Peggy Noonan
The Sharon and John Loeb Lecture
Peggy Noonan wrote the words a nation needed after the Challenger exploded (“slipped the surly bonds of earth”), the words that framed a generation of Republicans (“a kinder, gentler nation,” “a thousand points of light”), and, every Saturday for more than twenty years, the Wall Street Journal column, Declarations, that won her the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary and a readership that spans the aisle. A Brooklyn-born daughter of Irish immigrants who became a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and the author of ten books, including the classic What I Saw at the Revolution and, most recently, A Certain Idea of America, Noonan combines a poet’s ear with a precinct captain’s instincts. In conversation, she takes the measure of a turbulent political moment, the state of the two parties, the craft of writing for presidents, and the enduring character of the country she has spent a lifetime describing.
Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr. (d. 2026) was descended from a storied lineage of American civic and financial leadership, with family ties to the Lehmans, Bronfmans, Morgenthaus, and Lewisohns. He began his career as an investment banker at Loeb, Rhoades & Co. President Reagan appointed him U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, and he served later as a delegate to the U.N. General Assembly. Having received a C.B.E. from the Queen of England and the Grand Cross of the Order of Dannebrog from the Queen of Denmark, Amb. Loeb exemplified a commitment to public service and philanthropy. He was a passionate advocate for pluralism and democratic values. Sharon H. Loeb, his widow, graduated from Columbia School of Law, is fluent in French, Spanish, and Italian, and had a long career as an international attorney/business advisor. Later, as a philanthropist she established the Endowment for Integrative Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in the name of her family, one of the founders of the medical school. She also served for a decade as the Chairman of the Aspen Brain Institute and worked at her husband’s side as an avid supporter of the Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr. Institute for Religious Freedom and Democracy at George Washington University, for which she intends to carry on his legacy.