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Point of View Series

The Point of View speaker series began in the fall of 2003 through the generosity of anonymous donors. The last speaker to appear under this banner was Victor Davis Hanson on Nov. 1, 2007. The series was designed to bring to campus a wide variety of voices and opinions that challenge prevailing political and social views.

PAST SPEAKERS

Phyllis Schlafly, Founder of Eagle Forum, Sept. 30, 2003
William Kristol, Editor of The Weekly Standard, March 31, 2005
Dinesh D'Souza, Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institute and Author, Feb. 7, 2006
Richard Gid Powers, Professor in The Graduate Center of City University of New York and the College of Staten Island, March 21, 2006
David Horowitz, Conservative Author/Speaker, April 18, 2006
Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institute, Nov. 1, 2007

Frederica G. Esbenshade Series

In 1980, Harry Esbenshade Jr. wanted to honor his mother, Frederica Good, through an enriching cultural series at Marietta College. She was a nurse who would always participate in everything going on and loved programs of all kinds and subjects. The Esbenshade Series began as the outgrowth of a challenge grant the College received from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This challenge obligated Marietta College to plan a variety of programs to broaden campus understanding of the humanities, arranging programming in a range of disciplines. Harry Esbenshade had just a few reasonable requests, "I insisted there would be a variety in the programs, it would be free, open to the public and advertised in the Marietta and Parkersburg areas."

Thomas Lecture Series

The Thomas Lecture Series, which ran from 1966-77, was named for Andrew U. Thomas ’21 (1901-65). According to Dan McGrew's ... In the Various Branches of Useful Knowledge, “For over a decade, 1966-77, Mrs. Lenore Thomas of Dayton, Ohio, widow of former trustee Andrew U. Thomas (Class of 1922), funded the exceptional Thomas Lecture Series on campus. Its purpose was in furtherance of her husband's efforts to stimulate intellectual ferment in the home community by engaging acknowledged figures from a wide range of fields.” Attorney Thomas was a lifelong benefactor of the College, serving as an alumni trustee from 1957 until his election as a life associate of The Board of Trustees in 1962. He served as President of the  Alumni Association and was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity. His many contributions to the College were memorialized in the naming of Thomas Hall, opened in 1969 and the establishment of The Thomas Chair, most recently occupied by Dr. James O’Donnell who retired in 2011.

Speakers from 1966-1977

 1.

Harry M. Caudill

02-25-1966

 2.

Richard Wilbur

03-29-1966

 3.

John Carradine

04-29-1966

 4.

William J. Brennan, Jr. – U.S. Supreme Court Justice

10-25-1966

 5.

Erwin D. Canham – Editor, Christian Science Monitor

01-05-1967

 6.

Henry Steele Commager – Historian

02-10-1967

 7.

Martin Luther King, Jr. – Civil Rights Leader

03-02-1967

 8.

Bishop James Pike – Religious leader and author

04-05-1967

 9.

Barry Goldwater – U.S. Senator and presidential candidate

05-04-1967

10.

F. Lee Bailey – Attorney and author

10-13-1967

11.

Arthur C. Clarke – Author and inventor

11-02-1967

12.

Harrison Salisbury – Editor, New York Times

11-05-1967

13.

Michael Harrington – Social critic and author

12-07-1967

14.

Ralph Nader – Consumer advocate

02-09-1968

15.

Bill Sands – Author

04-30-1968

16.

David Brinkley – Television news anchor and commentator

10-12-1968

17.

Al Capp – Cartoonist

02-06-1969

18.

Constantinos Doxiadis – Architect and city planner

02-14-1969

19.

Anne Sexton – Poet and experimental dramatist

02-27-1969

20.

Walt W. Rostow – Economist and presidential advisor

05-01-1969

21.

William Jay Smith – Poet

05-08-1969

22.

William F. Buckley, Jr. – Journalist and conservative spokesman

10-03-1969

23.

Terence O’Neill – Former prime minister of Northern Ireland

12-02-1969

24.

Diane Wakoski – Poet

12-05-1969

25.

Lillian Gish – Film actress and author

02-02-1970

26.

Sol Linowitz – Diplomat

02-20-1970

27.

Roy Innis – Head of Congress of Racial Equality

04-19-1970

28.

John Jacob Niles – Musician

09-05-1970

29.

David Schoenbrun – Television commentator and author

09-17-1970

30.

Stewart Udall – Former Secretary of the Interior

12-01-1970

31.

William Kuntsler – Attorney for the “Chicago Seven”

1971

32.

Public Opinion Symposium – Senator Bob Packwood; Author Douglass Cater; and Pollster George Gallup, Jr.

03-28-1971

33.

Bill Russell – Basketball player and black spokesman

04-20-1971

34.

B. F. Skinner – Psychologist and author

11-09-1971

35.

Edward Banfield – Political scientist and author

11-15/16-1971

36.

Joseph Sittler – Theologian and Cynthia Wedel – Church leader

02-20/21-1972

37.

Huston Smith – Philosopher and author

02-29-1972

38.

Linus Pauling – Chemist and Nobel Peace Prize winner

04-12 to 15-1972

39.

Walter Adams, Economist and former university president

04-27/28-1972

40.

David Kaser – Director of libraries at Cornell

11-01-1972

41.

Michael Novak – Author and philosopher

11-16-1972

42.

Ira Reiss – Sociologist and sexual researcher

03-27-1973

43.

Joseph Heller – Author (Catch-22)

04-04-1973

44.

Van Rensselaer Potter – Biologist and author (bioethics)

04-18-1973

45.

Steve Bell – Commentator and ABC’s Hong Kong bureau chief

12-06-1973

46.

Kenneth Boulding – Economist, author, humanitarian

10-25-1973

47.

Dick Gregory – Comedian, and civil rights activist

01-27-1974

48.

Ed Emberley – Children’s book author and illustrator

04-23-1974

49.

Raoul Berger – Constitutional scholar

09-15-1974

50.

William Proxmire – U.S. Senator and government spending watchdog

04-10-1976

51.

Alvin Toffler – Author and futurist

10-29-1976

52.

Story Musgrave – Astronaut

11-30-1976

 

Other events presented under the Thomas auspices:

The Little Angels of Korea

01-29-1967

“Stop the World: I want to Get Off” – performance

11-10-1967

“Barber of Seville”

03-10-1968

The Electric Circus – multi-media visual and musical program

1968

Mainstreams – juried art program

1968 – 1973

“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” – performance

11-23-1969

“Your Own Thing” – performance

1970

Charlie Byrd and Quintet – musical performance

10-06-1970

“You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown” – performance

09-29-1971

The Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band – musical performance

10-09-1971

“I Do! I Do!” – performance

11-21-1971

Tzagane – European Folk Festival

1972

“Happy Birthday, Wanda June” – Kurt Vonnegut play

1973

Alpha Omega Players present “Diary of Adam and Eve”

1973

Kodaly Choir of Hungary

1974

Freedom of Information in A Democracy:  Needs and Limits – Discussion series

1974