Former Bucknell and University of Rochester President Set for UMaine Phi Beta Kappa Lecture Friday

Contact: Joe Carr, (207) 581-3571

ORONO — George Dennis O’Brien, the former president of Bucknell University and the University of Rochester will be the guest speaker at the 2010 University of Maine Phi Beta Kappa annual initiation.  The event is scheduled for Friday April 23 at 3 p.m. in Buchanan Alumni House. His topic is “As Maine Goes…”

A noted philosopher, O’Brien served as Bucknell’s president from 1976-1984 before moving to the University of Rochester, where he was president for ten years.  His scholarly work includes two books: “Hegel on Reason in History: A Contemporary Interpretation” (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975; paperback edition, 1976) and “God and the New Haven Railway—and Why Neither One is Doing Very Well,” (Beacon, Fall 1986).  A former Phi Beta Kappa National Visiting Scholar, O’Brien has recieved honorary degrees from five prestigious colleges.

Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest and best known scholastic honor society in the United States, having been founded in 1776. It recognizes academic excellence in the arts and sciences, broadly defined.  UMaine has one of only four chapters in Maine (the others at at Bates, Bowdoin and Colby).