Coxe, senator, and all of our distinguished guest, welcome. I have a great honor to serve as chief executive officer for preservation virginia. Deskhalf of president ial preservation virginia board of trustees, i share our appreciation for friends and partners gathered today and Technology Leadership of the administration, the General Assembly, american revolution, and the James Northam foundation. As special appreciation to our partners in the National Park service, the representatives, and members of the family society. Today, we commemorate the events that occurred on the site 47 years ago the distinguished speakers who follow me will capture the importance of these proceedings and the direct influence still felt today. Hope it will define this place with the persistent efforts of women who ensured its preservation. Within these walls would have been lost were not for the vision and dedication of women. 1889, they founded the association for the preservation of virginia antiquity. T
His unwavering dedication to those who serve our nation with their lives earns the trust and devotion of the armed services. His career began early at william mary. Not many known that he drove the Williamsburg James City School Bus when he was a student and he was assistant troop leader for our local boy scouts and that senator norman was one of his boy scouts as we discovered last night. After graduating from william mary in 1965, he joined the cia as an Intelligence Officer and was the first career officer to scale the agencys ranks to become its director. He served with president s of texas a m university from 20022006. When president bush called him back to washington to serve as secretary of defense. As secretary, he led our armed forces at a time when the country was in the midst of two wars and a global fight against terrorism. In 2009 he accepted president obamas request that he continue to lead in the cabinet, becoming the first secretary of defense to serve under president s
Virginia is board of trustees and Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation board of directors. I share our appreciation for friends and partners gathered today and i acknowledge the leadership of the administration, the gen. Assembly, american evolution and jamestown Yorktown Foundation. Our special appreciation to our partners managing historic jamestown, the National Park service, tribal representatives, and members of the descendents of the jamestown society. Today we commemorate the events that occurred 400 years ago. The distinguished speakers to follow me will capture the importance of todays proceedings and the direct influence still felt today. The history and body would be lost if not for the vision and dedication of women. In 1889 mary Jeffrey Gault and cindy Tucker Coleman founded the associate for the preservation of virginia now known as preservation virginia. Their goal was to save and restore disappearing landscape and buildings that embody our colonial tradition. Successfully s
It is my great honor to welcome our guests, too many of you here and i am proud to introduce our keynote speaker for today, our 24th chancellor, the honorable robert m gates. Chancellor gates is the model for statesmanship that we look to now and for the future. He has dedicated his career to Public Service, serving eight u. S. President s. He leads with a restless and compassionate intelligence, his unwavering dedication to our nation earned him the trust and devotion of our Armed Services his career of Service Began early at william and mary, not many know that he drove a school bus while he was a student, and that he was an assistant troop leader for local boy scouts and that he had a senator as one of boy scouts as we discovered last night. After graduating in 1965, he joined the cia and was the first career officer to scale the ranks to become this irector. He served as president of texas a m from 2002 to 2006. When president bush called him to washington to serve a, as secretary
1619, ship over arrived carrying stolen African People taken from angola. Here, they were sold and sold again. The first enslaved African People who were not granted the same freedoms that would be given to white landowning they joined the thousands of virginias first people, the members of the Virginian Indian tribes who would also wait centuries to have the same freedoms. These commemorations of the First Representative Assembly in the free world, we have to remember who it included and who did not. Virginia,e paradox of of america, of our representative democracy. A full accounting demands that we confront and discuss those aspects of our history. It demands that we look not just in time for hundred years in the past, but at how our commonwealth and country of all dover the course of those four centuries. Over they evolved course of those four centuries. Joining us now is cassandra newbyalexander. She teaches at norfolk state university. We appreciate you being with us here on cspan