Ex-justice chairs panel on lectures

The Winthrop Rockefeller Distinguished Lecture Series Committee has elected retired Supreme Court Justice Robert L. Brown as its chairman.

Brown, who served as an associate justice on the state's highest court, is replacing Brenda Fulkerson, who held the position for eight years, according to a news release. He has also worked as a deputy prosecuting attorney for the 6th Judicial Circuit in the early 1970s, as an administrative aide for U.S. Rep. Jim Guy Tucker, D-Ark., in 1977 and 1978, as a legal aide to former Gov. Dale Bumpers from 1972 to 1974 and as a legislative assistant from 1975 to 1977 for Bumpers, who won a U.S. Senate seat.

Brown has served on the 15-member committee since July 2010. The committee has helped select more than 300 lecturers since 1972, including the late Maya Angelou, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Jon Meacham.

Friends of former Arkansas Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller created a permanent endowment in 1972 to honor him, and the Rockefeller Trust added on to those gifts, according to a news release. The University of Arkansas Foundation now administers the funds.

The lecture program arranges speakers "for the edification and education of students, faculty and the general public," the news release states.

To do so, the lecture series committee gives $30,000 each to the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; the University of Arkansas at Monticello; and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

Metro on 03/16/2018

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