Veteran Journalist, U of A Professor, to Deliver Roy Reed Lecture

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Hoyt Purvis

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Hoyt Purvis, former press secretary to Sen. J.W. Fulbright and longtime University of Arkansas professor of journalism and international relations, will deliver the annual Roy Reed Lecture at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, in the Janelle Y. Hembree Alumni House. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The Roy Reed Lecture Series was created by the Walter J. Lemke Department of Journalism in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences to honor Roy Reed, professor emeritus of journalism and a reporter for the New York Times from 1965 to 1978. Reed taught journalism for 16 years at the U of A, where he stressed not only the importance of telling stories accurately but of telling them well, with special consideration for language.

“It is impossible for me to state how much Professor Hoyt Purvis has meant to our faculty and students at the Lemke Department of Journalism,'' said professor Larry Foley, chairman of the department. “He is a gifted teacher and scholar, with an inexhaustible dedication to public service. Hoyt is a friend and mentor to me, and there are hundreds, if not thousands more out there just like me. In faculty meetings, when he speaks, everyone gets quiet and listens. He commands that much respect. He's earned a long and happy retirement, but once he's taken a short break, I hope he will come back to teach a class from time to time."

HOYT PURVIS

Purvis’ distinguished career includes roles as press secretary and special assistant to Sen. J.W. Fulbright, as foreign and defense policy adviser/counsel to Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, and as a senior lecturer at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.

Purvis worked on a number of major foreign policy issues and accompanied Byrd and Senate delegations in meetings with foreign leaders and on international trips including China, Soviet Union, Israel, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Morocco, Turkey, Germany, France, Spain, United Kingdom, Japan and Panama. He assisted Fulbright in his responsibilities as a member of the boards of the Smithsonian Institution and Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and worked on legislation to establish the Buffalo National River. 

Purvis was appointed to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board by President Clinton. The board supervises the global Fulbright exchange program. Purvis served for 10 years, including three years as chairman.

His career with the University of Arkansas spans more than three decades and includes serving as a professor of journalism and as founder and director for the international relations major. He was founding director of the Fulbright Institute of International Relations and served in that role from 1982 to 2000.

Purvis’ journalistic career included serving as a researcher-writer for the Southern Education Reporting Service in Nashville and as a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle. He has written a regular column for Northwest Arkansas Media since 2000.

Purvis has received numerous honors for teaching and public service, including the National Outstanding Faculty Award from Phi Beta Delta, honor society for international scholars, and a U.S. Department of State citation for service to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and Department of State. 

He also received the University of Arkansas Honors College Distinguished Faculty Award and the Faculty Gold Medal for mentoring. 

He has written books and articles on a wide array of topics including international relations, U.S. foreign policy, civil rights, media and politics, and sports. Voices of the Razorbacks: A History of Arkansas’s Iconic Sports Broadcasters, which he co-authored with Stanley Sharp, was published by the Butler Center for Arkansas History in. 2013. He has been a regular panelist on Arkansas Week, a weekly public affairs discussion program hosted by the Arkansas Educational Television Network, since 1985.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.