FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, Oct. 5, 2007
Contact: Dave Wellman, Director of Communications, (304) 696-7153
 

Smith to speak at dedication of FDR’s suite at Harvard University

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Marshall University professor Jean Edward Smith will be the keynote speaker Monday, Oct. 8 at Harvard University as it dedicates the suite in Westmorely Hall where Franklin D. Roosevelt lived as an undergraduate from 1900 to 1904.

Smith is the author of FDR, a full-length biography of the 32^nd president that was released last spring by Random House. The dedication ceremony Monday begins at 11 a.m.

Smith said the suite is furnished as it was in Roosevelt’s time, complete with a clawfoot bathtub and wooden water closet. Smith has been invited to spend the night there – the first guest to do so.

“This is a real thrill,” he said. “Roosevelt paid $400 a year for the suite, which in today’s currency would be about $8,500. Not many undergraduates could afford that.”

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