Clay S. Jenkinson

Clay Straus Jenkinson (born February 4, 1955 in Minot, North Dakota) is an American humanities Rhodes scholar, Danforth Scholar, and author.

Life

Jenkinson was born in Minot; his father was a banker and his mother a schoolteacher. Although the family moved quite often when he and his sister were children, Jenkinson grew up mostly in Dickinson in southwest North Dakota. He graduated from Dickinson High School in 1973 and then attended the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. He graduated in 1977 with a degree in English, and was then a Rhodes scholar at Oxford.

At the age of 50, Jenkinson returned to North Dakota as a permanent resident in 2005 and resides in Bismarck. He is currently the Director of The Dakota Institute through The Lewis & Clark Fort Mandan Foundation, Chief Consultant to The Theodore Roosevelt Center through Dickinson State University, Distinguished Humanities Scholar at Bismarck State College, and a columnist for the Bismarck Tribune. He is James Marsh Professors-at-Large at the University of Vermont.^[1]

Jenkinson has one daughter, Catherine Missouri, from his marriage ending in 1997. Catherine was named after the Little Missouri River, which Jenkinson has said he finds poetic.

Portrayal of Jefferson

He first achieved fame for his portrayal (first-person historical interpretation) of Thomas Jefferson. As co-founder of the modern Chautauqua movement,^[2] Jenkinson has also portrayed Sir Francis Bacon, Jonathan Swift, J. Robert Oppenheimer, John Wesley Powell, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Theodore Roosevelt, and Meriwether Lewis.^[3]

Jenkinson's public portrayals take the form of lengthy monologues followed by Q & A sessions as the character (in costume) featured for that performance. At the end of his performances, he steps out of character and answers questions as himself. Another performance variation is represented by his nationally syndicated radio show, "The Thomas Jefferson Hour":^[4]

While staying resolutely in character, Mr. Jenkinson permits Jefferson to answer audience questions on a broad range of historical subjects and comment carefully on contemporary social and political topics.

On November 15, 2006, Clay appeared as Jefferson on The Colbert Report with two other Jefferson impersonators, Bill Barker and Steven Edenbo.

Awards

In 1989, Jenkinson became one of the first winners of the nation’s highest award in the humanities, the Charles Frankel Prize. The National Endowment for the Humanities once described Jenkinson as, “A leader in the revival of Chautauqua, a forum for public discussion about the ideas and lives of key figures in American history.” Others who have received this award include Ken Burns, Bill Moyers and Charles Kuralt.This year, Jenkinson received the Robert J. Laxalt Writer of the Year Award from University of Nevada-Reno. Jenkinson was a senior fellow for the Center for Digital Government, based in California, and was scholar-in-residence at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon from 2002–2006 , and Roosevelt scholar-in-residence at Dickinson State University from 2005-2008.

References

1. ^ http://www.uvm.edu/artsandsciences/forfaculty/marsh_profs/?Page=profs_at_large/jenkinson_clay.html
2. ^ http://www.dakotaskyeducation.com/
3. ^ http://www.dakotaskyeducation.com/Chautauqua.htm
4. ^ http://www.jeffersonhour.org/

External links

• Thomas Jefferson Hour.org - official site
• Dakota Sky Education.com - Jenkinson's informational website
• Clay Jenkinson column - The Bismarck Tribune - 02-Oct-2005
• Prairie Public.org - Clay Jenkinson at 50 - 04-Feb-2005
• Dickinson State University - faculty directory

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Name	Jenkinson, Clay S.
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Date of birth	February 4, 1955
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