The University will be closed December 19, 2024 to January 5, 2025. If you need assistance during that time, please call 1-855-OWU-1842 and leave a detailed voicemail along with your contact information. One of our colleagues will respond to your call as soon as possible.
If you would like to make a 2024 gift, please make your gift before midnight on December 31.
Benjamin F. Marsh '50 endowed the Benjamin F. Marsh Lecture on Public Affairs. In doing so he encouraged others to follow his path and choose to devote a portion of time to active participation in public affairs. Through exposure to lectures by officials, researchers and academics from a wide range of governmental entities and non-profit organizations, students at Ohio Wesleyan University will come to appreciate their need to give back.
Virginia Gewin is an independent science journalist based in Portland, Oregon. With fellowships from the MIT Knight Science Journalism program, Alicia Patterson Foundation, and Nova Institute for Health, she writes about climate change and environmental management.
The lecture: "Breathing Clean Air: An Environmental Success Turned Environmental Justice Story" was thought provoking and insightful.
| Academic Year | Lecturer(s) | Lecture Information |
| 2023-2024 | Virginia Gewin |
"Breathing Clean Air: An Environmental Success Turned Environmental Justice Story" 4/8/2024
|
| 2021-22 | Jen Miller |
"A Nonpartisan Defense of Democracy" 9/26/2022 Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio
|
| 2020-21 |
No lecture was held this year due to Covid.
|
|
| 2019-20 | Rachel Biteover |
"Fear and Loathing in the 2020 Election: The Negative Partisanship Forecasting Mode" 4/6/2020
Elections researcher and Public Policy Expert
|
| 2018-19 | Jonathan T. Overpeck | "Global Climate Change, Water Security and Ecosystem Disruption: Higher Scientific Confidence Than You Might Think" Interdisciplinary climate scientist, professor of environmental education, and dean of the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan |
| 2017-18 | David C. Colby '67 | "Health Policy: Addressing the Challenges We Face" Vice President of Policy, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Retired) |
| 2016-17 | The Honorable Susan Phillips Read '69 | "Judicial Personae: Thoughts on the Wellsprings of Appellate Judging" Judge, New York State Court of Appeals (New York's Highest Court) – retired; Greenberg Traurig, LLP as Of Counsel; Albany and New York Offices; University of Chicago School of Law, '72 |
| 2015-16 | Sean Trende | "Why Trump? Why Now?" Sean Trende is the Senior Elections Analyst for RealClearPolitics. He is the author of The Lost Majority: Why the Future of Government Is Up for Grabs and Who Will Take It, and co-author of Almanac of American Politics. |
| 2014-15 | Morris P. Fiorina | "Unstable Majorities, Polarization, and the Contemporary American Electorate" – 03/25/2015 Wendt Family Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution. He received an undergraduate degree from Allegheny College (1968) and a Ph.D. |
| 2013-14 | Michel L. Swers | "Women in the Club: Gender and Policy-Making in the Senate" – 03/20/2014 Associate Professor of American Government, Georgetown University. |
| 2012-13 | Valerie Martinez-Ebers | "Who Are These Immigrants? What Do We Do About Them?" – 4/16/2013 Professor of Political Science at the University North Texas, former Vice President of the American Political Science Association, and former President of the Western Political Science Association. |
| 2011-12 | Linda Killian | "The Swing Vote: The Untapped Power of Independents" – 03/06/2012 Washington Journalist; Senior Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Director, Boston University Washington Center; Boston University Professor of Journalism. |
| 2010-11 | Paul A. Beck | "Obama and the Tea Party: Unsettled American Politics in a Polarized Era" – 03/16/11 Distinguished Professor of Social and behavioral Sciences at The Ohio State University. |
| 2009-10 | Andrew Revkin | "The Energy Quest" – 10/22/2009 Environmental reporter for The New York Times |
| 2008-09 | Jeffrey E. Cohen | "Prospects for Presidential leadership in the Early 21st Century: The Obama Case" – 02/03/2009 Professor of Political Science at Fordham University and Visiting Senior Research Scholar at The Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton |
| Mitchell A. Seligson | "Challenges of Democracy: A View from the Americas Barometer, 2008" – 03/18/2009 Centennial Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University; Founder and Director, Latin American Public Opinion Project |
|
| 2007-08 | Bruce Katz | "Metro Nation: How the United States is Changing and What it Means for National Policy and Politics" – 09/25/2007 Vice president and Director, Metropolitan Policy Program and The Adeline M. and Alfred I. Johnson Chair in Urban and Metropolitan Policy at The Brookings Institution |
| 2006-07 | Jeffrey Rosen | "The U.S. Supreme Court: Why Personality and Temperament Matter" – 02/25/2007 Professor of Law, The George Washington University Legal Affairs Editor, The New Republic |
| 2005-06 | Sara (Gebhart) Ott '00 Regan Parsons '92 Susan (Berton) Sherman '88 |
"Cities in the 21st Century" – 03/23/2006 Panel of City Managers/Assistant Managers, Moderated by Thomas Homan, City Manager, City of Delaware |
| David M. O'Brien | "The New U.S. Supreme Court" – 03/30/2006 Leone Reaves and George W. Spicer Professor, specializing in judicial politics and public law at the University of Virginia |
|
| 2004-05 | Paul C. Light | "The Incredible Shrinking Presidency: The Prospect for Legacy in the Bush Second Term" – 03/28/2005 Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service, Wagner School of Public Service, New York University. For additional information contact the Department of Politics & Government |
| 2003-04 | No lecture in 2003-04 | |
| 2002-03 | Lawrence Baum | "Supreme Court in American Politics" – 10/02/2002 Professor, Political Science, Ohio State University, Author |
| 2001-02 | Millie Jeffrey | "The Secret to Change" – 03/26/2002 Social Justice Activist, Political Leader, Presidential Medal of Freedom Winner, OWU Honorary Doctor of Humanities (1997) |
| 2000-01 | John Kessel | "President Bush's Beginning" – 04/26/2001 Author, Presidential Scholar |
Mr. Marsh's own career included a number of activities which made him an excellent role model for all those interested in public service. He traced his interest in civic affairs back to his undergraduate days when students signed pledge cards committing them to be active citizens in the life of the community. Mr. Marsh served in the U.S. Navy (1945-1946) and as Personnel Officer of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (1950-54). After obtaining his law degree from George Washington University, he returned to the Toledo area to practice. Along the way he served as the Solicitor for the City of Maumee, a member of the Lucas County Board of Elections, President of the Ohio Municipal League, President of the Lucas County/Maumee Valley Historical Society and President of the Maumee Chamber of Commerce.
Benjamin Marsh was called by U.S. Presidents and federal agencies to undertake international assignments, including being an Elections Supervisor in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1997-98, a member of the U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission from 1990-1994, a member of U.S. National Commission for UNESCO from 1969-1975, and a delegate to the 17th General Conference of UNESCO in 1972.
In addition, he was very active in Republican Party activities in Ohio and nationally. This included running for the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 9th District in 1968, chairing the Lucas County Republican Party in 1973-74, serving as Co-Chairman of the Ohio Steering Committee for Bush for President in 1988 and serving as a Bush At Large delegate to the 1988 Republican National Convention.
Mr. Marsh was a Past Commander of American Legion Toledo Post #335 and a former member and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Medical College of Ohio. He was a National Chairman of the Ohio Wesleyan University Alumni Association. In 2000 he was awarded an Ohio Wesleyan University Distinguished Achievement Citation and was listed several times in Who's Who. Mr. Marsh served as a member and Chairman of the Ohio Elections Commission from 2001-2007. In addition, he was member of the Board of Directors of the Ohio Presbyterian Retirement Services Foundation.
Mr. Marsh continued to practice law with the firm of Marsh McAdams Ltd. in Maumee, Ohio, until he passed away in 2014. His passing was a great loss to the Toledo area and to the Ohio Wesleyan community.