Penn State alumnus Roger Williams, who won the 2018 Lion’s Paw Medal award for his service to the university, will discuss his new book on Penn State’s first president Evan Pugh at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24 in Foster Auditorium at the Paterno Library. An autograph session from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. will follow the lecture.

“Evan Pugh’s Penn State: America’s Model Agricultural College” was released in March and is Williams’ second book about the history of Penn State. The other — “The Origins of Federal Support for Higher Education: George W. Atherton and the Land-Grant College Movement” — hit bookshelves in 1991.

Williams’ dedication to Penn State has never wavered. The Huntingdon, PA native’s father, who graduated from the university in 1948, encouraged his son’s love for Penn State by taking him to football games. Williams graduated from Penn State in 1973 with a degree in history and eventually earned a master’s degree in journalism and a doctorate in education.

Once he concluded his studies, he served as Penn State’s director of university relations from 1986 to 1995. After administrative stints at Georgetown University and the University of Arkansas, he returned to his alma mater in 2003 to serve as director of the Penn State Alumni Association. He retired from this post in 2015.