Thatcher, Titanic discoverer and the Hurricane to speak at OSU next year

Wednesday, July 19th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) -- A former British Prime Minister, the discoverer of the wreck of the Titanic and a boxer whom actor Denzel Washington portrayed in an Oscar-nominated film will speak next year at Oklahoma State University. Lady Margaret Thatcher will pick up $70,000 for her March 26 speech, which will be part of the reopening celebrations for the renovated Gallagher-Iba Arena, said Kent Sampson, director of campus life at OSU.

The former prime minister who was nicknamed the "Iron Lady" in Britain by far will receive the most money among the three speakers. Thatcher resigned as prime minister in 1990 after 11 years on the job.

Robert Ballard, the discoverer and a researcher of the Titanic wreck, is being paid $20,000 for his Oct. 17 speech. Boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who was falsely convicted of killing three people, will be paid $12,500 for his Jan. 24 appearance during Martin Luther King Jr. Day observations on campus, Sampson said.

Ballard and Carter will speak at the Seretean Center. Carter's professional boxing career began in 1961. Five years later, while preparing for a world championship fight, he was arrested for a triple murder. Although he said he was innocent, Carter was convicted and sentenced to three life terms, narrowly escaping the electric chair. The charges were dismissed in 1988 after key witnesses recanted their testimony.