Where We Are 
Doris Kearns Goodwin Gives Cutchins Lecture
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, author, and TV commentator Doris Kearns Goodwin gave the Cutchins Distinguished Lecture on campus recently.
The Cutchins Distinguished Lecture, named for the late Clifford A. Cutchins III (ACCT ’44), a former bank chairman and rector of the Board of Visitors, is sponsored by the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets Rice Center for Leader Development and the Pamplin College of Business and is also held in celebration of Founders Day.
In her talk, “Leadership Lessons from Abraham Lincoln,” based on her best-seller, “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” Goodwin discussed the powerful personal qualities that enabled the nation’s 16th president to transform political rivals into friends or allies who helped him govern the nation. Those qualities, Goodwin said, included “a quiet self-confidence,” an “extraordinary empathy” with people and understanding of human nature, “his ability to share credit for his successes, willingness to accept blame for the failures of subordinates, ability to concede error on his own part, and capacity to recognize his own weaknesses and to compensate for them.”
The Cutchins Distinguished Lecture has brought such speakers as George Will, David Gergen, Tim Russert, James Carville and Mary Matalin, and George Stephanopoulos to campus.