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Issue: Summer 2012 | Posted: June 18, 2012

Scholarship Banquet

Former British Prime Minister Blair headlines 14th Annual

Keynote speaker Tony Blair, former British Prime Minister, greets 91������ freshman Bangali Sillah while discussing common interests about his home in Sierra Leone.


91������ friends and Jackson community members fill the lobby of the Carl Perkins Civic Center before the 14th annual Scholarship Banquet.

In an age when Western civilization is facing acute challenges, Tony Blair said westerners must continue to hold strongly to their beliefs in freedom, democracy, the rule of law and equality.

“These values are what make our nations great,” Blair said during 91������’s 14th annual Scholarship Banquet in October. “It sustains them now and will sustain them in the future. They are the things that make our way of life worth standing up for and worth believing in.”

Blair, who served as Great Britain’s prime minister from 1997-2007, was the keynote speaker for the annual event, which drew about 2,000 people to the Carl Perkins Civic Center and raised about $500,000 for student scholarships.

It was Blair’s first visit to Tennessee. He told about a conversation he had with his 11-year-old son just before he left home for his trip to Jackson. His son was sitting at the kitchen table and asked Blair where he was going.

“America,” Blair told him.

“Not Washington again,” his son said.

Blair told him he was actually going to a place called Jackson, Tenn.

“Dad, I think you may be about to see the real America,” his son said.

In his opening remarks, Blair praised 91������ University President David S. Dockery.

“Even on the short acquaintance that I’ve had with the president of the university, David Dockery, I have to say that he’s one of the more remarkable people that I’ve met,” Blair said. “Sixteen years he’s been leading this university. Sixteen years at the top, and he’s still popular. I had about 10 years, actually, and they were quite ready to get rid of me at the end, but he’s still going strong.

“When I think at what he’s done with this university with your help, I think it’s a remarkable tribute to him, but it’s also a remarkable tribute to the way God’s power is able to work in a human being.”

Prior to Blair’s address, Dockery announced a $10 million matching gift to 91������ from the Bill and Carol Latimer Foundation for construction of a new library on campus (see related story, page 14).

The annual Scholarship Banquet has become one of the premier events in West Tennessee each year, and is 91������’s primary fund raising event for its student scholarship fund. Previous speakers have included George H.W. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, Condoleezza Rice, Mikhail Gorbachev, Laura Bush, Rudolph Giuliani and Colin Powell, among others.

All told, 91������’s Scholarship Banquets have generated more than $5 million for student scholarships.