GREENSBURG, PA – Seton Hill University is proud to present Dave Barry as the final speaker in its “American Perspective” lecture series. Barry will appear at the Palace Theatre in Greensburg on Wednesday, March 5, 2003 at 7:30 p.m. The lecture series, offered in partnership with the Westmoreland Bar Association, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, and the Westmoreland Trust, celebrates the American spirit and has previously featured Chief Richard Picciotto, Fire Department of New York Battalion Commander and Lesley Stahl, Co-Editor of “60 Minutes.”

Dave Barry is a humor columnist for the Miami Herald. His column appears in more than 500 newspapers in the United States and abroad. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1988 for his consistently effective use of humor as a device for presenting fresh insights into serious concerns.

The following excerpts are taken from a biographical sketch that Dave Barry prepared about himself. They offer insight in advance of his March 5th appearance:

Dave Barry was born in Armonk, New York in 1947, and has been steadily growing older ever since without ever actually reaching maturity. He attended public schools, where he distinguished himself by not getting in nearly as much trouble as he would have if the authorities had been aware of everything. He is proud to have been elected “Class Clown” by the 1965 Pleasantville High School Class.

Barry went to Haverford College, where he was an English major and wrote lengthy scholarly papers filled with sentences that even he did not understand. He graduated in 1969 and eventually got a job with a newspaper named—this is the real name—The Daily Local News in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he covered a series of incredibly dull municipal meetings, some of which are still going on.

In 1975, Barry joined Burger Associates, a consulting firm that teaches effective writing to business people. He spent nearly eight years trying to get his students to stop writing things like “Enclosed please find the enclosed enclosures,” but he eventually realized that it was hopeless. So in 1983, he took a job at the Miami Herald, and he has been there ever since, although he never answers the phone.

Barry has written a number of books including, Babies and Other Hazards of Sex; Dave Barry Slept Here: A Short History of the United States; Dave Barry’s Gift Guide to End All Gift Guides and Dave Barry Turns 40. His most recent work is the fictional comic mystery novel Tricky Business that brings together a motley group of South Florida eccentrics on an ill-fated casino boat voyage. A prior novel, Big Trouble, became a movie starring Tim Allen. Dave’s World, a TV show starring Harry Anderson and based on the life of Dave Barry, ran briefly on CBS.

Tickets for Dave Barry’s lecture are $40 for orchestra/loge seats, $30 for balcony seating and $50 for a special reception with Barry following the lecture. Tickets are available by visiting the Palace Theatre’s website at www.thepalacetheatre.org or by phoning the Theatre directly at 724-836-8000.