Some of the biggest names in media, government, history, business and academia will serve on Gettysburg College’s honorary committee for the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War.

The committee will support the College’s efforts to serve as the intellectual center of the Sesquicentennial -- both throughout the course of the four-year commemoration, and specifically during the year 2013, the 150th anniversary of the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation, Battle of Gettysburg and President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

Gettysburg College will host a number of Sesquicentennial events throughout the commemoration. At the forefront of upcoming events in 2012 are:

• March 20 “When Billy Came Marching Home: Union Veterans and the Trials of Homecoming,” a lecture by 2009 Gettysburg graduate Brian Jordan (7:30 p.m. in the College Union Building’s Room 260)

• April 3 “Picturing a State Divided: Missouri Artist George Caleb Bingham and the American Civil War,” a lecture by Dr. Joan Stack, Curator of Art Collections at The State Historical Society of Missouri (5:30 p.m. in Pennsylvania Hall’s Lyceum)

• April 12 Lincoln Lyceum, “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery,” a lecture by historian and 2011 Pulitzer and Lincoln Prize winner Eric Foner, the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University (7 p.m. in Masters Hall’s Mara Auditorium)

• Sept. 21, “Forever Free: A Conversation with James McPherson & Allen Guelzo,” with Civil War historian and Princeton University Professor Emeritus McPherson and Guelzo, Henry R. Luce Professor of Civil War Era Studies and professor of history at Gettysburg College (8 p.m. at Gettysburg College’s Majestic Theater)

More information on Gettysburg’s Sesquicentennial events, both on campus and in the community, can be found at http://www.gettysburg.edu/civilwar2013/ and http://www.gettysburgcivilwar150.com.

About the committee members:

Tom Brokaw is one of the most trusted and respected figures in broadcast journalism. He co-anchored the Today Show, was the anchor of NBC Nightly News and has conducted some impressive reporting, including an exclusive U.S. one-on-one with Russian President Gorbachev, reporting the night the Berlin Wall fell, and acting as the first American anchor to travel to Tibet to interview the Dalai Lama. Brokaw also authored five books, including the best-selling The Greatest Generation and most recently The Time of Our Lives.

Sam Donaldson is a longtime political reporter in Washington D.C. He has been a correspondent and anchor for ABC News for forty-four years, covering presidential campaigns, Capitol Hill, the White House, and more.

Ken Burns is an award-winning historical documentary filmmaker. His The Civil War was named one of the most influential documentaries of all time by Real Screen Magazine. Burns’ films have won 12 Emmy Awards and two Oscar nominations, and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honored Burns with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Stephen Lang is a renowned actor of stage and screen. He portrayed George Pickett in Gettysburg and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in Gods and Generals. He also starred in James Cameron’s Avatar, the highest grossing movie of all time, and Stephen Spielberg’s show Terra Nova.

Ronald F. Maxwell is an independent film director and writer. He is best known for writing and directing the American Civil War epics Gettysburg and Gods and Generals. Maxwell is a member of the Writers Guild of America, Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Fred Fielding, a 1961 graduate and trustee of Gettysburg College, is a former counsel to Presidents George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. He has served on a number of governmental boards and commissions, including the 9/11 Commission. Fielding is a partner in the D.C. office of the international law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

Doris Kearns Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Presidential historian. Her “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” was a New York Times bestseller, and was awarded the Lincoln Prize. Goodwin, who formerly taught at Harvard, assisted President Lyndon Johnson during this his last year in office and helped him prepare his memoirs.

James McPherson is a Civil War historian and Princeton University Professor Emeritus. He has written or edited 25 books, such as “Battle Cry of Freedom,” which won a Pulitzer Prize. McPherson also won the Pritzker Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the field of military writing.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. He is editor-in-chief of TheRoot.com, a daily online magazine focusing on issues of interest to the African American community.

Patrick F. Noonan is founder and chairman emeritus of The Conservation Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving America's natural and historic heritage. A former president of The Nature Conservancy, he is a founder and former chairman of the American Farmland Trust. Noonan is a 1965 graduate and Trustee Emeritus of Gettysburg College.

Gabor Boritt is a Gettysburg College Professor Emeritus and founder of the College’s Civil War Institute. He has authored or edited 16 books, including The Gettysburg Gospel, which appeared on the cover of US News & World Report. Boritt received The National Humanities Medal from the President George W. Bush.

Jim Corkran is a 1969 graduate and Trustee Emeritus of Gettysburg College. He is a retired partner and director of Cottman Transmission Systems, Inc., and was formerly involved with the Eastern Pennsylvania Better Business Bureau.

Jim Thomas is a 1953 graduate and Trustee Emeritus of Gettysburg College. He is the former chairman and CEO of Bestfoods Baking Group.

Robert N. Duelks, ex officio, is a 1977 graduate and chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Gettysburg College.

Janet Morgan Riggs, ex officio, is a 1977 graduate, professor of psychology, and president of Gettysburg College.

Founded in 1832, Gettysburg College is a highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences with a strong academic tradition. Alumni include Rhodes Scholars, a Nobel laureate, and other distinguished scholars. The college enrolls 2,600 undergraduate students and is located on a 200-acre campus adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania.

Contact: Nikki Rhoads, assistant director of communications, 717.337.6803