Al Gore, the 45th vice president of the United States, will give a free public lecture at Hamilton College on Thursday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m., in the Margaret Bundy Scott Field House. His lecture, "An Inconvenient Truth," will be accompanied by a multi-media presentation on which his best-selling book and film by the same name are based. No tickets are necessary and the general public will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Gore's visit is part of the Sacerdote Great Names Series at Hamilton, named in recognition of a significant gift from the family of Alex Sacerdote, a 1994 Hamilton graduate.
Recently holding the #1 slot on the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Denver Post, and Washington Post best sellers lists, An Inconvenient Truth brings home Gore's argument that we can no longer afford to view global warming as a political issue but rather as the biggest moral challenge facing our global civilization.
Gore's political career began when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976 where he served eight years representing the then 4th District of Tennessee. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and re-elected in 1990. Al Gore was inaugurated as the 45th vice president of the United States on January 20, 1993.
Gore was a central member of President Clinton's economic team – working to design the program that led to the strong U.S. economy. He cast the tie-breaking Senate vote for the plan in 1993, helping to pass the first balanced budget in 30 years. Gore assisted in ushering in the longest peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history – with more than 18 million new jobs, wages rising twice the rate of inflation, the lowest African-American and Hispanic poverty on record, and the lowest unemployment in 29 years.
The former vice president has long had an interest in the environment. His efforts to protect the earth's ozone layer and to clean up toxic-waste dumps were outlined in his best-selling book Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (1992). He led the Clinton Administration's efforts to protect the environment in a way that also strengthened the economy by working with the Big Three automakers to support the development of a new generation of fuel and energy-efficient vehicles. He worked to combat global warming in a way that also created new jobs, by helping America lead the estimated $400 billion worldwide market for new technologies that clean up the environment.
Gore is a visiting professor teaching a course on family-centered community building at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and at Fisk University in Nashville.
In 2004, Gore was appointed chairman of Generation Investment Management, a London-based fund management firm that creates environment-friendly portfolios. He is also senior advisor to Google, Inc., serves on the board of directors of Apple Computers, Inc. and is chairman of Current TV, a cable television network aimed at 18-24-year-olds.
Al Gore was born in 1948, the son of former U.S. Senator Albert Gore Sr. and Pauline Gore. Raised in Carthage, Tenn., and Washington, D.C., he received a degree in government with honors from Harvard University in 1969. After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in the Vietnam War. Upon returning from Vietnam, Gore became an investigative reporter with the Tennessean in Nashville, where he also attended Vanderbilt University's Divinity School and then law school. In 1970, Gore married the former Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Aitcheson, and together they have four children: Karenna, Kristin, Sarah and Albert III.
Previous Great Names at Hamilton speakers include Tom Brokaw, Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, Rudy Giuliani, Madeleine Albright, Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lady Margaret Thatcher, Colin Powell, Mary Matalin and James Carville, Elie Wiesel and F.W. deKlerk. In 1998, jazz and blues singer/musician B.B. King was the first artist to appear as part of the series.
Further details about Vice President Gore's visit and information about group reservations will be forthcoming in January. Large group reservations will be taken beginning Monday, Feb. 5. For updated information, visit the Great Names Web site, http://www.hamilton.edu/greatnames/.
