Tori Murden McClure
Author, Antarctic explorer, and current college president Tori Murden McClure will speak at Gustavus Adolphus College at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19 in Christ Chapel. Murden McClure is the author of A Pearl in the Storm, which is the College’s Reading in Common book for 2013-14 academic year.
Murden McClure is currently serving as President of Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. She was one of two women and six Americans who were the first women and first Americans to travel over land to the geographic South Pole, skiing 750 miles from the ice shelf to the pole. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Smith College, a Masters in Divinity from Harvard University, a Juris Doctorate from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, and a Master’s of Fine Arts in writing from Spalding. Professionally, Murden McClure has worked as a chaplain at Boston City Hospital, the executive director of a shelter for homeless women, as a public policy assistant for the Mayor of Louisville, and she worked for Muhammad Ali to assist with early efforts to create the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville.
A Pearl in the Storm is about failure and recovery. It is about storms that twist our lives and shatter our dreams. It is about the pearls: the guides, the guardians, and the mentors who lift us up after we fall. In June 1998, Murden McClure began rowing across the Atlantic Ocean solo in a twenty-three-foot plywood boat with no motor or sail. Within days she lost all communication with shore but decided to forge ahead, not knowing that 1998 would turn out to be the worst hurricane season on record in the North Atlantic. When she was nearly killed by a series of violent storms, Murden McClure was forced to signal for help and head home in what felt like disgrace. But then her life changed in unexpected ways. A Pearl in the Storm is Murden McClure’s thrilling story of high adventure, and of her personal quest to discover that embracing her own humanity was more important than superhuman feats.
Murden McClure’s lecture on Sept. 19 is free and open to the public. There will be a question and answer session and a book signing following the lecture. The lecture will also be live streamed for those who are unable to attend the event in person. Arrangements for the appearance of Tori Murden McClure were made through HarperCollins Speakers Bureau, NY, NY.
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Media Contact: Director of Media Relations and Internal Communication Luc Hatlestad
luch@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510