Gleaves Whitney, director of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential
Studies, has called Benjamin Franklin “the most extraordinary leader who has ever arisen,” and on Thursday he will have the chance to explain why.

Whitney will speak at the Gerald R. Ford Museum, in conjunction with the Benjamin Franklin exhibit that opened Sep. 2.

The 4,000-square-foot Benjamin Franklin exhibit, “In Search of a Better World,” is scheduled to remain in Grand Rapids until Jan. 8. The Gerald R. Ford Museum is one of only five museums throughout the country scheduled to display it.

“Here’s a guy who is from the working class, one of 17 children, less than two years of formal schooling, two very incomplete, unconventional apprenticeships, becomes an illegal runaway by age of 17, moves to a new city and is able in a few decades to become a major leader in more areas than any other human being ever has,” Whitney said.

The Benjamin Franklin talk, titled “Leader Extraordinaire,” is presented by the Hauenstein Center and free for the public to attend.

The talk will take place on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. Whitney said he hopes many Grand Valley State University students will attend.

“Since Grand Valley students are in preparation as apprentice leaders to shape their lives, their professions, their societies, there’s no better model of a human being than Benjamin Franklin for how you can shape your life, how you can dominate your profession for the good, and how you can make such good contributions,” Whitney said.

For a few examples, Whitney pointed to Franklin’s inventions and his selflessness towards these inventions. Franklin invented the lightning rod, bifocals and many others, yet refused to accept payment for any of his inventions. Whitney said Franklin wanted them to be gifts for the public.

“Think of the lightning rod’s importance,” Whitney said. “Houses used to burn down and in the process burn down whole cities. Whole towns would disappear, and inventing the lighting rod and giving that as a gift to humankind saved a lot of lives. This is an amazing human being.”

Jim Kratsas, deputy director of the Gerald R. Ford Museum, said he is excited to have an expert like Whitney speak on Benjamin Franklin and such an important time period in the nation’s history.

“I think that far too often we forget what I consider our county’s greatest generation in the Founding Fathers,” Kratsas said. “To think what they put in place that we are benefiting from today is truly remarkable. Ben Franklin is certainly one of the three or four top members of that Founding Fathers group.”

To learn more about the exhibit, visit www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov.

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