Hershey, Green have Press Club date

Former BJ and Dayton Daily News Columbus bureau chief Bill Hershey and University of Akron faculty director John Green will discuss their book, "Mr. Chairman: The Life And Times Of Ray C. Bliss," at the Akron Press Club on Wednesday, January 24, at the Tangier, 532 W. Market Street, Akron.

They will do their schtick after the 11:45 a.m. buffet.

You have to pay $25 (public) or $20 (Press Club members) to be in the audience.

 This event is co-sponsored by the University of Akron's Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics. Green is its director.

 "Mr. Chairman" tells the story of how Ray C. Bliss was a force in the Republican Party for more than three decades, in Ohio and on the national stage. He was among the first to use polling and television in campaigns.

He became national chair of the party in 1965, following Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater's landside Presidential election defeat. Bliss rebuilt the party. His ability to unite liberal, moderate and conservative Republicans helped put Richard M. Nixon in the White House in 1968. 

John Green is Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, a post he has held since 1988. 

Bill spent more than 40 years reporting on Ohio government and politics at the local, state and national levels -- and on the BJ State Desk under Pat Englehart -- before retiring from the Dayton Daily News in 2012.

He was Washington correspondent for the Akron Beacon Journal.  He covered nine national political conventions and eight Ohio presidential campaigns.

Reservations are required by January 19. Contact Lianne Fowler, Akron Press Club administrator, at 330-552-8860 or akronpressclub@gmail.com .  

The Akron Press Club was founded in 1971.