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4/14/2005
Contact: K.E. Schwab -- 724-738-2199;
e-mail: karl.schwab@sru.edu
SRU ALUMNUS, EXPERT ON ALASKAN PETROLEUM TO
LECTURE AT ALMA MATER MONDAY
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa.
– Joe E. LaRocca, a native of North East, and a 1953
graduate of Slippery Rock University, will return to his alma mater
for three days, starting Monday [April 18] to detail his recently
published book "Alaska Agonistes: The age of Petroleum," subtitled
"How Big Oil Bought Alaska."
A journalist for
more than 40 years in both print and broadcast and across four
states, he spent more than 20 years, 1967-1986 in Alaska. His
non-fiction, self-published work, is an anecdotal political history
of the modern oil industry in Alaska and some of its social,
economic, cultural and environmental implications for the state and
the nation.
The book is based
on his work as a newsman in Alaska covering local, state, national
and international politics as they relate to Alaska's emergent role
as a major oil producing province of the world.
LaRocca, who earned
his bachelors degree in English and social studies and holds an MPA
at Harvard, will be featured at a 2 p.m. lecture in Bailey Library
on the opening day of SRU’s Annual arts festival,
Kaleidoscope. His visit will also include lecturers at a number of
classrooms in courses related to the topic.
An Army veteran,
who served in Korea, LaRocca, was a reporter at the Telegraph in
Painesville, Ohio, and city editor of the Erie [Pa.] Morning News
as well as press secretary to the Secretary, Pennsylvania
House of Representatives. He was an investigative writer and field
representative for the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, assistant
news editor of the Daily news-Miner in Fairbanks, Al., legislative
correspondent and resources editor for the News-Miner in
Juneau, reporter, legislative correspondent, commentator for
KFRB-KTVF in Fairbanks, and for the Alaska Broadcasting
System, and was a founding editor and publisher of
CounterMedia, The Alaska Journalism Review and Public Affairs
Journal. He holds numerous awards and was founding director of The
Fairbanks North Star Borough Trans Alaska Pipeline Impact
Information Center.
PN, PgN, WPN, PR, TV
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