The Dillon Lecture Series celebrates milestone speaker

By Amanda Carney
Staff writer

The Dillon Lecture Series was a dream for two women, Barbara Peirce and Jeanette Mull. These two women wanted to bring a similar event that started at Kansas State University, to Hutchinson Community College.

This has become an event that has now been taking place for over 36 years at HutchCC. This event is now called The Dillon Lecture Series.

The Dillon Lecture Series started on March 29, 1982, with Richard Morefield, who had been an Iranian hostage. The public, college professors, students and staff were all invited to this event. Over 2,000 people attended the first lecture. Because, this event received great responses, they decided to keep it going.

With the hard work of the Dillon Lecture Series committee, HutchCC has been able to keep this event up and running for 36 years and been able to get some big names.

Robin Woodworth, the coordinator for the Dillon Lecture Series said, “Most big names are through speaker agencies, but some have been arranged through connections of Dillon Lecture committee members or community members.”

Arranging for guest speakers to come take a lot of preparation. The committee first must confirm the guest speaker, and arrange the contract.

“Once a speaker is confirmed and contract is signed, there are basic tasks to prepare – scheduling venue, reserving hotel for speaker, securing helpers for lecture and sending out tickets to patrons,” Woodworth said.

There are many hopes for the Dillon Lecture Series in the future. The series tries to get guest speakers that will connect with all age groups. The series also hopes to continue to find guest speakers that delay a message that everyone can relate with.

“We hope to continue to bring interesting and engaging speakers, they may not always have a name you recognize, but maybe the you will recognize their story from their life experiences,” Woodworth said.

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