TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Former University of Alabama President David Mathews will deliver the keynote speech at The University of Alabama School of Law annual Farrah Law Alumni Society Banquet on Friday, Feb. 22, at the Richard M. Scrushy Conference Center in Birmingham.

Mathews earned both his bachelor’s degree (1958) and his master’s degree (1959) from UA, and his doctorate in the history of American education from Columbia University. He served as UA president from 1969-1980, where he also taught history for 15 years. The University developed many new divisions during Mathews’s tenure as president, including New College, the Computer Honors Program and Interim Session. In 1975, he took leave from the University to serve under President Ford as Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Since 1981, Mathews has been with the Kettering Foundation, where he serves as trustee, president and chief executive officer. The Foundation, located in Dayton, Ohio, with offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City, seeks ways to make fundamental changes in how democratic politics are practiced. It is a research foundation that devises and tests strategies that will strengthen the role of citizens in governing themselves. Mathews is also the chairman of the Council on Public Policy Education and a trustee of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation.