Margaret Chase Smith Leadership Speaker Series
About the Speaker Series About Margaret Chase Smith Back to LEL Links
About the Speaker Series
The Margaret Chase Smith Leadership Speaker Series has been made possible due to a generous gift from the Margaret Chase Smith Foundation. This series has developed into a focus on Combat Leadership at the Junior Officer level. Our goal is to expose the Second-Class Midshipmen to Junior Officer Combat Leaders for a specific reason: they will be in that position in a few years. The Midshipmen are here to learn how to be effective in both combat and during peacetime. The list of speakers for this year will include officers from the Navy, Marine Corps and Army. The intent is to focus on the hardships of combat at the ground level. Each speaker has had recent leadership experiences during Operation Enduring Freedom and/or Operation Iraqi Freedom. Our hope is that the speakers will open the Midshipmen’s eyes to their near future.
Margaret Chase Smith, a native of Skoweghan, Maine, was a highly notable women. Among her many accomplishments, Senator Smith become the first woman to be elected to both Houses of Congress, the first to publicly denounce the tactics of Senator McCarthy's anticommunist crusade with an explosive speech ("Declaration of Conscience") in 1950, and the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for the Presidency at a major political party's national convention. The following is a mere fraction of her many notable accomplishments:
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Organized Skowhegan chapter of Business and Professional Women's Club (BPW) and later served as President of the Maine Federation BPW
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Member of the House of Representatives and later the Senate
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One of the first 20 inductees to the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York
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Accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George Bush
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Served 32 years in Congress
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Established the Margaret Chase Smith Library
Please visit the following link to learn more about this notable women:
A library on Margaret Chase Smith.