Terry A. Anderson, retired Associated Press correspondent who was taken hostage in 1985 by Shiite Hezbollah militants and held hostage in Lebanon for six years, will speak at a special Sunday meeting of the Lake of the Woods Democratic Club on March 19.
The event, which will begin at 1:30 p.m. in the lower level of the LOW Clubhouse, is open to the public without regard to political affiliation. Hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be served.
Anderson, 68, is a former Marine and Vietnam veteran, and author of the best-selling book “Den of Lions,” recounting the time he was held hostage in Lebanon.
He is a former foreign correspondent in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He served as chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, as well as working as a newspaper editor, television and radio reporter and documentary producer.
Anderson has spent 12 years as a journalism professor at Syracuse University, Ohio University, the Columbia University School of Journalism and the University of Florida.
He is honorary chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists, which works on behalf of journalists under threat around the world, and co-chair of the Vietnam Children’s Fund, which has built more than 50 schools in Vietnam.
He ran unsuccessfully in 2004 for the state senate in his native Ohio.
Anderson now lives in Orange County, where he is working with a group called Virginians for Change in Animal Legislation, which is advocating for tougher animal welfare laws in response to the rescue of abused animals at a farm here farm last year.