Bruce van Voorst, former CIA official and senior correspondent for "Time" and "Newsweek" magazines, will reflect on his career on Saturday, May 1, at 1 p.m. in Kempker Auditorium of the new science center at Hope College.

The public is invited. Admission is free.

van Voorst grew up in Holland and graduated from Holland High School in 1950 and Hope in 1954. He will be back on campus for the 50-year reunion of his graduating class. The college's reunion weekend activities run Friday-Sunday, April 30-May 2.

His address at 1 p.m. will be titled "Life after Hope: Fifty Years with CIA, Newsweek and Time." Earlier in the day, he will address his classmates during their reunion with a presentation titled "Reflections: One Classmate's Odyssey."

van Voorst retired from "Time" magazine in 1999 as senior correspondent for domestic and international business and financial affairs after 20 years with the magazine. Over the years, he had served as bureau chief in Bonn, chief European economic correspondent in Brussels, Middle East bureau chief in Beirut/Tehran and senior correspondent for national security and diplomatic affairs in Washington, D.C. Prior to that he was with "Newsweek" for 13 years, serving as diplomatic correspondent in Washington, German bureau chief and chief Latin American correspondent in Buenos Aires.

In between, he served three years on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and seven with the Central Intelligence Agency. Before embarking on a career on journalism he was also a foreign service officer in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

He's also written for the "New York Times Magazine" and "Foreign Affairs." Among other honors, he won the New York Publisher's National Award in 1983 for the best piece on foreign affairs and in 1987 was a Pulitzer Prize nominee.

van Voorst received a Distinguished Alumni Award from Hope in 1970. He received an honorary degree from the college in 1991, the same year that he delivered the college's Commencement address. His recent visits to campus include returning in March of 2003 to address both the Hope Academy of Senior Professionals (HASP) and the high school students participating in the college's Model United Nations program.

The college's new science center is located on College Avenue, with the main entrance facing the former 11th Street/Graves Place. Kempker Auditorium is on the building's first floor, accessible through the Schaap Atrium.