Rev. Samuel Clark, former chaplain of Oxford College of Emory University, will return to the campus Thursday, March 26, to deliver the 2009 Samuel W. Mills Peace Lecture. This program series was established by John A. Mills III and Elizabeth W. Mills, parents of Sam Mills, an Oxford alumnus who was killed on bicycling accident in 1986, his senior year at Emory College. The lectures, now hosted by Oxford’s Pierce Program in Religion, reflect the interests of Mills, who placed great importance on his rural Georgia heritage and ties to family and local folkways, while also working for national and global peace. Speakers in the series must be Georgians who have made a major contribution toward world peace.

Rev. Clark, know at Oxford simply as “Sammy,” was Oxford’s first campus chaplain, serving from 1982 to 1999. During his tenure, he established Leadership Oxford, an intensive eight-day experience that prepares student leaders for their duties in campus organizations. It continues to be one of Oxford’s most popular and effective leadership programs. He also began a service/travel program at Oxford which later expanded across Emory University and is now known as Journeys of Reconciliation, which takes participants from Oxford and Emory colleges to communities around the world where there is a history of conflict, violence and exploitation.

Now retired, Clark is a graduate of Emory University and holds a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary. A member of the North Georgia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, he and his wife Betty Claire reside in the North Georgia Mountains.

Past lecturers in the series have included President Jimmy Carter, Roselyn Carter, Rep. John Lewis and Sen. Max Cleland.

The lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 26, at the Allen Memorial United Methodist Church at 803 Whatcoat Street in Oxford. Admission is free and open to the public and parking is free, available at the church and on nearby streets.