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Kennedy School Establishes Kalb Professorship

CAMBRIDGE---Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government has established the Marvin Kalb Professorship of Global Communications, Dean Joseph S. Nye, Jr., announced today.

The endowed chair honors Marvin Kalb, Director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy and Edward R. Murrow Professor of Press and Public Policy. Kalb, a distinguished journalist for CBS and NBC News, is leaving the directorship as of July 1, to head up the Center’s office in Washington DC.

"For twelve years, Marvin has presided over the Shorenstein Center with a mix of grace, intellect and wit," said Nye. "He has built a premier research center focussed on the dance between politics and the press and public policy. Marvin has, in effect, created a new curriculum in the field of press/politics and the Kennedy School is indebted to him for his contributions."

Kalb, the Center’s first director, was delighted to learn of the new professorship.

"I am deeply grateful to the Kennedy School for honoring me in this way. And I am deeply grateful to Ambassador Hushang Ansary for providing the financial support for this newly endowed chair," said Kalb. "I am so proud of what the Center has accomplished in the past 12 years. Its courses, its research, and its programs have all trumpeted the role of a free press in sustaining, defining and guaranteeing a society that encourages open minds and open markets. It has been a privilege to serve as the Center’s first director and I look forward to contributing from Washington."

The Marvin Kalb Professorship of Global Communications is funded by a gift from the Houston-based Ansary Foundation on behalf of Ambassador Hushang Ansary, Nina Ansary (President of the Foundation) and Nader Ansary (Trustee of the Foundation). Ambassador Ansary, the Foundation’s founding

benefactor, has served on the Shorenstein Center’s Advisory Board since its inception. The Kalb Professorship will provide for teaching and research on issues related to Kalb’s distinguished career in journalism and scholarship, with an emphasis on the role of global communications and contemporary technology and its impact on policy and leadership.

Over a 30-year career as a chief diplomatic correspondent for CBS News and NBC News, and as moderator of "Meet the Press," Kalb received numerous awards for excellence in diplomatic reporting, including two Peabody Prizes, a DuPont Prize and more than half a dozen Overseas Press Club Awards. A graduate of the City College of New York, Kalb has an M.A. from Harvard and was completing his Ph.D. in Russian history when he accepted a Moscow assignment with the State Department in 1956.

Kalb is the author or co-author of seven non-fiction books. His most recent, The Nixon Memo, was published in 1994. He is also the author of two best selling novels and is currently working on a new book tentatively titled, "The Triumph of the 'New News'."

Established in 1986, the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy is dedicated to exploring the intersection of the press, politics and public policy in theory and in practice. The Center strives to bridge the gap between journalists and scholars and increasingly between them and the public. The Center administers the Goldsmith Awards for Investigative Reporting and the prestigious Fellows program. The Center has emerged as a major source for research on U.S. campaigns and elections, journalism and public policy, international news, and race, gender and the press working to help the press improve its role in democracy.

The Kennedy School is also honoring Marvin Kalb with the establishment of the Kalb Fund to support additional Shorenstein Center projects, and has renamed one of its classrooms the "Marvin Kalb Seminar Room."

The Marvin Kalb Professorship of Global Communications marks the establishment of a record fourth endowed chair at the Kennedy School this year.