Burkett Miller’s Vision:
Research . Reflect . Report

Gerald L. Baliles
Governor of Virginia (1986-1990)
Director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs
at the University of Virginia

Tuesday, May 6, 2008
6:30 p.m.

A Chapin Distiguished Public Lecture

"We are proud to host this prestigious event.  With the upcoming presidential elections and the rigorous and sometimes controversial campaigning by the candidates, this is a timely and thought-provoking topic," explains David Clapp, Library Director.

The Miller Center was founded in 1975 through the philanthropy of Chattanoogan Burkett Miller, a 1914 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. Troubled by the partisan rancor he saw developing throughout the nation in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate, Miller recognized the need for a "non-political forum at which recognized authorities could assemble, consider and discuss matters of national importance."

Today the Miller Center is a public policy institution that serves as a national meeting place where engaged citizens, scholars, students, media representatives and government officials gather in a spirit of nonpartisan consensus to research, reflect and report on issues of national importance to the governance of the United States, with special attention to the central role and history of the presidency.

Baliles served as the 65th Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.  His tenure as governor concluded a career in public service that included serving as the attorney general of Virginia (1982-85) and a member of the Virginia House of Delegates (1976-82). After leaving public office, he entered private law practice as a partner in the firm of Hunton & Williams, LLP, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.  He became the Miller Center's fifth director in April 2006

Edward Young Chapin, Sr.

The Chapin Distinguished Lecture was inaugurated in 2007 to honor an individual who was central to the growth of the Library in its first century. E.Y. Chapin was a great lover of books, and his greatest passion was support for the Chattanooga public library system. He authored books on banking and a novel, A Harvesting of Green Fields. He dedicated the revenue from his books to help fund the creation of the Chattanooga Audubon Society, and the society named their first sanctuary in appreciation for his wife, Elise Hutcheson Chapin. Mr. Chapin created a fund that continues to this day as a mainstay of the Central High School Library.