Commencement '07: Three-time Pulitzer winner to address graduates on Sunday, May 20

Released on April 26, 2007
Contact: Dennis Nealon 781-736-4205 nealon@brandeis.edu

Thomas L. Friedman '75

David Halberstam

WALTHAM, Mass., April 26, 2007 -- Brandeis University announced today that three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman '75 will deliver the keynote address at the school’s 56th commencement exercises on Sunday, May 20, 2007. Some 700 graduating seniors and their families will attend the event, which begins at 10:30 a.m. in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz announced that Friedman agreed to speak after the university learned of the tragic and sudden death of esteemed author David Halberstam, who had been scheduled to receive an honorary degree and deliver the commencement speech.

Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, died in a midmorning car accident April 23 in Menlo Park, Calif. Upon learning the news, Reinharz contacted the Halberstam family to extend the university’s deepest sympathy and condolences.

“David Halberstam was truly a gift to this century – the country has lost one of the last great renaissance men,” Reinharz said. “His passions, seen through his writings, reveal his mastery of topics as diverse as the organization of the military and the dynamics of team sports.” Reinharz said he is “deeply grateful” to Friedman for agreeing to address the graduating seniors.

Halberstam began his journalism career in 1955 at the Daily Times Leader and nine years later won the Pulitzer Prize for his Vietnam War reporting for the New York Times. Friedman, who said he “knew and admired” Halberstam, earned his Pulitzers for his writing and reporting for the New York Times. He is a Brandeis trustee, and author of several best-selling books, including "From Beirut to Jerusalem" and "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century."

Four individuals will receive honorary degrees at the Brandeis commencement exercises: prominent American author Joyce Carol Oates; pioneering biologist Judah Folkman; former Canadian Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler; and noted architect Daniel Libeskind.