Month: May 2020 (Page 1 of 2)

Robert Whitby grew up in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah, and holds an economics degree from Yale College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has had a diverse business career spanning some 40 years, primarily in the investment banking and management consulting sectors, working in senior executive positions at Arthur Anderson, Ernst & Young, Booz Allen Hamilton, Citicorp and Thyssen-Bornemisza Group. He has lived and worked in the United States and several countries in Western Europe.

Robert is a past Board Member of the Inner Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich and The Explorers Club. He has served as Board Chairman of The Mountain Institute (TMI), a world-wide NGO established to preserve mountain habitats and to help mountain people achieve sustainable mountain livelihoods. He has led TMI Board expeditions to visit their project sites in Peru/Bolivia and Nepal/Tibet/Bhutan.

Robert is currently a director of several not-for-profit organizations and an active leader of Community Partners, a service auxiliary of Harvard Business School alumni. Through Community Partners, he has led substantial pro bono consulting engagements for the Explorers Club, the Hispanic Federation of New York, the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Catholic Charities of Connecticut, and Armstrong Chamber Concerts. He has lived in Greenwich since 1981.

A world-wide mountain-climber, Robert set out in his 50s to climb the highest peak on each continent, a feat known as “The 7 Summits.” He successfully climbed six of the seven, but failed on an Everest climb in 1994 and required medical evacuation. Robert will talk about each of his Seven Summits climbing adventures.

Arranged by Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s summary of his talk:

Robert Whitby exemplified the calm, stoical, persevering character you need to be to climb any mountain, and the toughness, experience and boldness you need to attempt climbing the seven major peaks in each continent in the world. Robert’s upbringing in Utah led him to start climbing mountains at the age of ten, beginning in the Rockies and moving on to the Grand Tetons, the Alps, Mount Washington and Mount Katahdin in Maine as preparation for setting out to meet the challenge of scaling the seven key peaks in the mountaineering lexicon.

Commencing with climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and ending at Mount Kosciuszko in Australia, his story is fascinating to hear, not only for the description of the details of each ascent, but the intriguing relationship he developed with Rob Hall, a professional guide who encouraged and inspired Robert in the scariest climb of the seven, Mount Aconcagua in South America. Hall was leading another expedition at the time Robert was attempting Everest, when Hall’s wife, Jan Arnold, a doctor, helped keep Robert alive after he contracted salmonella poisoning on the mountain. Sadly, Hall himself succumbed on Everest a few years later after staying overnight to tend to one of his client climbers near the summit. The event is described in Jon Krakauer’s book, “Into Thin Air.” Robert and a friend attended the memorial service for Hall in New Zealand, and as a tribute climbed the peak in Australia at the end of that visit.

Robert’s advice to those wishing to emulate his feats are to take the dangers of altitude seriously by undergoing intensive endurance training – and never to underestimate the importance of an ice axe!

Here are his slides:  _SIX ½ SUMMITS Darien Men_’sAssoc.

Here is the link to his talk: https://youtu.be/boX9wpmm3Ac

DMA member Jim Cameron has spent over 40 years in broadcast journalism. While at NBC News, he received a George Foster Peabody Award. In conjunction with INC. Magazine, he also wrote and hosted the syndicated radio series, Minding Your Business. For 12 years Jim ran JFORUM, the pioneering online service for journalists and communications professionals worldwide, on CompuServe.

In 1982 Jim transferred his journalism experience into a new career:  training people to deliver their messages effectively to the media and the public. His media-training clients have included hundreds of CEOs, scientists and authors. He has trained every kind of spokesperson imaginable—from athletes to marketing experts, from celebrities to farmers. His trainees have appeared on 60 Minutes, 20/20, The Today Show, CNN, CNBC and hundreds of radio stations. They’ve been quoted in the pages of The Wall Street Journal, trade journals and lifestyle magazines. Additionally, his clients have testified before Congress, made presentations to financial analysts and given speeches at major symposia. He has dealt with environmental crises, food tampering scares, insurance reform, employee healthcare, and workplace safety issues.

Jim taught broadcast journalism in Tunisia and the Philippines under the auspices of the U. S. State Department. Born and reared in Toronto, he speaks English and French. He graduated cum laude from Lehigh University with a BA in sociology in 1972.

A resident of Darien, Jim is founder of the Commuter Action Group, using social media to advocate for mass transit in Connecticut.  He is also an elected member of the Representative Town Meeting and program director of the town’s government access channel, Darien TV79.

Jim currently writes a weekly column, “Getting There,” for the eight daily and 14 weekly newspapers published by Hearst CT Media across Connecticut. In 2020 Jim published OFF THE RECORD: Confessions of a Media Consultant, sharing true stories about training the famous and the infamous.

Jim Cameron will be updating us on the future of transportation in Connecticut in the wake of the Covid-19 virus.

Arranged by Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s summary of his talk:

Jim Cameron, media consultant and DMA member, covered the transportation situation in Connecticut with a well-researched set of data and considerable enthusiasm for his subject. Jim took his audience back to the good old days when the New Canaan branch line sported its own private railcar for the select few on the commute to New York, but brought us down to earth and back to reality with statistics on the current ridership situation on MetroNorth, which was last counted as 218,000, compared with 3.1 million in March this year – a drop of 93%.

The MTA is projecting a deficit of $16 billion by 2024, and in 2020 alone the fare shortfall from reduced ridership will be approximately $4.2 billion. Currently, there seems to be no way out of the dire financial situation given the movement of commuters out to the suburbs, increased use of the roads, and a lack of urgency on the part of legislators to take action to remedy the situation either now or in the longer term. There is little appetite in an election year to raise gas taxes 60% back to 1997 levels, or to reinstate tolls in an effort to refund the State’s Special Transportation Fund; also, exacerbating the position, Federal spending on infrastructure is woefully low and unlikely to increase in the short-term. Overall, a sorry situation for which Jim sees no relief in sight.

Here is a link to a recording of his talk:  https://youtu.be/veanWAofvUY

Judge Myron H. Thompson is a United States District Court Judge for the Middle District of Alabama. He was nominated to that seat in September 1980 by President Jimmy Carter. He served as Chief Judge of the Court from 1991 to 1998.

Judge Thompson is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School. He served as Assistant Attorney General of Alabama from 1972 to 1974. He was the first African-American Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alabama, the first African-American bar examiner for the State, and the second African-American federal judge in the State. Judge Thompson was in private practice from 1974 until 1980.

Over the course of Judge Thompson’s 40-year career, he has presided over many challenging cases, including those involving separation of church and state, employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, voting rights and racial discrimination in the appointment of polling officials, policing practices and the use of deadly force, racial diversity of Alabama’s post-secondary education system, redistricting issues in the City of Montgomery, gay and lesbian rights, restrictions on abortion, racial diversity in the ranks of state troopers, and troubled conditions in the Alabama prison system.

Throughout his life, Judge Thompson has represented an extraordinary combination of courage and integrity. One of the last generation of children exposed to polio, he was stricken at an early age, bedridden or confined to a wheelchair at first, but fought back, ultimately being able to walk with only a minor limp. Judge Thompson has said that the challenges of polio, as well as growing up in the Jim Crow South — going to segregated schools, using segregated water fountains, and being treated as sub human — made him who he is.

In 2017, for having made a substantial contribution to public service and the legal profession, Judge Thompson received the Yale Law School Award of Merit, the highest award the law school may give to a graduate and faculty member. He was also named a 2017 Alabama Humanities Foundation fellow in honor of his noteworthy achievements and commitment to the advancement of the humanities in Alabama. In 2015, Judge Thompson received the National Public Service Award from Stanford Law School, in recognition that his “work on behalf of the public has had national impact.” In 2013, he was awarded the Thurgood Marshall Award by the National Bar Association’s Judicial Council in recognition of his “personal contributions and extraordinary commitment to the advancement of civil rights and for being a role model for members of the bench and bar.” And he received the 2005 Mark De Wolfe Howe Award from the Harvard Civil Rights – Civil Liberties Law Review “for his Unyielding Commitment to Advancing the Personal Freedoms and Human Dignities of the American People.”

Judge Thompson and DMA member Tom Igoe, who were roommates as undergraduates at Yale, will engage in a wide-ranging dialogue about (1) their fundamentally different backgrounds and evolving life-long friendship; (2) Judge Thompson’s perspectives, developed in his early years, that shaped the course of his life; (3) his return to Alabama to practice law and appointment to the bench as the youngest Federal judge in the US; (4) his experience as a jurist serving in a Southern state; and (5) his abiding philosophy on the importance of public service.

For some perspectives on the import of Judge Thompson’s judicial opinions, click on the following link: Judge Myron Thompson — Selected Judicial Opinions.

Arranged by Tom Igoe

Speaker summary by Bryan Hooper:

Our speaker’s virtual podium was graced by Judge Myron H. Thompson from Alabama in conversation with DMA member, Tom Igoe. This was an incredibly honest, open and frank discussion of a bi-racial friendship that started at Yale, developed when they became roommates, strengthened as each became the other’s best man, and deepened further over the years since. It is impossible to convey the genuine emotion and intellectual content of that discussion in these notes, but you can get a much better idea from the recorded conversation and subsequent question and answer session posted on the DMA website in the speaker section.

In particular, you will gain an impression of Judge Thompson’s humanity, honesty and humor. As you watch and listen to that video, you will observe some of the judge’s life attitudes which were conveyed with such conviction and applied in his judgments, particularly the two cases discussed involving promotions within the ranks of state troopers, and the removal of the stone monument listing the Ten Commandments from the Alabama supreme court building:

• You don’t have to be white to be a snob (learnt from his mother!)

• Show courage and do the right thing

• It’s a question of respecting the rule of law.

We received more comments than usual about this session, and they reflect the emotional impact on the audience:

“You don’t too often see two men share such deep personal reflections, thoughts and feelings in front of so many strangers … I felt privileged to be a part of such a group.”

“The genuine depth and intensity of their friendship really came across.”

“Simply one of the best speakers/presentations!”

“Today’s discussion was just amazing and very timely given what’s happening in the country.“

Here is a video of the Zoom meeting: https://youtu.be/lpOZfNfum4o

Here is the transcript along with some additional material:  Darien Men’s Association — Judge Myron Thompson Talk with Tom Igoe

“Person-to-Person: Creating Economic Stability for Vulnerable Residents During the Pandemic.”

Nancy Coughlin, CEO of Person-to-Person, and Juri Garone, Manager of Volunteers & Community Relations, will be speaking to us about the organization and its mission. They will discuss food insecurity and poverty issues in Fairfield County and how P2P is addressing them.  Additionally, they will talk about the role of volunteers and how the community helps P2P meet its mission, and suggest ways people can get involved.

Nancy Coughlin joined Person-to-Person in June of 2019, bringing expertise and experience in food insecurity, anti-poverty, and women’s and children’s issues. Prior to joining P2P, Nancy served for seven years as the Executive Director at Neighbor to Neighbor, a Greenwich-based organization dedicated to providing food and clothing to low-income families and children. She began her career in human services as an advocate for battered women and their children, and later practiced law in civil and employment litigation at Baker McKenzie.  Ms. Coughlin received a BA in psychology from the University of New Hampshire, and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.  She resides with her husband and four children in Darien, where she co-founded the annual July 4^th “Push-n-Pull Parade” and was active in her children’s schools.

Juri Garone joined Person-to-Person as Manager of Volunteers and Community Relations to recruit volunteers for the local non-profit. Before starting with P2P last September, Juri worked in the Library Learning Commons at Weston High School for 7 years. She spent a decade in broadcast journalism, working as an Emmy Award-winning television news anchor and reporter in Westchester, New York and Bergen County, New Jersey. She has won numerous television industry awards from the Associated Press and the Society of Professional Journalists among others. Juri and her husband, Christopher have two children, Lilly and Renzo, and a dog named Luna. They live in Weston.

Person-to-Person

Arranged by Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s notes from the talk:

Nancy Coughlin, CEO, and Juri Garone, Manager of Volunteers and Community Relations, spoke to us on the operations of Person-to-Person and how the novel coronavirus has forced them to adapt to new conditions to manage fulfilling the mission.

P2P was founded over 50 years ago by the director of St. Luke’s parish in Darien following the assassination of Martin Luther King, and was intended as a commitment to enhance understanding of civil rights issues and to respond to the needs of the less economically fortunate members of the community. It was originally established to provide food and clothing (and, according to DMA member Bob Baker, not heavy furniture!) to low income people, but has since expanded its remit over the years to include financial assistance to needy families, scholarship and mentorship to aid students to obtain better and higher education, and camperships to help children attend camp during the summer months. Additionally, it has expanded geographically beyond Darien and Stamford to include Norwalk, New Canaan, Weston, Wilton and Westport. There are over 4000 volunteers helping P2P complete its tasks.

The arrival of the virus and the attendant shutdown of many activities in Connecticut created severe problems. Unemployment in the State hit 19% and demand for P2P food services doubled; 90% of P2P volunteers were forced to stay home; and social distancing standards made it impossible to operate meals-on-wheels service. Also, the price of healthy fruits and vegetables rose 10% forcing some families to switch to less healthy carbohydrates, corn-based products and other processed products. Food banks ran out of food as surplus supplies from groceries and other sources diminished, and packaged goods that became available due to lower restaurant food demand had to be re-packaged into smaller sizes.

In the face of these multiple challenges, the response from P2P has been remarkable:

•  180,000 meals, with 9000 people being fed per month
• Financial assistance to needy families has doubled
• Four times as much rental assistance provided compared to last year

In the 2020-2021 period, P2P expects to provide almost $1 million in financial aid; one-third of those now seeking financial support have never been to P2P before.

P2P, at this critical time, has been engaged in a dedicated effort to prevent people from becoming homeless. In this context, the immediate future presents a continuing threat, particularly the potential wave of evictions expected this fall, the inevitable dispersion of many needy families to other geographic areas and the consequential loss of P2P’s contacts with these families. Much uncertainty remains regarding a return to normalcy and P2P still needs volunteers to help with its Door2Door food delivery service, and, of course, more money to meet the increased expenses. Door2Door provides contactless food deliveries to 3500 clients.

Here are the slides used in the presentation:  Person-to-Person 2020 for DMA 7.15.20

Video of their presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSSsH-2EqLs

Sam Hornblower joined 60 Minutes in 2006 and is the winner of three Peabody awards, a DuPont-Columbia award, and two Emmy awards for outstanding investigative journalism. He has reported on stem cell therapy charlatans in “21st Century Snake Oil,” fabricated clinical trial data in “Deception at Duke,” fraudulent hospital billing in “The Cost of Admission,” and excess formaldehyde levels in flooring in “Lumber Liquidators.” More recently, he has been producing an award-winning investigative series on the opioid epidemic and is covering the Covid-19 pandemic.

Before CBS, he was with PBS broadcast Frontline, with reporting credits including the 2004 documentary “Is Wal-Mart Good for America?”, about the impact of China and big box retail on manufacturing and jobs in America’s heartland.

Sam will be speaking with our group about the current opioid crisis and is urging that DMA members look at some of his prior work as background to his talk and watch “60 Minutes” appearing on Sunday June 21 (7 pm Eastern time) to see the first part of two episodes giving the latest on the opioid crisis. The following links provide a synopsis of the project so far:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-opioid-epidemic-who-is-to-blame-60-minutes-2019-08-25/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pharmaceutical-sales-exec-lack-of-conscience-key-to-success-in-selling-opioids-60-minutes-2020-06-18/

Arranged by Alex Garnett

Bryan Hooper’s notes from the talk:

Sam Hornblower, a producer at CBS, took us through the key points of several episodes of “60 Minutes” covering a long-time investigative series into the opioid crisis.  Hornblower pointed the finger at the drug manufacturers and distributors, and highlighted the incentives to sales representatives to increase revenue through payments to doctors to write prescriptions for more patients and to increase the dosages prescribed for patients. He identified the Food and Drug Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Justice and the pharmaceutical lobbyists as bearing responsibility for going too easy on the opioid industry and expanding the availability of ever more powerful synthetic versions of the drugs, such as fentanyl, which is 100 times more powerful than morphine. The illustrations from some of the “60 Minutes” episodes included several trials of major producers and distributors that resulted in prison sentences for senior executives and multi-billion dollar settlements. You can see these episodes by logging on to the CBS News website and searching the subject.

As a welcome change to the grim stories told by Sam, his father, Ray Hornblower, formerly a lawyer in the Justice Department who then took up a second career as an opera singer, treated us to an aria from Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.” The subject of that aria was, fittingly, planning vengeance for an untimely death!

Jayme Stevenson will update us on Darien’s plan to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

She has been first selectman since 2011 and has been a member of the Board of Selectmen since 2009. Jayme is vice-chair of the Western Connecticut Council of Governments, having served as chairman from 2017 until 2020, and has been chairman of the Southwestern Region Metropolitan Planning Organization since November, 2016. She is a board member and second vice-president of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, and board member and chairman of that organization’s municipal risk insurance agency, the Connecticut Inter-Local Risk Management Agency. Jayme has served on a variety of Darien nonprofit boards, including The Depot, the Darien Nature Center and the First Congregational Church Nursery School. She also was co-chair of the Parents’ Association for Royle Elementary School and co-president of the DHS Parents’ Association. She has been a member of the board of The Center for Sexual Assault and Crisis Counseling since 2017. Jayme and her husband have lived in Darien for 29 years and have five children and one grandchild. Her husband grew up in Darien and is a graduate of Darien High School.

Arranged by Mike Heitz

Bryan Hooper’s notes from the talk:

Two important subjects are currently top of mind for Jayme Stevenson, First Selectman of Darien, and she reviewed the current situation on covid-19 and policing, and her plans for both areas going forward.

The first US death from Covid-19 was determined to be on February 6^th in California, and the first case in Connecticut was diagnosed on 3/8/20 after the patient returned from a trip to California. By March 10^th, Governor Lamont had shut down the State, and three days later the President declared a national state of emergency. By 6/17/20 the USA had recorded 2.1 million cases, comprising 25% out of a worldwide total of 8.3 million, and 120 thousand have died out of a worldwide total of 440 thousand. Connecticut has had about 44,000 cases resulting in over 4,200 deaths. Darien cases total 202 to date with 5 deaths. The main cohort affected has been the 40 to 69-year-old age group: the last recorded case in Darien was 5/29/20.

Due to good adherence to health regulations and recommendations over the past three months, Connecticut now has around only 200 patients hospitalized and lockdown restrictions are gradually being eased in a coordinated manner between state and local governments. In fact, 6/17/20 marked the introduction of phase 2 that allows for opening of non-essential businesses with some restrictive guidelines in effect. Jayme thanked Mike Heitz, Gary Banks, Bob McGroarty and Bert von Stuelpnagel for their help working with smaller businesses in town to cope with shutdown and the re-start.

The First Selectman also pointed out the progress made in providing testing facilities at Darien High School, ensuring assisted living facilities were included in enforcing healthy protocols, and announced the opening of a new testing facility around 7/4/20 that will administer tests for both covid-19 infection and antibodies to the virus. Phase 3 of the re-opening of the State is scheduled for mid-July to open more establishments (including bars), but is conditional on continued progress being made with the earlier relief phases. The details of school openings remain unclear at this point and are dependent on improvements being maintained. Overall, vigilance is essential to monitor the situation and react appropriately.

Jayme was very positive on the policing front. She stated that Darien has a zero-tolerance policy for bad policing. The town administrators and the police department have already identified and implemented a number of best practices over time. As a result, they are regarded as being leaders in effective policing oriented to more tolerance and understanding of different cultures. Jayme’s future approach is to continue listening to ensure problems can be treated pre-emptively and to partner with the YWCA, religious communities and other interested parties to address racial inequalities.