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Perry Smith to speak at Class of 1953 Lectureship
Mar 22, 2007 12:00 AM
By Tannika King - Faculty
Perry Smith, internationally renowned speaker, TV commentator and best-selling author, will visit Darlington May 3 as the fourth speaker in the annual Class of 1953 Lectureship Series. His presentation will begin at 8:30 a.m. in Morris Chapel.
According to class agent Mike Luxenberg (’53), the lectureship was established in April 2003 to commemorate the class’ 50th reunion. “It was a wonderful opportunity for each of us to help Darlington continue its tradition of providing an outstanding education for all students, and also a means for us to say ‘thank you’ for the fine education we received at Darlington,” he said.
Hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide came to know Smith during the Persian Gulf War as a military analyst for CNN, the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour and NBC News. He served as CNN’s military analyst from 1991 to 1998, when he resigned because of the station’s unethical conduct regarding a bogus nerve gas special report. Since then, Smith has been a special correspondent for CBS Radio News.
As president of Visionary Leadership in Augusta, Ga., he conducts workshops and seminars for a number of organizations, both large and small, including Microsoft, Harvard’s Kennedy School, Century 21, UPS, Tiffany, The Chautauqua Institution, Forging Industry Association, Caterpillar, Texas Instruments, WV Hospital Association, Andersen Consulting, and the WK Kellogg Foundation among others.
A retired major general, Smith served for 30 years in the U.S. Air Force during which time he held a number of leadership positions including command of an F-15 wing at Bitburg, Germany, where he led 4,000 personnel. As the commandant of the National War College, he taught courses on leading large organizations and on strategic planning. He also served as the Air Force’s top planner, where he headed a major 20-year strategic planning exercise.
A 1956 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Smith earned his Ph.D. in international relations from Columbia University in 1967. His dissertation won the Helen Dwight Reid Award from the American Political Science Association.
Smith has written six books, including “Rules and Tools for Leaders,” his most successful, with more than 300,000 copies in print. Other titles include “Taking Charge” and historically important books such as “Assignment Pentagon” and “A Hero Among Heroes: Jimmie Dyess and the 4th Marine Division,” the biography of his father-in-law, the only person in America to have earned both the Medal of Honor and the Carnegie Medal. He also produced a DVD which tells the Jimmie Dyess story.
Smith currently serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including the National Science Center, the Augusta Museum of History and the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. He recently assisted in the editing of Peter Collier’s best-seller “Medal of Honor,” which highlights the lives of our living MOH recipients. Copies of the book will be available at his address on May 3.
Smith and his wife, the former Connor Dyess, live in Augusta. They have two children and two grandchildren.
According to class agent Mike Luxenberg (’53), the lectureship was established in April 2003 to commemorate the class’ 50th reunion. “It was a wonderful opportunity for each of us to help Darlington continue its tradition of providing an outstanding education for all students, and also a means for us to say ‘thank you’ for the fine education we received at Darlington,” he said.
Hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide came to know Smith during the Persian Gulf War as a military analyst for CNN, the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour and NBC News. He served as CNN’s military analyst from 1991 to 1998, when he resigned because of the station’s unethical conduct regarding a bogus nerve gas special report. Since then, Smith has been a special correspondent for CBS Radio News.
As president of Visionary Leadership in Augusta, Ga., he conducts workshops and seminars for a number of organizations, both large and small, including Microsoft, Harvard’s Kennedy School, Century 21, UPS, Tiffany, The Chautauqua Institution, Forging Industry Association, Caterpillar, Texas Instruments, WV Hospital Association, Andersen Consulting, and the WK Kellogg Foundation among others.
A retired major general, Smith served for 30 years in the U.S. Air Force during which time he held a number of leadership positions including command of an F-15 wing at Bitburg, Germany, where he led 4,000 personnel. As the commandant of the National War College, he taught courses on leading large organizations and on strategic planning. He also served as the Air Force’s top planner, where he headed a major 20-year strategic planning exercise.
A 1956 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Smith earned his Ph.D. in international relations from Columbia University in 1967. His dissertation won the Helen Dwight Reid Award from the American Political Science Association.
Smith has written six books, including “Rules and Tools for Leaders,” his most successful, with more than 300,000 copies in print. Other titles include “Taking Charge” and historically important books such as “Assignment Pentagon” and “A Hero Among Heroes: Jimmie Dyess and the 4th Marine Division,” the biography of his father-in-law, the only person in America to have earned both the Medal of Honor and the Carnegie Medal. He also produced a DVD which tells the Jimmie Dyess story.
Smith currently serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including the National Science Center, the Augusta Museum of History and the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. He recently assisted in the editing of Peter Collier’s best-seller “Medal of Honor,” which highlights the lives of our living MOH recipients. Copies of the book will be available at his address on May 3.
Smith and his wife, the former Connor Dyess, live in Augusta. They have two children and two grandchildren.
