Paul Simon To Give Second Huck Boyd Lecture

Former Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois will be the speaker at the second annual Huck Boyd Lecture in Community Media at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Feb.
9, on the Kansas State University campus. Simon’s lecture will be in Forum Hall of the K-State Student Union.

Simon is director of the Public Policy Institute and a professor in the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts at Southern Illinois
University, Carbondale, where he teaches classes in political science, history and journalism. He joined the Southern Illinois faculty in 1997
— just weeks after retiring from the U.S. Senate.

"Paul Simon’s background in political science, journalism and history will make him an ideal speaker for our lecture series," said Gloria
Freeland, director of the Center. "We want to emphasize the importance of community journalists in their role as the grass-roots voices of
America."

Prior to leaving the Senate, Simon ranked as Illinois’ senior senator. In the 104th Congress, he served on the foreign relations, budget, labor
and human resources, judiciary and Indian affairs committees.

Simon, a Democrat, was born Nov. 29, 1928, in Eugene, Ore. He attended the University of Oregon and Dana College in Blair, Neb. At age 19,
Simon accepted a Lion’s Club challenge to save the Troy Tribune in Troy, Ill., near St. Louis. He built a chain of 13 community newspapers in
southern and central Illinois, which he sold in 1966 to devote full-time to public service and writing.

Simon was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974 and served Illinois’ 22nd and 24th Congressional Districts for 10 years.
During his service in the House, Simon played a leading role in drafting and enacting major legislation in the areas of education, disability
policy and foreign affairs.

In 1984, Simon was elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1987-88, he sought the Democratic nomination for president. He won re-election to the U.S.
Senate in 1990. Simon holds more than 50 honorary degrees and has written 19 books.

Former Sen. Bob Dole was the inaugural speaker for the Huck Boyd Lecture in Community Media in October 1999. The lecture series is named
for McDill "Huck" Boyd, former publisher of the Phillips County Review in northwestern Kansas. Boyd worked for the betterment of his
community, county and state, and he also was active in politics, representing Kansas on the Republican National Committee for 20 years until
his death in 1987. Founded in 1990, the Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media is an advocate for community media and the
communities they serve.

Simon’s lecture is sponsored by K-State’s Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media in the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and
Mass Communications and the University Distinguished Lecturers Committee.