Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 12/1/99
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   28

Editors: Photo accompanies release
MYER FELDMAN, ADVISER TO KENNEDY, JOHNSON, TO ADDRESS SLU GRADS
     HAMMOND -- Myer Feldman, an adviser to two Presidents, successful businessman,
attorney, author and civic activist, will be the keynote speaker at Southeastern Louisiana
University's December 11 commencement program.
     Feldman will address a record number of more than 1,000 Southeastern graduates at the
winter commencement ceremony, which begins at 10 a.m. in the University Center on University
Avenue. 
     Feldman began a more than five-decade career in law and government service after
serving in the Air Force in World War II. The Philadelphia native was called to Washington,
D.C., where he was named counsel to Senate committees looking into the stock market and into
President Harry Truman's controversial discharge of General Douglas McArthur. He also
became a legislative assistant and campaign adviser to Massachusetts's young Senator John F.
Kennedy. In the 1960 Presidential campaign, Feldman's duties included preparing Kennedy for
his famous debates with Republican opponent Richard Nixon. His active involvement in
Presidential campaigns has continued to this day.
     After Kennedy's election, Feldman served as Presidential counsel, and continued in the
position under President Lyndon Johnson.
     Feldman, who is chairman of the executive committee of Special Olympics, has served on
the boards of two universities and frequently has been honored for his service to the Catholic
Church, the homeless and various Jewish organizations. He has served as a book review editor
for the "Saturday Review of Literature" and has written a number of articles and books. Feldman
is vice chairman of a Florida bank, has been president of approximately 20 radio stations and
publisher of several newspapers, and has produced six Broadway plays.
     Feldman currently practices law in Washington, where he heads his own firm of
approximately 100 attorneys.
                             -SLU-
Press release is available on the World Wide Web:
www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsf99.htm