Famous People I Met Along the Way

Send us Fan MailThis is the last lecture I delivered in my academic career.  I discovered that I had miscalculated the end of the semester and that I had an extra class.  I did have a regular academic topic but my wife said, "You are a senior professor.  You have taught 48 years.  Your students see you as someone who has had a life time of experiences.  They will forget an academic lecture but they will not forget your personal stories.  Why not tell them about the famous political leaders you encountered during your lifetime."  So these are my reflections on 19 different people who crossed my path.  The first two are Nixon and Kennedy when they were campaigning in 1960.  The last was my friend Sibylle Laurischk, a member of the German Bundestag. Some of these stories are funny, some are affirming,  some are deadly serious.  Those discussed include Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford, George McGovern, Spiro Agnew, Jimmy Carter and Roslyn, Mayor Orville Hubbard of Dearborn, Televantelist and Presidential candidate Pat Robertson, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Nour of Jordan, Nelson Mandela, Ambassador Moallam of Syria, Rabbi Meir Kahane, the racist Israeli who was assassinated, Hanan Ashrawi, the Palestinian spokesperson, Vice President Khaddam of Syria, Shlomo Gazit, former head of israeli military intelligence, Archbishop Vigneron of Detroit, and Sibylle Laurischk. I have separate podcasts on Jimmy Carter, Orville Hubbard, Queen Elizabeth, Nelson Mandela, and Rabbi Kahana. My son Greg, who was four when we met Vice President Spiro Agnew, reminded me recently that, "I shook hands with Spiro Agnew."  I had forgotten that, but he definitely deserves his moment in the sun. This was a recorded zoom lecture that was then shared with students.  Sorry that this podcast platform will not allow zoom images. Note that I also have a lecture on Memorable Students.  That was posted back in 2020.