Mihara selected to give Jefferson Lecture at National Endowment for Humanities

Oil City News

Sam Mihara, who was incarcerated at the Heart Mountain confinement site as a child during World War II, has been chosen to give the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Jefferson Lecture on Jan. 15 at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Los Angeles. 

Mihara is the first Japanese American to give the lecture, which was first presented in 1972. At 91, he is the oldest recipient of the honor and the only rocket scientist. 

He joins an illustrious group of historians, artists, authors and educators that includes luminaries such as David McCullough, Arthur Miller, Henry Louis Gates, Saul Bellow, Barbara Tuchman, Toni Morrison and Ken Burns. 

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