The Judson Welliver Society is an exclusive group of former presidential speechwriters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently I was doing more research about speech writing in the EBSCOhost database from my friendly local public library (via LiLI). I found an article by Terry Edmonds in the Washington Monthly on June 20, 2022 titled Why we need speechwriters who look like America. Terry mentioned his being inducted into an organization I had never heard of, The Judson Welliver Society. He was Bill Clinton’s chief speechwriter and the first African-American presidential speechwriter. Hendrick Hertzberg had another article in the Washington Post on October 20, 1985 titled In Praise of Judson Welliver.

 

Judson Churchill Welliver worked for Warren G. Harding, and was the first man to hold the title of presidential speechwriter. My cartoon of a labeled door just is a joke – that social club doesn’t have an office. There once was a Judson Welliver Project, but I couldn’t find a good public-domain photo of Judson there or in the Wikipedia article on him.  

 

There is a C-Span Classroom article (for social studies teachers) on November 3, 2022 titled Lesson Plan: So you want to be a presidential speechwriter? It has the following 13 brief video clips (adding to a total of almost 67 minutes):

 

Relationship Between Ideas and Speeches - 5:05

The Role of Audience - 3:43

Best and Worst Settings - 8:33

The Correspondents’ Dinner - 2:48

Excerpt of Dick Cheney’s Speech - 3:16

Excerpt of Barack Obama’s 2011 Speech - 3:44

Framework for Speeches - 9:47

Foreign or Domestic - 5:31

The Voice of the President - 2:44

Excerpt of Barack Obama’s 2017 Speech - 3:48

The Draft Process - 4:12

Influence and Challenge - 9:31

Practicing Presidents - 5:01

 

There is another C-Span Classroom article on March 6, 2016 titled Bell Ringer: Presidential Speechwriting with a ten-minute video clip from Dr. Craig Smith on his Confessions of a Presidential Speechwriter. Craig Smith also has a 55-minute YouTube video at The Dole Institute of Politics [University of Kansas] titled The Craft of the Presidential Speechwriter.

 

What other exclusive groups are there for public speakers?  Toastmasters International has the designation of Accredited Speaker, and their profiles page lists just 39 of them. The National Speakers Association has the coveted designation of NSA Certified Speaking Professional (CSP). I found undated estimates that there are approximately 600 or less than 1000 of them.

 

The door was adapted from Openclipart.