Washington and Lee University
By the time Teddy Roosevelt (1858-1919) became the youngest president of the United States, he had already led a full life. By the age of 42, he had served as governor of New York, assistant under secretary of the Navy, and commander of a cavalry regiment that had stormed San Juan Hill in the Spanish American War. Naturalist, explorer, frontiersman, civic reformer, and historian, he had already published his four-volume Winning of the West and The Naval War of 1812. Over the course of a lifetime of unstinting vigor, challenge, and accomplishment, Roosevelt would author 18 books, lead a scientific expedition through the jungles of Brazil, serve two terms as president, create a vast array of national parks and forests, assure the construction of the Panama Canal, and establish the United States as a world military power— to “speak softly and carry a big stick.” Add to this a further remarkable distinction: He remains the only individual ever awarded both the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Nobel Peace Prize.
Nearly 100 years later, Roosevelt is generally regarded as one of the five or six greatest presidents in our nation’s history. This Alumni College will follow his early life, from a boyhood of privilege spent in adoration of his accomplished father, to his career as frontiersman in the Dakota Territories, through his early political career as a Republican activist in the New York Assembly. We’ll discuss his family life— including his relationship with his redoubtable daughter Alice—and his rise through political ranks to the vice presidency and then upon McKinley’s assassination, his assumption of the presidency. Even in retirement, Roosevelt lived a life of extraordinary activity, traveling the world before resuming his interest in national politics. His final campaign as the leader of the Bull Moose Party assured the defeat of his Republican rival William Howard Taft while giving the election to Woodrow Wilson, a “weakling” in T.R.’s ready opinion.
"Imagine your favorite college course with a host of experts who actually sit down with you to discuss a topic in class as well as over drinks and dinner, who enjoy swapping stories with you and getting to know you. That’s the way the Alumni College works - for both the participants AND the faculty. We all take part in the exchange. That’s what I really love about being involved in these events. We all have something to say, and we all learn from each other."
--Tyler S. Lorig, Ruth Parmly Professor and Chair of Neuroscience