Kerrey to Keynote 'Acts of Service'
Conference on May 31

During a 33-year career at UC Santa Barbara as a professor of religious studies, the late Walter Capps advocated ardent but polite discourse as the proper road to problem-solving. He was more at home leading discussion than delivering lectures.

During his 10 months representing California's 22nd Congressional District--his term was cut short by a fatal heart attack in October 1997--Capps showed an uncommon commitment to civility and duty. He made a distinction between politicians and representatives, and placed himself in the later camp.

In honor of Capps, the Department of Religious Studies and La Casa de Maria Retreat & Conference Center have invited religious and political leaders from throughout the country to "Acts of Service: A Conference on Religion and Public Life." It will run Thursday, May 31, through Saturday, June 2, and will change venues from the Lobero Theatre to UCSB to the La Casa de Maria in Montecito.

A keynote address by former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey will open the conference. His speech, given at 8 p.m. on Thursday in the Lobero, will touch on the ideals that defined Capps. Titled "The Ethics of Walter Capps: From Popular Mechanics to the Beatitudes," Kerrey will entwine Capps' belief in the importance of dialogue in public life with the current national agenda.

A decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, Kerrey was a frequent guest in Capps' celebrated class examining the effects of that conflict. A Democrat, he served two terms as senator from Nebraska, one term as that state's governor, and currently is president of New School University in New York City.

Tickets for the Kerrey talk cost $7 and are available from the Lobero (963-0761) and Arts & Lectures (x3535). Due to limited seating, all other events are already fully booked.

The conference grew out of widespread community respect for Capps and belief in what he stood for, said organizing committee co-chairs Wade Clark Roof and Don George. "The hope is to do two things," said Roof, chair of religious studies and a long-time colleague of Capps. "One is to keep alive the memory of Walter Capps and his concern for building a better society. And the second is to raise the vision of how a permanent Capps center might continue to address the great issues of our time in the community, the country, and the world."

George, a director at La Casa de Maria, said the conference center--where Capps served 10 years on the governing board--is participating for similar reasons. "This conference is reinforcing the ideal that La Casa de Maria and Walter Capps embraced," he said. "That is the idea of servanthood lived out in the profession of religion and political life."