Douglas Brinkley to speak at Purdue April 2

March 11, 2014

Douglas Brinkley

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Douglas Brinkley, bestselling author and the history commentator for CBS News, will speak about Neil Armstrong at Purdue University on April 2.

"The Greatest Adventure: Neil Armstrong and the Moon Shot" is 6-7:15 p.m. in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse. The event, sponsored by Purdue Institute for Civic Communication in partnership with the College of Engineering, is free and open to the public. Purdue President Mitch Daniels will introduce Brinkley.

The event also will be live streamed. The link for the stream will be available closer to the event date.

Brinkley, who interviewed Neil Armstrong in 2001 for the NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, will share some audio recordings from his interview during the presentation. Brinkley interviewed Armstrong along with American historian Stephen H. Ambrose. Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon and a Purdue aeronautical engineering alumnus, died in 2012.

"As one of our nation's greatest historians, Doug Brinkley brings a special perspective to understanding Neil Armstrong the man and the internal, human drive that made such a great feat of engineering and science possible," said Carolyn Curiel, PICC director and event organizer. "The Armstrong-Brinkley conversations add to the rich legacy known by the Purdue community."

Audience members will have the opportunity to participate throughout the forum by asking questions at the microphone or through Twitter @PurdueICC.

Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University, is a contributing editor to the magazines Vanity Fair, American Heritage and Audubon Magazine. His books include "Voices of Valor: D-Day: June 6, 1944," "Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War," "The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day and the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion," "The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast," "The Reagan Diaries," "The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America," "The Quiet World: Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960" and "Cronkite." Many of his books have been New York Times bestsellers and New York Times Notable Books of the Year.

Purdue Institute for Civic Communication, the event sponsor, is a nonpartisan, university-wide organization focused on bringing real-world communication leaders and students together through innovative forums and classes. Sponsored by the Bill Daniels Fund of Denver, the institute is led by Curiel, who also is a clinical professor in the Brian Lamb School of Communication and former journalist, White House speechwriter and U.S. ambassador.

On April 12 PICC is hosting a student debate on current political issues. More information about PICC and these events is available at the PICC website, Facebook, through Twitter at @PurdueICC and by emailing the institute at picc@purdue.edu.

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Source: Carolyn Curiel, curiel@purdue.edu

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