Happy Birthday, John Henry Newman
Abstract
Happy Birthday, John Henry Newman is a speech written by Dr. Robert Kendall impersonating John Keble in 1854. Keble was a teacher and contemporary of JH Newman at Oxford University, UK. Newman publicly converted from Anglicism to Catholicism, and is remembered today by Newman Centers at colleges and universities.
Impersonation speaking was developed by Dr. Robert Kendall who taught in the Communication Studies Department at St. Cloud State University between 1971 and 1992. Dr. Kendall described impersonation speaking in this way: "Each student chooses an historical character, does independent research on that person, write a speech, locating it in a particular year of that person's adult life, making it interesting and relevant to a [contemporary] audience, assumes that character through costume, attitude, worldview, and mannerisms, and delivers the speech to an open-invitation public."
