Colin Powell to speak at MSU next year

Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will speak at Missouri State University next year.

Powell is scheduled to appear March 20 at JQH Arena, serving as the keynote speaker for MSU's spring public affairs convocation. He will speak on the topic of global perspective, MSU's theme for the conference, according to a news release.

Retired U.S. Army Gen. Powell capped off more than 50 years of public service as secretary of state under President George W. Bush. Powell became the first African American to hold the position. He also served as national security adviser under President Ronald Reagan and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

“The Missouri State Foundation and the Foundation Board of Trustees are very supportive of the public affairs mission of the university and wanted to begin a speakers' series which will include national and internationally known speakers who can speak to the annual theme of the conference,” said Brent Dunn, executive director of the MSU Foundation, in the release.

Powell now works as a strategic limited partner for venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, serves on the board of Bloom Energy and is the chairman of the advisory board of Leeds Equity Partners, the release said.

Hall of Fame
MSU also announced this week its inaugural honorees for the Missouri Public Affairs Hall of Fame.

The inductees, to be honored in April, are Harry S. Truman, John C. “Jack” Danforth and Dr. M. Donald Suggs. Up to six people will be honored annually in the Hall of Fame, which was launched to recognize individuals with ties to Missouri who have demonstrated public affairs work during their career, according to a news release.

Former U.S. Sen. Danforth, now a partner with the law firm of Bryan Cave LLP, in 2004 represented the country as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, where he focused on ending the civil war in Sudan.

The first chief of oral surgery at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Suggs became the first African American to service as an associate clinical professor at St. Louis University Dental School and was active in the civil right movements of the 1960s and '70s.

Both Danforth and Suggs are scheduled to attend the April 11 induction ceremony at Ramada Oasis Convention Center.

Former President Truman's grandson, Clifton Truman Daniel, will accept the award on behalf of his deceased grandfather. A Missouri native, Truman became president in 1945 after the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As president, Truman made decisions noted as crucial, including those to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which led to the end of World War II, the release said.