About
the Lecture Series
A
brief history of the American Experience
Distinguished Lecture Series
In 1996
Pittsburgh lost a brilliant friend of public discourse on the
compelling issues of the day. Robert Hazo was marked for intellectual
distinction early in life, amassing a near perfect record at Pittsburgh’s
Central Catholic High School. He graduated first in his class
at St. John’s College and later earned fellowships for graduate
study at Princeton University, the Sorbonne and the American University
of Beirut. While serving as associate director of the Institute
for Philosophical Research in San Francisco in 1967, Hazo wrote
a book on the ways and power of love, entitled The Idea of Love.
He was appointed a senior editor at the Encyclopedia Britannica,
where he stayed for about a decade before returning to Pittsburgh.
Robert Hazo steadily marshaled into public service his breadth
of knowledge of politics and depth of perspective into human nature.
He created the American Experience Seminar in Pittsburgh thirty-five
years ago as an educational program to provide the City’s mid-
to high-level managers greater insight into traditions of American
political and economic thought, drawing readings from the foundational
texts of American political life. The American Experience Distinguished
Lecture Series succeeded the American Experience Seminar, and
through this series Hazo recruited to Pittsburgh a virtual who’s
who of American public leadership and commentary: William F. Buckley,
The Honorable Janet Reno, John Kenneth Galbraith, Ralph Nader,
The Honorable George H. W. Bush, Sam Donaldson, and Teresa Heinz
to name a few. As we move to a new edition of the American Experience
Distinguished Lectures, we know that we can never replace the
wisdom, genius and wit that were the hallmark of Robert Hazo at
each and every event.
