President Carter, Condoleezza Rice speaking at Father Hesburgh tribute

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Former President Carter, his wife Rosalynn, Condoleezza Rice, Father Jenkins and nine other guests will be speaking at the tribute to Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. Wednesday evening at Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center.

Father Hesburgh, President of the University of Notre Dame from 1952 – 1987 was 97-years-old when he died Thursday night.

Both President Jimmy Carter and his wife, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter will speak at the tribute.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will also speak.

“We are honored that the Carters, Dr. Rice and our other distinguished guests will join to pay tribute to Father Ted and his many contributions to national and international affairs, the Catholic Church and higher education,” Father Jenkins said. “This tribute will be a special opportunity to celebrate Father Ted's remarkable life and career.”

The tribute begins at 7:30 p.m. in Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center on the University of Notre Dame campus.

The tribute will include guest speakers and music from Notre Dame student choirs and instrumental groups.

A limited number of general public tickets will be available at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Murnane Family Ticket Office at Purcell Pavilion.

You can also watch the tribute on the video boards at the Compton Family Ice Arena and on the website Hesburgh.nd.edu.

President Carter regularly turned to Father Hesburgh for advice and appointed him as chair of the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy. He also went to Southeast Asia on a fact-finding mission in the 1970s with the first lady that led to an effort that averted mass starvation among Cambodian refugees, according to the university.

Rice, a former Notre Dame Trustee, earned her master's degree from Notre Dame and knew Father Hesburgh for four decades.

In addition to serving as the 66th secretary of state, she was the national security adviser to President George W. Bush and a provost and faculty member at Stanford University.

Other guest speakers at the tribute will be:

• Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana
• William Bowen, a former president of Princeton University and a contemporary of Father Hesburgh in higher education
• Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, a Notre Dame alumnus
• Rev. Paul Doyle, C.S.C., the rector of Dillon Hall and a longtime Holy Cross brother to Father Hesburgh
• Lou Holtz, the former Notre Dame football coach
• Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the archbishop emeritus of Washington, D.C.
• Former Sen. Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania, a Notre Dame faculty member during Father Hesburgh's presidency and his legal assistant on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
• Martin W. Rodgers, a Notre Dame alumnus and member of the University's Board of Trustees
• Former Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, who worked closely with Father Hesburgh on the immigration commission.