ConocoPhillips White House Lecture Series - 9/27/1999
Marlin Fitzwater
Marlin Fitzwater holds the distinction of being one of the longest serving White House spokesmen in history, and the only Press Secretary to be appointed by two Presidents. From 1983 to 1993, Mr. Fitzwater represented Presidents Reagan and Bush in explaining issues ranging from national economic downturns to the Persian Gulf War. For six of his ten years in the White House, Fitzwater was Assistant to the President and Press Secretary, giving over 850 briefings to the White House press corps. His joint press briefings with his Soviet counterpart, during Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's first visit to the United States, were attended by more than 7,000 correspondents from around the world. Fitzwater accompanied President Reagan to the Soviet Union in 1998, and to Berlin when Reagan called for Mr. Gorbachev to "tear down" the Berlin Wall.
In 1989 Fitzwater was spokesman for President Bush at the Malta Summit, when the President outlined a new East-West relationship with the Soviet Union. And in 1991, Fitzwater was the voice of the 26 nation coalition in the Persian Gulf War as President Bush led the coalition against Iraq. Fitzwater's experience as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in 1981-82 was useful as a White House spokesman explaining the recessions in 1982 and 1990, and the related economic forecasts of the government.
Fitzwater was born and raised on a small farm near Abilene, Kansas, graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in journalism, and worked on newspapers in Abilene, Manhattan, Topeka and Lindsborg, Kansas, before moving to Washington, D.C. He worked for several Federal agencies including the Appalachian Regional Commission, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of the Treasury. He served in the U.S. Air Force, is married, and has two children.
He was named Outstanding Civil Servant in government in 1980, and received the nation's second highest civilian award, the Presidential Citizens Medal, in 1992. He served on the Board of the Woodrow Wilson School for International Scholars, and has received numerous other awards and two honorary Doctorate degrees. Franklin Pierce College, in Rindge, New Hampshire, is constructing the Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication, a state-of-the-art academic facility honoring his years of leadership in the communications field.
In 1997, Mr. Fitzwater authored the best selling memoir, Call The Briefing, describing his ten years in the White House, and his first novel, Esther's Pillow, will be published in June 2001. He is currently working on another novel about life on the Chesapeake Bay, and serves as a consultant to the television show The West Wing.