NPC Virtual Newsmaker: Senator Bob Dole

Former Sen. Robert Dole, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, will headline a National Press Club virtual Newsmaker event commemorating Veterans Day and the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11. He will be interviewed by Club President Michael Freedman.

The pre-recorded program will become available at that time via livestream on the Club website.

Dole will reflect on an epic chapter in U.S. and world history in which he played a life-altering role. He was seriously wounded during World War II while fighting the Germans in Italy in 1945, and spent years undergoing rehabilitation at a military hospital.

He went on to become one of the most important U.S. political figures of the latter half of the 20th century. Dole, a native of Russell, Kansas, represented the state in the U.S House of Representatives for four terms beginning in 1961. In 1968, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served until 1996. He was Senate Republican leader from 1985 until 1996, building a reputation as an effective bipartisan legislator. Dole retired from the Senate in 1996 to accept the Republican presidential nomination.

Dole was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1997 and served as national chairman of the World War II Memorial. In 2018, he became only the eighth U.S. senator to receive the Congressional Gold Medal.