Clyde G. Lear, one of the nation’s leading broadcast executives and an alumnus of Central Methodist University, will present the 2009 Merrill E. Gaddis Memorial Lecture at Central Methodist University on Oct. 1.

Titled “The Hot Tub,” the lecture will begin at 7 p.m. in the Courtney-Spalding Room of the CMU Student and Community Center. The public is invited.

Lear is chairman and CEO of Learfield Communications Inc., a company he started in 1972 as an outgrowth of his master’s project at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. The company owns the nation’s largest agricultural radio network, the Brownfield Network; five state news networks: the Missourinet, Radio Iowa, the Wisconsin Radio Network, South Carolina News Network and the Nebraska News Network. It also owns the sports marketing and broadcast rights for 54 major universities.

The company also owns a nationwide data service for radio and television stations and Team Services, the nation’s largest venue naming rights company.  The Jefferson City-based company has offices in 70 cities around the nation.

Lear received a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from MU in 1968 and a bachelor’s degree in English in 1966 from Central Methodist College (CMU) in Fayette. He attended high school in Jefferson City, where he was born in 1944. His high school awarded him the Distinguished Alumni award and he was campaign chairman for the successful bond issue effort by the district in 1990.

Lear is a leader in higher education. He served on the Board of Trustees of Central Methodist University for 13 years, including five as board chair, 1981 - 1995. He was recognized by CMU with the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1981 and is a member of the 1992 Class of Distinguished Alumni from the University of Missouri-Columbia, an award which highlighted his significant contribution to media in the state. He also has been honored by the Missouri School of Journalism. Also in 1992, Lear served on the Task Force for Critical Choices for the Missouri Department of Higher Education.

Lear was a member of the Memorial Community Hospital (Capital Region Medical Center), Jefferson City, Board of Governors, Board of Trustees and served as president in 1984.

He has served two three-year terms on the Jefferson Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and is a past chairman, 2006.

He was appointed by Gov. John Ashcroft to serve on the Missouri 2000 Commission in 1986; and in 1985 was elected as one of 13 members of the Jefferson City Charter Commission, which drafted a home rule charter for Missouri’s capital city. He was chairman of his community’s Airport Commission for five years: 1980-1985.

Lear is a member of the Central Trust Bank (Jefferson City) Board of Directors and a member of the board  of Burger’s Country Meats in California, Mo. He is also a board member of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, the Jefferson City Rotary Club and the Jefferson City Country Club.

Lear, along with his wife, Sue (Weaver) Lear (CMU class of 1966), have for many years volunteered their efforts on behalf of young people across Missouri. In Jefferson City they helped other volunteers in bringing the faith-based organization Young Life to three local high schools and then to Columbia-area high schools.  Clyde Lear has been central to the annual Governor’s Student Leadership Forum on Faith and Values now in its 22nd year, beginning in 1987.

The Lears are active in the First United Methodist Church of Jefferson City, where they reside. They have three grown children.

Lear began his interest in broadcasting while a staff member of the student radio station at Central, KMOE, and was its manager from 1964 to 1966.

Sponsored each year by CMU’s Kappa Chapter of Pi Gamma Mu International Honor Society for the Social Sciences, the Merrill E. Gaddis Memorial Lecture honors Dr. Gaddis, who founded the Missouri Kappa Chapter of Pi Gamma Mu in 1935 and served as Pi Gamma Mu Regional Chancellor. Gaddis, who joined the CMU faculty in 1929, was professor of history and later chair of the Social Sciences Division at CMU until his death in 1958.

The national honor society has sponsored the Gaddis Lecture since 1984. Central Methodist student Joseph Taylor White, president of the Kappa Chapter of Pi Gamma Mu, will introduce the speaker. White, a junior, is a political science major. He is the son of Warren W. and Laura L. White of East Prairie.