Don Hickey, history scholar and Alexander Hamilton impersonator
Bellevue University will celebrate U.S. Constitution Day Sept. 17 by hosting a performance by Don Hickey, a noted history scholar who has performed as founding father Alexander Hamilton since 1987. Hickey will deliver a three-part program, beginning with an address to the audience, in character, designed to illuminate Hamilton’s life, public service and vision for America. He also will field questions from the audience, in character.
Hickey’s Sept. 17 performance begins at 12:15 p.m., inside the Hitchcock Humanities Center, 1000 Galvin Road South. The event is free and open to the public.
The program touches on Hamilton’s service on George Washington’s staff during the Revolutionary War, his contribution to the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention in 1787, his authorship of the Federalist Papers and his accomplishments as the nation’s first secretary of the treasury.
Hickey earned his Ph.D. in American history from the University of Illinois and currently is a history professor at Wayne State College in Nebraska. He has taught at a number of other institutions, including the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. Since 1987, he has performed as Hamilton in more than a dozen states and his work has been featured on C-SPAN.
The celebration of Constitution Day is in line with Bellevue University’s mission to educate its students about Western culture, history, vision and values through the Kirkpatrick Signature Series. Most Americans today possess only a passing knowledge of this material, and it often is learned in middle or high school – then forgotten. The Kirkpatrick Signature Series consists of three courses: American Vision and Values; Tradition and Change; and Freedom and Responsibility. Students study the writings of, among others, C.S. Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, Alexis de Tocqueville and Aristotle. Also included in the readings – of course – is the U.S. Constitution.
Filed under: Events | Tagged: Bellevue University, Constitution Day, Kirkpatrick Signature Series
