CBS News Host Bob Schieffer to speak at Riley Institute event

Bob Schieffer (CBS NEWS/CRAIG BLANKENHORN)

Bob Schieffer, Emmy Award-winning reporter and host of CBS News “Face the Nation,” will be the keynote speaker at the Riley Institute at Furman University’s 10th annual David H. Wilkins awards dinner to be held in Columbia Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015.

The event, which takes place at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center on the first night of the legislative session, honors the recipients of the 2014 Wilkins awards for Excellence in Legislative Leadership and for Excellence in Civic Leadership.  The award winners will be announced next week.

A reception for all registered attendees will begin at 6 p.m., and the dinner and awards presentation will follow at 7:15 p.m.  Tickets are $125 each and can be purchased by calling 864-235-8330 or visiting the Riley Institute website.  Table sponsorships are also available.

The annual ceremony honors Ambassador David Wilkins for his efforts as then-Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives to bring people together to effect positive change in South Carolina. Ambassador Wilkins will co-host the event with former U.S. Secretary of Education and two-term Governor of South Carolina Dick Riley and Furman President Elizabeth Davis.

Schieffer has been a reporter for more than half a century and has worked at CBS News since 1969.  He is one of the few reporters in Washington to have covered all four of the major beats: Pentagon, White House, Congress and State Department. He has interviewed every president since Richard Nixon as well as most of those who sought the office.

Schieffer became CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent in 1982 and was named anchor and moderator of Face the Nation, the No. 1 Sunday morning public affairs program, in 1991.

Schieffer also anchored the Saturday edition of the CBS Evening News for 23 years and, in March 2005, with the departure of Dan Rather, served as interim anchor of the CBS Evening News until August 2006.

He has won virtually every award in broadcast journalism, including seven Emmys, the overseas Press Club Award, the Paul White Award, and the Edward R. Murrow Award.  In 2008, he was named a living legend by the Library of Congress.  The journalism school at Texas Christian University, Schieffer’s alma mater, is named in his honor.

He is the author of four books, including The New York Times bestsellers This Just In and Bob Schieffer’s America, and in 2013, was inducted into the National Academy of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.

For more information, contact the Riley Institute at 864-294-3546 or e-mail Jill.Fuson@furman.edu.