Swaziland RPCV Chris Matthews to give commencement address at Hobart and William Smith College
HWS, Keuka name spring speakers
By ANDREA DECKERT and GINA MUSCATO
Times Staff Writers
Political analyst Chris Matthews of “Hardball” fame and ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman will bring their perspectives on world events to the Finger Lakes this spring.
Matthews, who has a reputation for intense, straight-forward and outspoken political commentary on “Hardball” and MSNBC’s “The Chris Matthews Show,” will give the commencement address at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva. Shipman will deliver the 16th annual Carl and Fanny Fribolin Lecture at Keuka College.
Matthews’ May 16 commencement address is expected to touch on all sides of his multifaceted personality.
“I look forward to Chris sharing his insights on service and politics with our graduates, faculty and staff, friends and families,” said Colleges President Mark D. Gearan.
Before achieving TV cult status, Matthews spent 13 years as Washington bureau chief for the San Francisco Examiner and was a nationally syndicated columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. In the late 1990s, his digging into the National Archives produced a series of Examiner scoops on the Nixon presidential tapes. He also covered such events as the destruction of the Berlin Wall, the first all-races elections in South Africa and a historic peace referendum on Northern Ireland.
Before becoming a journalist, Matthews served as White House aide and speech writer to President Jimmy Carter, and as a top aide to former Speaker of the House Thomas P. O’Neill Jr.
He served as a trade development adviser with the Peace Corps in Swaziland, South Africa.
Author of the best-selling books “Now Let Me Tell You What I Really Think,” “Hardball,” and “Kennedy and Nixon,” Matthews has twice received The Washington Post’s Crystal Ball Award for his successful predictions of U.S. elections.
