Ervin Stanley Duggan '61
(Year Awarded--1997)

Born in Atlanta and reared in the Low Country of South Carolina, this son of the New South has made the nation's capital his home for more than thirty years. In the three decades since he came to town as a reporter for The Washington Post, his careers in the public and private sector have revealed a man of varied interests, multiple talents, and a creative mind. The list of employers is impressive: The Johnson White House, the Smithsonian, Senators Adlai Stevenson and Lloyd Bentsen, Cabinet Secretaries Joseph Califano in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and Cyrus Vance at the State Department, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Public Broadcasting Service. Along the way, he has run a consulting firm with blue ribbon corporate clients, served as National Editor of The Washingtonian Magazine and co-authored a lively novel about the White House.

What President Clinton said of his service to the FCC applies equally well to his leadership of the PBS: "You have held up a vision of what television and other media can be--civilizing and humanizing influences that help advance citizenship and culture."

As the fourth President and Chief Executive Officer of PBS, he has expressed that vision with vigor and effectiveness, reminding all who hear him of the great rhetorical tradition from which he springs. As a passionate advocate of the public interest, he has pursued his present duties with competence, with commitment, and with courage.

Because you are morally literate and engagingly articulate; because you are a defender of the public interest and a force for good in the media; because you are known as the stoutest of allies, the most honorable of opponents; because you are a highly effective citizen in our great democracy; and because you believe that faith and reason must work together in mutual respect, the Alumni Association of Davidson College is proud to present on this day April 9, 1997 the Distinguished Alumni Award to Ervin S. Duggan, Class of 1961.