White House legend Thomas to give Commencement address

Veteran United Press International White House correspondent Helen Thomas will deliver the keynote address during Wittenberg’s 154th Commencement exercises, May 15.

Thomas, who has covered presidents since 1961, is known for her front-row seat in the White House press room and for her trademark red dress. As dean of White House correspondents, Thomas traditionally opens each presidential press conference with the first question and closes it by saying, “Thank you, Mr. President.”

“I think Helen Thomas will be quite a dynamic speaker, and I am so excited she will be here,” said Amy Bixel, senior class president.

“When she responded to our offer, she said she was honored to come to Wittenberg and very excited about delivering the commencement speech.” A journalist for 55 years, Thomas has directed her laser-like questions to eight presidents and their press secretaries.

She follows a simple credo: “I believe in straight reporting. The people are best served when they have the facts.” Thomas has also broken down numerous barriers, which previously excluded female reporters in Washington.

She was the first woman officer of the National Press Club after it opened its doors to women for the first time in its 90-year history.

She was also the first woman officer of the White House Correspondents Association in its 50-year history as well as its first woman president in 1975-76.

At the 1998 White House Correspondents Association dinner, President Bill Clinton presented Thomas with the first “Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award.”

Other honors bestowed on Thomas include election to the Hall of Fame of the Sigma Delta Chi and the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.

After graduating from Detroit’s Wayne State University in 1943, Thomas, a Kentucky native, was hired by Scripps-Howard’s United Press wire service, which later spun off onto its own.

She covered the 1960 presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy and followed him to the White House.

Thomas has traveled throughout the world on nearly every Presidential trip, and she was the only woman journalist to accompany President Richard Nixon on his historic ground-breaking trip to China in 1972.

Four years later, the World Almanac named Thomas as one of the 25 most influential women in America.

Thomas will join Dr. David Bevington, author and professor of English and comparative literature at the University of Chicago, and the Rev. Dr. Clark Hobby, —, in receiving an honorary degree during the Commencement exercises.