Sen. Elizabeth Dole is to be the featured speaker at the Rowan County Republicans’ annual Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner on Friday, Feb. 29.
The dinner will be at the Wallace & Graham Meeting Facility, 604A N. Lee St.
A private reception with Dole will be held from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. for event sponsors. Dinner will be 7:30 to 9 p.m. The cost is $25 per ticket for open seating at the dinner only. For tickets, call James Furr at 704-490-8989.
A native of Salisbury, Sen. Dole graduated from Boyden High School in 1954. She graduated with distinction from Duke University in 1958. She holds a master’s degree in education and government from Harvard and earned a degree from Harvard Law School in 1965.
Dole serves on the Senate Armed Services, Banking, Small Business and Aging Committee.
From 1969 to 1973, she was deputy assistant to President Nixon for Consumer Affairs. She served six years as a member of the Federal Trade Commission and two years (1981-1983) as assistant to President Reagan for Public Liaison.
In February 1983, Dole became President Reagan’s secretary of transportation, the first woman to hold that position and the first to serve as the department head of a branch of the U.S. military, the U.S. Coast Guard.
In 1989, President Bush swore her in as the nation’s 20th secretary of labor.
She left the Bush cabinet in 1991 to become only the second woman since founder Clara Barton to serve as president of the American Red Cross.
In 1999, Dole sought the Republican presidential nomination.
Dole has received numerous awards, including the North Carolina Award from Gov. James Martin; “North Carolinian of the Year” by the North Carolina Press Association in 1994; “Citizen of the Carolinas” award from the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce in 2006; the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women Executives in State Government in 1993; and the Humanitarian Award from the National Commission Against Drunk Driving in 1998.
She has also received the Foreign Policy Association Medal; the Radcliffe College Medal for her outstanding accomplishments; the National Religious Broadcasters’ 1999 Board of Directors Award; Churchwoman of the Year honors by Religious Heritage of America in 1995. The Christian Woman of the Year Association named her Christian Woman of the Year in 1996. She was honored by the League of Women Voters with the Leadership Award in 1994, and in 1995 she received the Raoul Wallenberg Award for Humanitarian Service.
She has received honorary doctorate degrees from more than 40 colleges and universities and served on the Duke University board of trustees from 1974 to 1985, and the board of overseers for Harvard University from 1990 to 1996.