GRANVILLE, Ohio—Denison University welcomes former Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who will speak at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 18, in Swasey Chapel (200 Chapel Drive). Snowe’s lecture, “From Challenge to Opportunity—Overcoming Obstacles in Life, and in Washington,” is sponsored by Denison Richard G. Lugar Symposium in Public Affairs. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Mary Frazell at 740-587-6611 or visit www.denison.edu.
Sen. Snowe served in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives for a combined 34 years, earning recognition as a respected policymaker. In 2006, Time magazine named her one of the top 10 U.S. Senators, calling her “The Caretaker.” Time wrote, “Because of her centrist views and eagerness to get beyond partisan point-scoring, Maine Republican Olympia Snowe is in the center of every policy debate in Washington, and also is known as one of its most effective advocates for her constituents.”
Former Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), for whom the symposium is named, graduated with the Denison University class of 1954.
A brief biography of former Senator Olympia Snowe:
Snowe served in the Maine house of representatives from 1973 to 1976; in the Maine state senate from 1976 to 1978; as a delegate to Maine State Republican convention 1976; and as a delegate to Republican National Convention 1976. She was elected as a Republican to the 96th Congress and to the seven succeeding congresses, from 1979 to 1995. Snowe was not a candidate for reelection to the House of Representatives in 1994, but was elected to the United States Senate in 1994; reelected to the Senate in 2000 and again in 2006. Ultimately, she served in the Senate from 1995 to 2013. During that time she was chair of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Snowe was not a candidate for reelection to the Senate in 2012.
Snowe was the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the United States House of Representatives; she also is the only woman to have served in both houses of a state legislature and both houses of the U.S. Congress, as well as the first Greek-American congresswoman.
With her 1989 marriage to Maine Governor John McKernan, Snowe became the first person to simultaneously be a member of Congress and first lady of a state. She has never lost an election, and in the 2006 midterm senatorial elections, Snowe won with a reported 73.99 percent of votes.
Snowe is the fourth woman to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee and the first to chair its seapower subcommittee, which oversees the Navy and Marine Corps. In 2001, Snowe became the first Republican woman to secure a full-term seat on the Senate Finance Committee.
Calendar Listing:
CALENDAR LISTING, Denison University, Granville— Former Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 18, in Swasey Chapel (200 Chapel Drive). Free and open to the public. For more information, contact Mary Frazell at 740-587-6611 or visit www.denison.edu.
About Denison:
Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.
