Some 31 years after President Ronald Reagan traveled to the University of Virginia and gave his final foreign policy address, he is making a triumphant return to Charlottesville via the first college-level course dedicated to the Gipper.
Biographer Craig Shirley, who has penned four books on Reagan, including Last Act on the post-presidency years up to the president’s 2004 death, is set to teach “Lessons in Leadership: Reagan,” this fall at the university’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.
“Reagan is now near timeless, like Washington and Lincoln,” said Shirley.
He plans to feature experts, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; Ken Adelman, a foreign policy official who will discuss the Reykjavík Summit; MSNBC “Morning Joe” host and former Florida Rep. Joe Scarborough; and historian Jon Meacham, who will give a thorough overview of Reagan’s presidency.
John Heubusch, the executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, said Shirley’s course is the first he knows of dedicated to Reagan.
But more could come. He said the 40th president remains very popular, and his library is top in the presidential library system.
“Interest in Reagan is as strong as ever as evidenced by the number of visitors who still make their way here. We are still seeing about a half-million visitors per year to the Reagan Library, which includes our museum turnstile, special events, holiday visitors. That’s almost twice as many as visit every other presidential library,” he said.
