Virtually Speaking: Pat Conroy as Lifelong Learner

“Open yourself up to all experience. Let life pour through you the way light pours through leaves.”—Pat Conroy

Explore Pat Conroy’s lifelong commitment to education through stories of some of the mentors he sought out later in life and lessons he learned along the way, changing the course of his storied life.

Conroy Center Executive Director Jonathan Haupt will discuss Pat Conroy's inspiring role as both a lifelong learner and teacher, with excerpts from published and unpublished materials by and about the best-selling author of "The Water Is Wide," "The Great Santini," "The Prince of Tides," and others.

Presented in partnership between the Pat Conroy Literary Center and the Morris Center for Lowcountry Heritage, this video-recorded half-hour version of Pat Conroy as Lifelong Learner will debut on the Morris Center Facebook page at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug.18.

Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, South Carolina’s first affiliate of the American Writers Museum, second American Library Association Literary Landmark, and TripAdvisor’s top-ranked destination in Beaufort, South Carolina.

Haupt is also the former director of the University of South Carolina Press, where he created the Story River Books fiction imprint with the late Pat Conroy. He serves as an associate producer of the SCETV author interview program By the River and hosts the Live from the Pat Conroy Literary Center monthly podcast on the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network.

Haupt’s book reviews and author interviews have appeared in the Charleston Post and Courier, Savannah Morning News’ Beacon magazine, Lowcountry Weekly, Beaufort Lifestyle, Southern Review of Books, and Southern Writers’ Suite T blog. He is co-editor with Nicole Seitz of the award-winning anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy.