Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley will give remarks and be presented with the Frank and Bethine Church Award for Public Service on April 4 at a dinner celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. The award, bestowed by Boise State University’s Frank Church Institute, is presented annually to individuals who devote long and distinguished careers to public service. Previous recipients of the award include former Vice President Joe Biden; former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta; and the late Idaho Governor Cecil D. Andrus.
“As a great friend of Idaho and an advocate for the work of Senator Church, Douglas Brinkley deserves to receive the Church Award for Public Service. We look forward to hearing about ‘Silent Spring Revolution,’ his latest book on bi-partisan conservation legislation. And we invite all to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,” said Garry Wenske, executive director of the Frank Church Institute.
This year’s dinner will be held at 7 p.m. April 4 in the Stueckle Sky Center Double R Ranch Club Room. Reservations can be made on the Frank Church Institute website or by calling the Frank Church Institute at (208) 426-2941. There also will be a media availability with Brinkley at 4 p.m. April 4 in the Stueckle Sky Center press room.
Brinkley is a professor of history and Baker Institute Fellow at Rice University. He is the author of a number of award-winning books, including “Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America.”
Before joining Rice, Brinkley was the director of the Roosevelt Center at Tulane University. He also previously served as the director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans.
The Frank Church Institute was established in 1982 as the Frank Church Chair of Public Affairs at Boise State to honor the achievements and to carry forward the principles of one of Idaho’s most distinguished native sons, U.S. Sen. Frank Church. The Institute, which is housed within the School of Public Service at Boise State, emphasizes to its students those ideas which the senator held dear – a strong belief in the rule of law, eloquence firmly based on reason and an unwavering faith in the American political system.
The Frank Church Institute’s mission is to promote civic engagement and understanding of public policy with focus on foreign relations. The institute is non-partisan. It seeks to provide a forum for open and informed discussion characterized by civility, tolerance and compromise. The institute fulfills its mission through the sponsorship of the annual Frank Church Conference, the Frank and Bethine Church Chair of Public Affairs, and the Frank Church Scholarships at Boise State.