Korean Ambassador to Address Ethical Issues

The Honorable James T. Laney, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, will deliver the 1996-97 Margaret Lindquist Sorensen Lecture on Wednesday, March 26, at 4 p.m. in Yale Divinity School’s Marquand Chapel, 409 Prospect Street. His topic will be “Interests and Ethics.” The lecture is free and open to the public.

Ambassador Laney is a graduate of Yale, holding bachelors degrees in economics, B.A., 1950, and divinity, B.D., 1954, as well as a Ph.D., 1966. He has been awarded honorary degrees from 12 institutions, including Yale in 1993, and received the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal, Yale’s highest honor, at Commencement in May 1996.

Before becoming ambassador to Korea in October 1993, Dr. Laney was president of Emory University for 16 years. During that time, Emory emerged as a major teaching and research university with an endowment that placed it sixth among colleges and universities in the U.S. Dr. Laney has published and spoken widely on issues of higher education and ethics in the professions. A collection of his addresses, “The Education of the Heart,” was published in 1994.

Dr. Laney’s ties to Korea go back to 1947-48, when he served in Army counterintelligence. From 1959-64, under the Methodist Church, he taught at Yonsei University. Since then, he has maintained close ties to Korea, returning often to present lectures.

The Margaret Lindquist Sorensen Lectureship was established in 1978 by a gift from her son, Dr. Andrew A. Sorensen – B.D. 1962, M.Phil. 1969, Ph.D. 1971 – to provide an annual series of lectures on politics and ethics. Dr. Sorensen, president of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, will attend the lecture with his wife and mother.