FULTON, Mo. Lt. General Richard C. Harding, USAF (Retired), the former highest-ranking attorney for the U.S. Air Force, will deliver the Cherry-Price Leadership lecture at 7 p.m. Nov. 26, in the Coulter Lecture Hall of the Coulter Science Center.
The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the lecture in the Coulter Atrium.
"We are honored that Lt. General Harding has agreed to deliver this important lecture on his years of extraordinary service to our country," said Westminster President Dr. Fletch Lamkin. "He was involved in some of the most agonizing decisions leaders can be called upon to make following the tragedy of 9/11."
Harding was the judge advocate general at Air Force headquarters in Washington, D.C. where he served as the legal advisor to the secretary of the Air Force and all officers and agencies of the Department of the Air Force.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Harding was in an underground facility near Omaha, Nebraska when the two planes crashed into the World Trade Center.
"Then the phone that never rings rang," he recalled.
Within an hour after the phone call, President George W. Bush arrived and Harding took part in the briefing with Bush, Vice-President Dick Chaney and U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as they decided how to respond to the deadliest terrorist attack on the United States in our nation's history.
He holds Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of Arkansas.
The Cherry-Price Leadership Lecture series was initiated March 1, 2016, to offer the Westminster community opportunities to hear about the personal journeys of today's entrepreneurial leaders.