FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sept. 18, 2000 CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119 INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED POET TO SPEAK AT DRAKE Drake University alumnus Jeffrey H. Williams, who was honored as the 1999 Poet of the Year by the International Society of Poets, will give a poetry reading at Drake at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20, in room 201 of Aliber Hall, 29th Street and University Avenue. The reading, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the College of Business and Public Administration. A reception will follow. Williams, who graduated from Drake in 1976 with a bachelor's degree in business and received his MBA from Drake in 1977, began writing while he was a college student. He has since published three books: "Thoughts of the Mind," "From the Heart" and "When the Heart Speaks." He is working on a fourth book titled "Evolution of the Heart." General Butler, commander-in-chief of the Strategic Air Command, requested in 1992 that one of Williams' poems, "Mission Accomplished," be used in the closing ceremonies for the Air Force's Strategic Air Command. The poem is now on permanent display at the SAC Museum in Omaha, Neb. Williams was commissioned as a second lieutenant through Drake's ROTC program and completed a successful career in the U.S. Air Force. He is now a senior systems analyst for Analytic Services Inc.