He has served in the U.S. House of Representatives, taught on the faculty at Princeton and Harvard, been elected to the International Wrestling Hall of Fame and, in 2009, was appointed by President Barack Obama as the ninth chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. On May 28, Jim Leach will be the keynote speaker at DMU’s commencement ceremony.
Leach represented southeastern Iowa for 30 years in the U.S. House, where he chaired the Banking and Financial Services Committee, the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, and founded and co-chaired the Congressional Humanities Caucus.
After leaving Congress in 2007, Leach became the John L. Weinberg Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. In September 2007, he took a year’s leave from Princeton to serve as interim director of the Institute of Politics and lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Leach has received eight honorary degrees and many awards, including the Adlai Stevenson Award from the United Nations Association and the Norman Borlaug Award for Public Service.
A three-sport college athlete, Leach was elected to the Wrestling Hall of Fame and the International Wrestling Hall of Fame.
DMU’s commencement will begin at 10 a.m. on May 28 in Hy-Vee Hall in the Iowa Events Center, 730 Third St. No tickets are necessary to attend the ceremony.
