Author: Webmaster (Page 25 of 97)

Hiking: Mianus River Park, Stamford CT, June 8, 2023 at 10 a.m

May 31, 2023 /

Hiking: Mianus River Park, Stamford CT, June 8 at 10 a.m.

Mianus River Park is a 391-acre nature preserve on the Stamford /Greenwich border. The park, one of a series of green areas in the Mianus River Watershed, features a two-mile stretch of the beautiful Mianus River, forest lands, vernal pools, glacial outcroppings, varied wildlife and rolling hills. The trails are good but feature the usual rocks and roots and some elevation change but anything steep is in short spurts.

We rate this hike of about 3.5 miles as easy to moderate and it should take us about 2 hours to complete. Dogs on a leash are welcome (there are many dog walkers here!) and, of course, bring a spouse or friend to enjoy this hike.

There will be an optional lunch after the hike at Zody’s 19th Hole Restaurant at the E Gaynor Brennan Golf Course near the Park and Stamford Hospital.

DIRECTIONS:

We will meet at the Merriebrook Road entrance to the Park in Stamford. Both Waze and Google Maps respond to “Mianus River Park”. There is parking on the right before the bridge over the river. Do not park on the roads in the area which are marked and patrolled.

CONTACTS:

Dave McCollum

Bob Plunkett

Golf June 6, 2023

May 31, 2023 /

Golf, June 6 – tee time 8 a.m.:

Peter Carnes and Bob McGroarty have scheduled our first golf outing of 2023, for June 6 starting at 8 a.m. at Oak Hills Golf Course, 165 Fillow Street, Norwalk. We have a limit of 24 golfers so if you’re interested get your name on our sign-up list this week. As of this writing there are 3 spaces remaining. Golf will be followed by an optional lunch. Come and join us for this always popular and fun activity! Any questions, please contact Bob McGroarty: rgmcg@me.com

Bragg, Jim

May 25, 2023 /

Jim was raised in Dobbs Ferry, New York where he graduated from high school, and went on to attend Franklin & Marshall College and New York Law School. Jim’s first job after law school was an Assistant District Attorney in the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office. After a few years, Jim then joined the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington DC, where he met and married his wife Dee. After a successful career in sales and management at IBM, Dee retired as a Director of Strategy.

After leaving the SEC, Jim worked as in-house counsel for Paine Webber and later Morgan Stanley, where he switched careers from law to finance and worked in Morgan Stanley’s Equity Derivatives Group. Jim continued his career in finance working in equity sales for several European investment banks, including BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Oddo BHF and Kepler Chevtreux where he retired in 2018.

Since his retirement, Jim has mostly worked for non-profit organizations such as the Arthritis Foundation and the PAWS Animal Shelter in Norwalk, although he occasionally does some investor relations consulting work and serves as an arbitrator for FINRA.

Jim has two daughters, Lindsey who married a Darien resident, Scott Scholtz, and Christine who is engaged to Alex Ryan from San Anselmo, California. Lindsey and Scott live in San Francisco, and Christine and Alex live in Manhattan Beach, California.

Memorial Day Parade May 29, 2023

May 24, 2023 /

Community Service: May 29, Memorial Day Parade 

Our last Community Service event will be marching in the Darien Memorial Day Parade on May 29.  Some of our members have reasons they cannot walk the entire parade route, but we have arranged cars to drive you along the parade route. So, all DMAers who want to participate can do so. Travel in style! Please complete the survey sent by email so that we can get a count of how many of you would like to ride in one of the cars. 

Frank DeLeo

Book Club: The Wager by David Grann, Oct 11, 2023

May 10, 2023 /

The author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z returns with a rousing story of a maritime scandal.

In 1741, the British vessel the Wager, pressed into service during England’s war with Spain, was shipwrecked in a storm off the coast of Patagonia while chasing a silver-laden Spanish galleon. Though initially part of a fleet, by the time of the shipwreck, the Wager stood alone, and many of its 250 crew members already had succumbed to injury, illness, starvation, or drowning. More than half survived the wreckage only to find themselves stranded on a desolate island. Drawing on a trove of firsthand accounts—logbooks, correspondence, diaries, court-martial testimony, and Admiralty and government records—Grann mounts a chilling, vibrant narrative of a grim maritime tragedy and its dramatic aftermath. Central to his populous cast of seamen are David Cheap, who, through a twist of fate, became captain of the Wager; Commodore George Anson, who had made Cheap his protégé; formidable gunner John Bulkeley; and midshipman John Byron, grandfather of the poet. Life onboard an 18th-century ship was perilous, as Grann amply shows. Threats included wild weather, enemy fire, scurvy and typhus, insurrection, and even mutiny. On the island, Cheap struggled to maintain authority as factions developed and violence erupted, until a group of survivors left—without Cheap—in rude makeshift boats. Of that group, 29 castaways later washed up on the coast of Brazil, where they spent more than two years in Spanish captivity; and three castaways, including Cheap, landed on the shores of Chile, where they, too, were held for years by the Spanish. Each group of survivors eventually returned to England, where they offered vastly different versions of what had occurred; most disturbingly, each accused the other of mutiny, a crime punishable by hanging. Recounting the tumultuous events in tense detail, Grann sets the Wager episode in the context of European imperialism as much as the wrath of the sea.

A brisk, absorbing history and a no-brainer for fans of the author’s suspenseful historical thrillers.

McIntire, John

April 23, 2023 /

John McIntire left the island of Cuba as a child and came to the United States. He graduated from Princeton University in 1979 with an A.B. in economics. Thereafter, John had a 25-year career as an international investment banker in New York and London. He retired in 2004 as a partner of Goldman, Sachs & Co, where he spent 12 years focused on Latin America, including being Goldman’s CEO for that region.

Since then, John has been an active investor in and advisor to early stage companies, primarily in Latin America. In addition, he co-founded and serves as chairman of the Cuba Emprende Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization that sponsors the largest entrepreneur training program on the island. Since 2012, the Foundation has supported programs which have graduated 8,000+ entrepreneurs and supported 6,000+ small businesses. John travelled in Cuba over 20 times between 2004-16, and was a member of the official U.S. delegations that visited the island in August of 2015 and March of 2016.

John is a member of the executive committee of the policy-oriented Cuba Study Group and chair of the Cuba Working Group of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. John and his family have lived in Darien since 1991.

Treesh, Kevin

April 21, 2023 /

Kevin was born and raised in Indiana.  He grew up on a small family dairy farm and his parents kind of wanted him to take over the reins, but they balanced that desire with strong encouragement to go where he wanted or needed to go.   That “where” started at Indiana University (’83), took him to a Ph.D. program at the University of Rochester, where he met his delightful wife of almost 36 years (she was his T.A. in Mathematical Modeling), and eventually to Yale Law School (’91) and a career as a New York tax attorney.  Muddy shoe to white shoe, and he would say he was happy, and lucky, for every bit of it.

Kevin and Madeleine’s son was born three weeks after Kevin graduated from YLS, so he studied for the New York Bar exam with an infant on his lap much of the time, moments he cherishes, but may have contributed to their son becoming a lawyer too.  Why their youngest is also a lawyer, but the middle child earned her Ph.D. and became a consultant, is less easily explained.  Kevin commuted to New York for many years and became a tax partner at Kirkland & Ellis, where he practiced until retiring in 2016.  He enjoyed the puzzles presented by tax law, where he specialized in private equity investments, but doesn’t miss the commute at all.  Nor does he miss the difficult balance of providing client service and trying, mostly successfully, to not miss any band concerts, dance performances or swim meets.  (There were many “3:00 meeting out of the office” entries on his calendar, but late, late, late nights afterwards, involved.)  He now finds ample time to volunteer, ride his bicycle, play paddle, ski at their Vermont home and learn to play pickleball and bridge.

Kevin and Madeleine have lived in Darien since 1993, having moved from Norwalk very shortly after their second child was born.  They have three children, all of whom benefitted from attending Holmes, Ox Ridge after their first move within Darien, Middlesex and DHS.  The kids are now married or engaged, and Kevin and Madeleine couldn’t be happier to have the in-laws they have.   Having strongly entertained the notion of down-sizing and moving to Stamford or Rowayton, COVID living arrangements with their kids who were fleeing or relocating from various urban areas made them glad they have space for all, when needed, in the lovely town of Darien.  Their children are currently located in New York and the Boston area, so Kevin and Madeleine are unlikely to leave Fairfield County any time soon.  Kevin looks forward to getting to know more of his fellow townsmen than he ever could have done while standing on the Noroton Heights platform, waiting for the “lawyers, advertisers, and sometimes ladies who lunch” train (i.e., not the 5:45) every morning. 

HIKE LARSEN WILDLIFE SANCTUARY,   APRIL 27, 2023 10:00 AM

April 15, 2023 /

   HIKING 

      LARSEN WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

    FAIRFIELD, CT

    APRIL 27, 2023

10:00 AM

 

The Larsen Sanctuary is owned and run by the Connecticut Audubon Society and was a gift from Roy and Margot Larsen in the early 1960s after the construction of I-95 eliminated about half of Audubon’s sanctuary in coastal Fairfield. It consists of 155 acres of varied terrain with little elevation change, several ponds and streams and very well maintained trails. We will be hiking about 3 miles which we should complete in about two hours as there will be many places to stop and observe wildlife. What you say, “wildlife on a DMA hike?” yes indeed there is here. We saw birds, turtles, a snake and an active beaver pond during our pre-hike. There is a pair of nesting Barred Owls on the property and the center also has a birds of prey compound which we may be able to see as well. This should be a terrific hike!

 

The Sanctuary is located at 2325 Burr Street in Fairfield which is north of the Merritt Parkway. Google “Larsen Wildlife Sanctuary”. There is plenty of parking, a nature store and bathrooms. NO DOGS permitted on this hike but please bring spouses and/or friends!

There will be NO LUNCH after this hike so that hikers will also be able to attend the Current Affairs meeting at 2:00 that afternoon.

 

PS-The director of the Fairfield region of Connecticut Audubon is Amy Barnouw, the daughter of John Schlachtenhaufen, who guided us on our pre-hike!  Thank you Amy!

Trip report:

The forecast for today was occasional showers with a probability of rain of about 50% during the hike two hour window of 10-12 am. However, at about 8:30 the skies opened up in Darien which apparently had a sobering effect on many DMAers desire to hike. Your hiking captains, Robert and Dave, were not deterred and headed up to Fairfield ready to push ahead. 

As it turned out, five other DMAers were not deterred either and the seven of us set out pretty much on schedule to tour the spectacular Sanctuary. The weather was just fine for a hike, cool but no rain. We set out on the main trail and detoured for a one mile trip through Deer Meadow (no deer!) before resuming on the main path which then took us past two beaver ponds and into the forest of giant trees and many streams and ponds. We hiked 3.2 miles in under 2 hours.

The overcast weather kept more than hikers inside, most wildlife stayed away too! We did see two Canada Geese, a few birds and a squirrel. Thanks to all who turned out!

The next hike is scheduled for Monday June 5 at a site TBD. We will hope for a better forecast!

Dave McCollum

Robert Plunkett

Bruce Museum May 12, 2023

April 5, 2023 /

May 12, at 10 a.m. Visit to the “New” Bruce Museum, Greenwich.

Organized by Jan Selkowitz, the trip to the Bruce Museum is scheduled for Friday May 12. It has been fully booked since the second day announced. We do have a waitlist. The group will meet at the museum at 10 a.m. where admission stickers will be distributed. We can wander around the museum until 11 a.m. when we meet our docents who will accompany us to several exhibits. At noon we will gather for lunch in a private conference room. Since the trip to the Bruce is short, people can drive alone or arrange to carpool with others.

The “new” Bruce Museum has just reopened after a major $60 million addition and renovation. This should be a fine outing to a local treasure. Jan Selkowitz: jankarlselkowitz@gmail.com

Your host: Jan Selkowitz

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Darien Mens Association

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑