SIMI VALLEY : Columnist to Launch Reagan Library Series

Noted conservative columnist and commentator George Will will visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Monday to help launch a new lecture series called “The Reagan Forum.”

Delivering a lecture titled “What Really Happened in the 1980s,” Will will attempt to refute criticism of the Reagan era, said Richard Norton Smith, director of the library, which is near Simi Valley.

“I think there are a lot of people who feel that there’s been some unhealthy revisionism going on over the last five years about what really went on in the 1980s,” Smith said. Former President Reagan “certainly feels that it’s time that the other side get an airing and there’s probably no more thoughtful voice of conservatism in America than George Will.”

Smith said the new series will not always take such a conservative viewpoint. “It will be a very diverse group in terms of the kinds of people who come here,” he said.

In addition to writing a syndicated column that appears twice weekly in 500 newspapers throughout the United States and Europe, Will is a contributing editor to Newsweek magazine and a television news analyst for the Capital Cities / ABC News Television Network Group.

The commentator will speak in the library auditorium at 5 p.m. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis at $20 per person. Tickets for a private reception with Will following his lecture are available for $50. For reservations or information, call 522-2977.