Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Nelson Tebbe, Ph.D., will speak about the current state of First Amendment law covering freedom of religion and freedom of speech. He will focus on Justice Kennedy’s final opinions and discuss how the Supreme Court’s doctrine may change with Judge Kavanaugh on the court. Dr. Tebbe is professor of law at Cornell Law School. His research focuses on constitutional law, political theory and the academic study of religion – in particular, the relationship between religious traditions and democratic governments. Dr. Tebbe is the author of Religious Freedom in an Egalitarian Age, where he examines the contemporary conflict between free exercise and equality law. He argues for a way forward that vigorously protects civil rights while safeguarding the ability of religious traditionalists to dissent. He also is co-author of an upcoming case book, Religious Liberty and Secular Government: Cases and Materials. As a media commentator, he has published opinion pieces in Slate, The New York Times, SCOTUSblog, Balkinization, and the Daily News. Before teaching, Dr. Tebbe clerked for Judge John M. Walker, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and practiced law at the American Civil Liberties Union and at Davis Polk & Wardwell. A graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School, he holds a Ph.D. with distinction in the academic study of religion from the University of Chicago Divinity School. After college, he was a Fulbright Scholar studying at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
Arranged by Roger Renz
Video: https://youtu.be/KUr5yhzVdUg
Wednesday, October 3, 2018 
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Jonathan Yates, music director, Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, is a driving force in reinvigorating the relationship between the symphony and the community. He revived the popular (Not) Just For Kids educational outreach program and collaborates with local cultural, religious and civic organizations. His first performance was at the age of 23, leading the National Symphony Orchestra in a Millennium Stages Concert. The following year, he debuted at Carnegie Hall as a pianist in the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop. He has led the Norwalk Youth Symphony on successful tours in this country and abroad. Jonathan received his B.A. degree from Harvard University, his M.S. degree from the State University of New York and his graduate diploma in conducting from the Juilliard School. He is music director emeritus of Camerata Notturna, a chamber orchestra in New York City, and serves on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College.
Bruce Wilson will share with us why The Conversation is now viewed as an antidote to fake news and has become a key provider of content to help stem the decline of the U.S. media industry. Bruce is co-CEO of The Conversation, a new nonprofit news platform to counter the complete disarray undermining the ability of the public to get information from a trustworthy source since experts barely exist in newsrooms and objective journalists are a dying breed. Like most startups, The Conversation launched with a small editorial staff of seven and was largely supported by leading foundations like Ford, Gates and Sloan. Now there are 17 editors and more than 50 universities, like Michigan University and Tufts, supporting the mission. What makes it unique is the breadth and depth of its reporters, who are all leading academics with deep expertise in their area of research. In the few short years since its launch, The Conversation has worked with 1,400+ academics from top universities from coast to coast. News outlets serving liberal and conservative audiences, like The Washington Post, Foxnews.com, the Chicago Tribune, Scientific American and The Associated Press, regularly republish articles from The Conversation, generating in excess of 9 million readers a week. Bruce has Darien roots.
Jim Bell will discuss the historic Pyeongchang Games in South Korea, as well as the preparations for the Tokyo Summer Games in 2020 along with reflections on NBC’s long affiliation with the Olympic Games. Jim is president, NBC Olympics Production & Programming. He oversees all the day-to-day editorial production and programming aspects of NBC’s Olympics coverage of the Games, as well as the Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA, an International Olympic Committee, U.S. Olympic Committee and NBC partnership. He also is executive producer of Telemundo World Cup, for which he oversaw the Spanish-language network’s first-ever coverage of the event earlier this year. The Pyeongchang Winter Games marked Jim’s 12 th Olympics with NBC. He is in his second stretch with NBS Sports, as he rejoined following seven years as executive producer of the “Today Show.” Jim also has produced NBC broadcasts of the NFL, MLB and NBA and won an Emmy for the 1997 NBA finals and 1998 Wimbledon tennis. He is a 1989 cum laude graduate of Harvard, where he was an All-Ivy defensive tackle and a member of the 1987 Ivy Championship team. Jim and his wife Angelique and their four sons live in Greenwich.
William B. Holding, a prominent banker and accomplished painter whose joys were his family and music, died peacefully on August 15 in Darien, Connecticut. He was 84.
Dan Eng was born in Guangzhou, Chi-na, in 1949 and grew up in Newark, N.J. He received a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from the New Jersey Insti-tute of Technology in 1971 and an M.B.A. degree from the Tuck School of Dartmouth College in 1974. Dan has worked in the oil and gas in-dustry his entire career beginning with Exxon and moving on to, Gulf Oil Company, ARCO, British Petroleum, General Electric, Goldman Sachs and OVM Petrom. He has lived and worked in New York City, Houston, Beijing, London, Jakarta and Singapore retiring in 2014. He and his wife Chris live in New Canaan and have three children and four grandchildren. His interests include water color painting, reading, golf, hiking, paddle tennis, ping pong and wood working.
John Bosee was born in 1952 in New York City and grew up in Old Green-wich, Conn. He graduated in 1970 from the Loomis Chaffee School where he played football, lacrosse and wrestled. He also played the drums in bands and raced sailboats. He received a B.A. degree in interdisciplinary studies from Bethany College in 1974 where he was active in sports, student government, was a disk jockey on a radio station and performed and directed theater productions. He received a J.D. degree in 1977 from Brooklyn College. He has worked for various law firms in New York City and Connecticut and tried hundreds of commercial cases. He was appointed assistant district attorney, Queens County, N.Y. and later joined the law firm of Kroll and Tract to do international insurance litigation. He also works with international students from over 22 countries and currently supervises 23 Chinese students in Rockland County, N.Y. He and his wife Juanita live in Darien and have two children. John was a commissioner for the Charter Revision Commission, Darien, and served three years as a Representative to the Darien Town Meeting. He is a member of the First Congregational Church and at the Darien YMCA served as water front director for the past two summers.