Former Congressmen coming to campus, to hold public forum

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Two former members of the U.S. House of Representatives will visit Bowling Green State University Sept. 16-17 to meet with students in classes and take part in a public forum on government and public service.

Former Reps. Ken Hechler (D-W.Va.) and Bill Barrett (R-Neb.) will lead the forum, set for 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17, in 101 Olscamp Hall. The free public event, to be followed by a reception, will cap the two-day Congress to Campus program at BGSU.

Funded by the Stennis Center for Public Service, the program sends pairs of former representatives—one Democrat and one Republican—to select colleges and universities to help students better understand the role of Congress, bipartisanship and the value of public service.

Hechler, a Huntington, W.Va., resident, was a U.S. representative from 1959-77, specializing in coal mine health and safety. In 1965, he was the only congressman to march with Martin Luther King Jr. for African-American voting rights in Selma, Ala. After leaving Congress, he served four terms as West Virginia’s secretary of state. Prior to his congressional career, he was a special assistant in the Truman White House, where he was a speechwriter and research director from 1949-53. Among his six books is “Working with Truman,” published in 1982.

Hechler holds a doctorate from Columbia University and has taught political science at Columbia, Barnard, Princeton and Marshall universities. During World War II, he was an Army major and a combat historian in the European Theater.

Barrett, a member of the House from 1991-2000, represented Nebraska’s Third District, whose 66 counties and nearly 63,000 square miles made it one of the largest and most rural congressional districts in the country. His tenure included three terms as chair of the Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and vice chair of the full Agriculture Committee.

He previously was a member of the Nebraska legislature from 1979-90—serving as speaker the last four of those years—and president of Barrett-Housel and Associates, Inc. The firm, located in his hometown of Lexington, Neb., specializes in general insurance, real estate brokerage and appraising. A Navy veteran, he is a graduate and a trustee of Hastings (Neb.) College.

The Center for Policy Analysis and Public Service and the Department of Political Science are hosting the former Congressmen’s visit.

The Stennis Center, named for the late Mississippi Sen. John Stennis, sponsors the Congress to Campus program in partnership with the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress and the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the Council for Excellence in Government.

(Posted September 22, 2003 )