Clay S. Jenkinson

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Clay Straus Jenkinson (born February 4, 1955 in Minot, North Dakota) is an American humanities Rhodes scholar, Danforth Scholar, and author. He first achieved fame for his portrayal (first-person historical interpretation) of Thomas Jefferson. As co-founder of the modern Chautauqua movement, Jenkinson has also portrayed Sir Francis Bacon, Jonathan Swift, J. Robert Oppenheimer, John Wesley Powell, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Theodore Roosevelt, and Meriwether Lewis.[1]

Jenkinson's public portrayals take the form of lengthy monologues followed by Q & A sessions as the character (in costume) featured for that performance. At the end of his performances, he steps out of character and answers questions as himself. Another performance variation is represented by his nationally syndicated radio show, "The Thomas Jefferson Hour:" "While staying resolutely in character, Mr. Jenkinson permits Jefferson to answer audience questions on a broad range of historical subjects and comment carefully on contemporary social and political topics." [2]

Jenkinson was born in Minot; his father was a banker and his mother a schoolteacher. Although the family moved quite often when he and his sister were children, Jenkinson grew up mostly in Dickinson in southwest North Dakota. He graduated from Dickinson High School in 1973 and then attended the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. He graduated in 1977 with a degree in English, and was then a Rhodes scholar at Oxford.

In 1989, Jenkinson became one of the first winners of the nation’s highest award in the humanities, the Charles Frankel Prize. The National Endowment for the Humanities once described Jenkinson as, “A leader in the revival of chautauqua, a forum for public discussion about the ideas and lives of key figures in American history.” Others who have received this award include Ken Burns, Bill Moyers and Charles Kuralt.This year, Jenkinson received the Robert J. Laxalt Writer of the Year Award from University of Nevada-Reno. Jenkinson was a senior fellow for the Center for Digital Government, based in California, and was scholar-in-residence at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

At the age of 50, Jenkinson returned to North Dakota as a permanent resident in 2005 and resides in Bismarck. He is currently the Theodore Roosevelt Scholar in Residence and a Special Assistant to the President at Dickinson State University, and a columnist for the Bismarck Tribune.

On November 15, 2006, Clay appeared as Jefferson on The Colbert Report with two other Jefferson impersonators, Bill Barker and Steven Edenbo.

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