Statewide Iowa — Former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad will be “ambassador-in-residence” at Drake University, meeting with students and planning to host a yearly conference about U.S. and China relations.
Branstad, who was President Trump’s Ambassador to China, graduated from Drake’s law school 50 years ago.
Branstad, the nation’s longest-serving governor, has just turned 75. His office on the Drake campus is in the law library.
Branstad hopes to organize an annual conference to focus on the U.S. relationship with China a country Branstad says can be considered both an adversary and a potential trading partner.
Branstad says it was no easy task as the ambassador to evacuate 13-hundred people from China back to the United States. Branstad says the Chinese government has done everything it can to cover up the origins of COVID-19 and the world probably will never know for sure how it started.
Some of Branstad’s personal papers and memorabilia will also be donated to Drake. Some of it is already at the Winnebago County Historical Museum.
Branstad’s official papers from his time as governor are digitized and available at the State Historical Museum’s library. Digital copies will soon be available at the library on the Drake campus as well. Drake’s library is also the repository for Senator Tom Harkin’s papers and the records of former Governor Robert Ray. Ray graduated from Drake’s Law School in 1954 and served as Drake’s interim president in 1998.
