2009 Visiting Scholar of the Roxana Cannon Arsht Center for Ethics and Leadership: Helen Thomas

April 02, 2009 |

Regarded as the “dean of the Washington, D.C., press corps,” veteran political correspondent Helen Thomas will give a lecture titled “Front Row at the White House” on Thursday, April 2, at 8 p.m. in Goucher College’s Kraushaar Auditorium.

Thomas is the 2009 visiting scholar of the Roxana Cannon Arsht Center for Ethics and Leadership at Goucher College. Following the lecture, Thomas will hold a book signing. Due to high demand from Goucher students, faculty, staff, and the greater community, no more tickets are available for this event.

To those who regularly watch presidential press conferences, Thomas is a familiar figure. Usually dressed in red (a tradition dating back to the administration of Ronald Reagan) and nearly always seated in the front row, she is invariably one of the first reporters called upon by the president for questions.

A graduate of Wayne State University in Michigan, Thomas joined United Press International in 1943 to cover “women’s topics” for its radio news. In 1955, she started reporting on the federal government and its agencies, which culminated in her coverage of President-elect John F. Kennedy in 1960. Thomas worked her way up to the position of UPI’s White House bureau chief, a post she would hold for more than 25 years. While serving as UPI’s bureau chief, she authored a regular column, “Backstairs at the White House,” which provided an insider’s view of various presidential administrations.

When Thomas resigned in May 2000 as senior White House correspondent for UPI, it made headlines. ABC’s Sam Donaldson said, “For most of us, she was UPI.” Less than two months later, she joined Hearst newspapers as a columnist, writing on national affairs and the White House.

Thomas traveled around the world several times with presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush, and she has covered every economic summit. She has reported on Watergate, Iran-Contra, Whitewater and the Clinton impeachment trial, as well as almost every other aspect of the White House and the presidency since John F. Kennedy. She is an unparalleled source of modern presidential history as seen from the “Front Row at the White House.”

On February 9, 2009, Thomas was present in the front row for newly elected President Barack Obama’s news conference regarding the federal bailout bill. Obama called on her with the statement, “Helen. I’m excited; this is my inaugural moment.”

A past president of the Women’s National Press Club, Thomas was the first woman officer of the National Press Club (1959-60), the first woman officer and president of the White House Correspondents Association (1975-76), and the first woman member and president of the Gridiron Club.

She has written four books: Dateline: White House (1975); Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times (2000); Thanks for the Memories, Mr. President: Wit and Wisdom from the Front Row at the White House (2003); and, her latest, Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public (2006).

Supported by a $2 million gift from Adrienne Arsht, the Roxana Cannon Arsht Center for Ethics and Leadership explores ethics and leadership across a range of liberal-arts disciplines. The center brings noted scholars to Goucher’s campus for one- to two-year residencies and holds a biennial symposium that features renowned ethicists and authorities in the field of leadership studies.