No Word from Obama, Bill Moyers to be Rutgers' Commencement Speaker

New Brunswick, NJ - In the fall of 2013, Rutgers University president Robert Barchi wrote a letter to President Barack Obama, inviting him to speak at the 2016 graduation ceremony. The 2016 commencement is a big deal: Rutgers is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year.

That was almost three years ago.

Rutgers hasn't heard from the White House since.

"We continue to await a response," university spokesman Greg Trevor told NJ.com last month.

So the school announced Wednesday broadcast journalist Bill Moyers will be its 250th anniversary commencement speaker. Rutgers' commencement is May 15.

Moyers, who lives in Bernardsville, New Jersey, graduated from the University of Texas and, in a little known fact, received his Master of Divinity degree.

In 1960, he changed paths by joining the staff of the Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Baines Johnson. When Johnson became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Moyers became special assistant to President Johnson for domestic policy before serving as his press secretary.

He went on to work as the publisher of Newsday for three years before joining PBS in 1971, hosting Bill Moyers Journal. He served as senior correspondent for the CBS documentary series CBS Reports and for five years was senior news analyst of the CBS Evening News. He is president of the Schumann Media Center, a nonprofit organization for the support of independent journalism.

Moyers and his wife, Judith Davidson Moyers, have been responsible for highly praised explorations of death and dying, addiction and recovery, and faith and reason, as well as the acclaimed PBS series Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth; America’s First River: Bill Moyers on the Hudson; The Language of Life; Genesis: A Living Conversation; The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith; Becoming American: The Chinese Experience and Amazing Grace.