taught political philosophy at Michigan State University, the University of Toronto and Harvard University. Will served as a staff member in the United States Senate from 1970 to 1972. From 1973 through 1976, he was the Washington editor of National Review magazine. Today, Will lives and works in Washington. mwh