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Six weeks after Scott Kuhner met Kitty in the late 1960s, he proposed, and four months later they were married. She was up for adventure, so they took their honeymoon on a 22ft sailboat with a Porta Potty and sailed her from Westport to Martha’s Vineyard and back. Scott talked Kitty into buying a 30ft Allied Seawind Ketch, and two years later in 1971, they quit their jobs and spent 4 years sailing around the world. Scott was a securities analyst for EF Hutton and his boss could not believe he was going to leave his well-paying job.

They returned to Rowayton, bought a house and started a family. When their two sons were 9 and 11, Scott and Kitty decided to show them there is more to the world than just Connecticut. They bought a Valiant 40, named her Tamure, took the boys out of school, loaded them on the boat, and spent another four years sailing around the world. The boys were home-schooled, and when they got back, went into their normal class at Brian McMahon in Norwalk. Both graduated in the top 5% of their class and went on to an Ivy League college.

After each world tour, Scott was immediately offered great jobs back on Wall Street. Two years after he returned from the second trip, he was offered the position of running the New York office of a Brazilian Investment Bank, and spent the first six months living in Sao Paulo. Soon after he turned 60 the bank was bought out by a European company, Scott was awarded a big bonus, and retired.

Arranged by Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s notes on the talk:

 Scott Kuhner took us most of the way around the world when he described the time he and his wife, Kitty, embarked on their first circumnavigation 50 years ago. It turned out to be a tale of improvisation, adaptability, and a large dose of courage and perseverance. Some highlights follow:

• Scott persuaded Kitty to read Around the World in Wanderer III by the British sailor, Eric Hiscock, which recounts the Hiscocks’ first around the world sail in the 50s, so as to sow the seeds for the Kuhners’ trip later in 1971.

• In the early ‘70s there was no GPS available for navigational use by civilians, and Scott was forced to rely on using a sextant together with an accurate timepiece (kudos to Rolex). After sailing for 12 days and 1400 miles toward the Virgin Islands he announced to Kitty in the middle of the ocean that they were about to arrive within a couple of hours at St. Thomas: land loomed up one hour later, amid much relief for Kitty that the captain was such an accurate navigator.

• Leaving the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador, they sailed 3000 miles in 22 days, putting a severe strain on their ability to keep clothes clean as they had to conserve water. The solution they came up with gave new meaning to the term “bareboating.”

• In Fiji they met up with Kitty’s parents, and lived a life of relative luxury for a week, bathing and eating dinner in the hotel. That came to a rude end with the arrival of an extremely powerful hurricane packing winds of almost 200 mph. Discretion being the better part of valor, they sailed to New Zealand to skirt the rest of the hurricane season.

• Maintenance was the key task there, and they took the opportunity to change the main mast, and accomplish various other chores: coincidentally, also moored at the port was Eric Hiscock – the original inspiration for the trip!

• After they explored New Zealand by hitchhiking their way on both islands, Kitty found a job in Sydney, Australia, leaving Scott to decide how he would find someone to help him sail to Australia. Fortunately, his father came to the rescue as crew mate and cook (which was not without its problems in rough seas encountered in the Tasman Sea!).

• Scott also worked as a financial analyst in Sydney before wanderlust took over again, and they sailed up Australia’s eastern coast and to Bali in Indonesia.

There was insufficient time to finish the presentation: we’re less than half-way around the world, and we intend to run a Part II on March 3rd. Scott and Kitty wrote a book chronicling their adventures, called The Voyage of Bebinka, where you can catch up on the details of the trip, and you can see the video recording of the presentation at: https://youtu.be/USvhGtHrEE8.

Leila graduated with a BA in International Politics from St. Lawrence University in 1986, and has worked for the past 30+ years in the field of nonprofit development, marketing and planning.  After careers at AFS Intercultural Programs and Lenox Hill Hospital, she started her own consulting firm for non-profits to provide fund-raising recommendations, strategic planning and Board development for organizations seeking to improve their financing results. In 2016 she became the Executive Director of the Darien Nature Center charged with increasing the visibility, relevance, and impact of the organization.  Leila will speak to us about the operations and programs of the Center, with emphasis on how they navigated 2020, and the changes necessary to meet the challenges for the new year.

Leila will be joined in her presentation by Emily Ciffone, Program Director at the Darien Nature Center. Emily received her undergraduate degree in biology from Binghamton University and her master’s degree in natural resources and environmental education from the University of Wisconsin. Her career in Nature Education started at the National Park Service, and she has also held roles at the University of Rhode Island Environmental Center and New Pond Farms. Emily  has been teaching and building the unique program curriculum at the Darien Nature Center since 2013.

Arranged by Chris Filmer

Bryan Hooper’s notes on the talk:

Leila Wetmore, Executive Director of the Darien Nature Center, and Emily Ciffone, Program Director, led us through the founding of the center just over 40 years ago, the development of the project and current plans for further growth.

Leila pointed out that the majority of the nature centers in our area, such as those in New Canaan, Westport, Redding and Stamford, were established as a result of a piece of land bequeathed to the community for that purpose, but the Darien Nature Center (DNC) simply grew out of a group of interested, committed citizens with vision who were determined to “develop educational opportunities and increase public awareness of the unique natural resources of our town.” The true nature center would be regarded as the town of Darien itself.

That foundation occurred in 1980, and by 1982 the DNC had found a home at the closed-down, abandoned Cherry Lawn boarding school, where they opened the kitchen as the office for the new director in 1982. Interest in the DNC grew over the years, and in 2000 a successful capital campaign was mounted to raise $2.5 million to erect a new building designed for further growth, and it opened in 2002, with the Town of Darien charging the princely annual sum of $1 for lease of the land. Since then, the DNC has concentrated on encouraging curiosity about the environment by raising awareness of the problems faced, and increasing our interaction with nature. In 2020, during its 40th anniversary, DNC went through a strategic planning process to re-examine and revise its vision and mission statements. Their view is that the DNC “envisions a community that is deeply connected to nature and inspired to take action to preserve and protect it,” and their mission is “to inspire passion and respect for the natural world through nature education, hands-on experiences with nature, and environmental action and stewardship.”

DNC has local partnerships with companies and organizations in town, and co-sponsors environmental lectures and films in collaboration with the Darien Land Trust and the Darien Tree Conservancy, in addition to working closely with other agencies like the Darien Library to support and present nature-based programming throughout the year.

Where the DNC stands apart from other nature centers is the experience it can provide children and adults with an up-close and personal interaction with over 30 different animals, including Einstein the rabbit and Smokey the rat, both of whom played cameo roles during the presentation. As part of the implementation of their new strategic plan, the DNC designed and installed a pond ecosystem for their turtles; it proved so realistic that some turtles actually hibernated! Other planned exhibits include a naturalistic tree with nesting holes for the two screech owls in residence, along with a separate rodent habitat, plus exhibits for reptiles and other North American animals.

Finally, Leila paid tribute to the unstinting work of DMA member, Chris Filmer, for his incredible, committed service in putting action to the mission of supporting a healthy environment in Darien, and encouraging and involving others in that endeavor. To quote Chris: “It is in education that our hope lies.” The staff and supporters of Darien Nature Center are major contributors to realizing that hope.

Video recording of their presentation: https://youtu.be/2zUyaxsspAE

Captain Dave Adams, USN (ret.), is uniquely qualified to speak on the subject of naval rail guns. Captain Adams was class of 1990 at the University of Texas, Austin, and graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering, followed by postgraduate work leading to a masters, with distinction, in strategic planning. In turn, this led to his becoming speechwriter for the Chief of Naval Operations – probably safer than his next tour in Afghanistan, where he commanded the Joint/Interagency Provincial Reconstruction Team. He returned to take command of SSN-763, USS Santa Fe, followed by command of SSGN USS Georgia, a ‘boomer.’ He became Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Naval Institute’s journal, “Proceedings,” where he made his reputation as a serious long-range geostrategic thinker as well as a critic of some of the Navy’s procedures and plans for future war-fighting.

Dave is currently Director — Navy Museums, Naval History and Heritage Command. He is responsible for the Navy’s ten museums, historic ships and aircraft maintenance.

Arranged by Dick Woods and John Hess

Bryan Hooper’s notes on the talk:

Captain Dave Adams, USN (ret.) made a case that the US military needs to regain its ground as a leader by highlighting as an example the developmental program of the US Naval Rail Gun (NRG), and proposing future required action.

The rail gun is an electromagnetic powered device that accelerates its “bullet,” a sophisticated shell loaded with electronics, to exceptionally high speeds when fired. A chemically-powered gun has a maximum muzzle velocity of 2.1 kps (approximately 4,700 mph), but the potential speed of a projectile fired by a rail gun is up to 18 kps (around 40,000 mph), creating an incredibly destructive hypersonic weapon.

Historically, the rail gun was first worked on by the Norwegians in 1903 and progressed through both world wars up to 1977 when the Australians achieved a speed of 5.9 kps, just over 13,000 mph. Developments by the US took place through the ’80s as part of the SDI, the so-called “Star Wars” program. In the ’90s it became of interest to the Army as a weapons system to be used against Soviet heavily-armored tanks, but proved unworkable in combat situations due to the difficulty of supplying the needed electrical current in a practical way. The obvious platform for this type of weapon was clearly a ship, and the US Navy began their work on the NRG in 1997. Their success in Scotland in 2003 with a 1/8 scale model resulted in a speed of 2 kps (4,500 mph) and funding for further trial work, leading to a one-fourth scale trial that was also successful. Despite proving its cost-effectiveness per nautical mile relative to missiles, $250 vs. $25,000, funding was withheld from the NRG, and instead was concentrated on missile programs to meet Congressional priorities. Many of the missile developments failed despite the sums invested, and programs were canceled in 2008 and 2016. Captain Adams made the point that insufficient funds were spent on NRG to fund success.

His story continued through the trials undertaken by the US Navy from 2005 through 2012 to improve performance of the projectile, develop the pulsed power equipment and make the rails more rugged, and resulted in the experimental gun range being built in 2012, with plans being developed to test the system at sea; however, the program was canceled in 2017. China has subsequently taken the lead in the technology and carried out sea trials on a warship. This has now resulted in renewed interest from the Navy and reinvestment in the program is occurring with sea trials of the NRG system scheduled for later this year.

Captain Adams concluded by stating the fact that a lead we had in technology was squandered for lack of investment, and pleading his case that to regain our edge requires bold political and military decisions to be made across the board.

Video of Captain Adams’ presentation: https://youtu.be/SwJyiYBDOMs

Kiera Parrott became the Director of Darien Library in September 2020. Prior to that appointment, she was the Reviews and Production Director for Library Journal and School Library Journal, where she oversaw the publication of over 12,000 influential book and media reviews annually. Additionally, she launched and expanded numerous professional development events and training courses for library professionals nationwide. Kiera has been a proud library worker since her teen years, working as a page for the Queensborough Public Library in high school, as a reference assistant at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst during college, and as a senior librarian for the New York Public Library. She previously worked at Darien Library from 2008–2013 as a children’s/collection development librarian and as Head of Children’s Services. She lives in Norwalk with her husband (also a librarian) and their two cats.

Arranged by Min and Jan Selkowitz

Bryan Hooper’s notes on the talk:

Kiera Parrott, Director of the Darien Library, spoke to us about the history of libraries, and related how the institutions adapted to the advent of digital sources, and where the future lies for this valuable resource for so many communities.

While many private libraries have existed over the past five thousand years, the growth of public libraries began in late 18^th century England, as the Liverpool Subscription Library was established in 1798. It not only supplied information to subscribers, but also included amenities such as a newsroom and a coffee house. As the industrial revolution developed so did the thirst of the working classes for more knowledge, and in 1850 the British passed a bill named the Public Libraries Act to encourage social good and be morally uplifting for the lower classes. (Coincidentally, the bill was supported by the temperance movement of the day in an effort to control rampant intoxication of the working classes.)

The growth of the public library movement in the US began with the founding of the taxpayer-supported library in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in 1833, grew with the opening of the Boston Library in 1854, and really burgeoned with the active support of Andrew Carnegie later in the century. He provided funds on the condition that the municipal authority also levy taxes annually to augment those funds to finance operations. In fact, in 1905 he offered Darien $5,000 on condition they levy $500 in annual support: the RTM turned him down! However, the Darien Library, originally established on the Post Road in 1894, managed to survive and expand, and opened its newest building – also on the Post Road – in 2009.

Over the years, libraries have faced and met challenges such as equal access rights in the 60s, up through the 90s and into today with the perceived mortal threat of digitalization. Darien Library has done so by applying its principles of adapting to meet customers’ needs and becoming a community center where people can learn, read, socialize, train, and attend special events – such as yoga classes. Additionally, it has embraced technology: as an early adapter of the iPad, they offered clients the ability to try the product. They have joined the so-called “maker movement” to provide advice on how to build and make things, e.g., radios or clothes. This reaction and action to change, to embrace the emergence of new technologies has sparked a renaissance for libraries and led to their development as information experts to provide advice to their users. They can even advise you on how to spot fake news: most people trust libraries to tell the truth.

There is a unique and productive partnership between the Town and Darien Library. Activities such as focusing on early literature aid for toddlers to encourage learning, and outreach at the other end of life to those using the senior center, professional development programs, writing the next great American novel, experimenting with Legos, holding events like May 4^th (be with you!).

The future for the Darien Library is set to meet the challenges of the community by being responsive, flexible, adaptable and resilient, and in answering the question of how to better serve their users to provide the crucial infrastructure to further our democracy. You can view the video of Kiera’s presentation at https://youtu.be/JOInCcH9TiY.

Pat Gentile is a member of the DMA, and will talk to us about his work helping less-privileged families and individuals to cope with and manage the tax-preparation process. Pat is presently the Executive Director of Virtual VITA, Inc. (VITA stands for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance.) He works directly in partnership with the IRS to assist low-income at-risk families and elderly households with free tax preparation, tax counseling and advocacy.  His group is the first within the State to receive IRS approval to provide clients with virtual online tax preparation utilizing a client’s cell phone. His team is the Lead Coalition Partner of the nationally approved virtual tax prep program called “Get Your Refund,” and is responsible for training other VITA Partners throughout CT and Rhode Island. Locally, he and his 60+ retired professional colleagues provide pro bono tax preparation throughout the inner cities and towns in Fairfield County serving over 8,000+ clients each year.

Pat is a retired CPA with over 30 years of experience in business and spent the majority of his career rising through the ranks of American Banknote Corporation, one of the world’s largest providers of secure transaction systems and solutions.  He retired in 2014 as the CFO and COO of global operations to spend some quiet time with his wife Terry. Pat and Terry are the proud parents of two Eagle Scouts and when not constrained by Covid they enjoy traveling and spending time with their friends in Darien.

Members wishing to find out more about Pat’s process prior to the presentation should click on the following link. You should be prepared to enter information and data to make the demo work for you: Virtual VITA 2020 Online Demo Tax Prep Link

Arranged by Charles Salmans

Bryan Hooper’s notes on the talk:

DMA member Pat Gentile talked to us about the single most critical anti-poverty tool in Connecticut – the volunteer income tax assistance program (VITA) for less-privileged families and individuals to cope with and manage the tax-preparation process, resulting in tax credits and refunds going rapidly to clients. Pat is the Executive Director of Virtual VITA and manages a team of around 100 volunteers out of 1500 in Connecticut, operating at 120 brick and mortar sites and helping complete 52,000 tax returns annually. Nationwide, the organization has 65,000 volunteers at 9,000 sites, helping clients file 3.5 million returns.

The key component driving their work is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) that rewards low-income people for working, and can result in up to $10,000 in refunds going to a family with dependent children. Additionally, as a result of CARES legislation enacted during the Covid crisis, the team is working to aid clients to file tax returns to qualify for up to $1,200 per individual and $500 for each child: there are around 90,000 people needing help to file a return before they can receive the refunds they are due under CARES.

Overall, there are 213,000 households in Connecticut who filed tax returns in 2018 with an average adjusted gross income of $24,500; the EITC for those households was around $2,700, and those refunds contributed significantly to the local economy. However, despite the advantages to be gained, it is estimated that 21% of qualifying households do not claim the EITC, and Virtual VITA’s challenge is to overcome ignorance and fear to gain the confidence of those potential clients and help them take advantage of the system. The scale of the task facing Pat and his team is that 579,000 households qualify for their assistance: that is 42% of the population of the State of Connecticut.

Pat’s story of the efforts and the successes achieved during the rush to cope with returns in the lockdown situation engendered by Covid is one of patience and persistence, and a powerful testament to his ability to work with both the bureaucracy of governments and the oft-encountered hostility and suspicion of potential clients.

You can see the presentation at https://youtu.be/vrEVBhXfAWg, and view his slides on Virtual VITA Project – VirtualVITA Inc Executive Summary for DMA REVISED.