THE SMITH CENTER

for Private Enterprise Studies

A Special Evening With Robert Novak

"Washington, DC: Promises, Politics and Plunder"

May 30, 2001, University Theatre at California State University, Hayward

Robert D. Novak was born February 26, 1931 in Joliet, Illinois. His first newspaperJobs were as a reporter for the Joliet Herald-News and the Champaign-Urbana
Courier while attending the University of Illinois (1948-1952). Mr. Novak has a B.A. degree from Illinois and, in 1997, received the University's distinguished alumnus award. Mr. Novak has also received honorary doctorates from Kenyon College and the University of Illinois.

Following service in the United States Army as a Lieutenant during the Korean War (1952-1954), Mr. Novak joined the staff of the Associated Press in Omaha, Nebraska. He was then transferred to Lincoln, Nebraska and from there to Indianapolis, Indiana, covering politics and the state legislature in both places. In 1957, the AP transferred him to Washington, D.C. where he began covering Congress.

He joined the Washington bureau of the Wall Street Journal in 1958 as its Senate correspondent and political reporter, becoming chief Congressional correspondent for the Journal in 1961.

On May 15, 1963, Mr. Novak teamed up with Rowland Evans, Jr., then Congressional correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, to write Inside Report, a political column published four times a week. Since 1966, the Chicago Sun-Times has been the home newspaper to the column. On May 15, 1993, Mr. Evans retired from the column. However, Mr. Novak continues to write the column three times a week which is carried by over 150 newspapers through Creators Syndicate.

One of longest-running syndicated columns in the nation, Inside Report has always been based on hard reporting. For over a quarter of a century, both columnists not only have criss-crossed the nation regularly covering politics, but have also traveled abroad to report wars, revolutions, and international conferences around the globe.

Mr. Novak has covered great events and interviewed world leaders in every part of the world. His 1978 trip to China included an exclusive interview with Deng Tsiao-Peng that opened the way for normalization of U.S.-Chinese relations.

Mr. Novak, with Mr. Evans, produces a twice-monthly newsletter, the Evans-Novak Political Report. Mr. Novak has written for most of the nation's periodicals and is currently a contributing editor for Readers Digest.

Mr. Novak's first book was Agony of the GOP. 1964. Since then, in collaboration with Mr. Evans, he has written Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power, Nixon in the White House and The Reagan Revolution. In November 1999, Mr. Novak's newest book, Completing the Revolution: A Vision of Victory in 2000 was published.

He is a commentator for Cable News Network, where he co-hosts the Evans, Novak, Hunt and Shields interview program, appears on and serves as co-executive producer of CNN's political roundtable Capital Gang and regularly co-hosts Crossfire and appears occasionally on NBC's Meet the Press.

Mr. Novak was a Radford Visiting Professor of Journalism at Baylor University in 1987.

Robert Novak at the podium.

Ms. Ann French from the CSUEB Pioneer Bookstore standing by her beautiful book display.

Guests enjoying the wine & cheese reception.

Robert Novak and guests.

Julie and Denise, the bartenders, enjoying themselves!