Category: Speaker Announcements (Page 3 of 24)

A Life in Cartoons – Growing Up and Working in the Cartoon Business

Cartoonist and longtime Wilton resident Brian Walker will give a PowerPoint presentation about growing up and working in the cartoon business. He has written, edited or contributed to forty-five books on cartoon art, including the definitive history, The Comics, The Complete Collection, as well as numerous exhibition catalogues and magazine articles.

Brian is part of the creative team that produces the comic strips Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois. The setting for Hi and Loisresembles Wilton and often features familiar settings such as The Silvermine Market, Cobbs Mill Inn, Orem’s Diner, Scoops Ice Cream and the Silvermine Tavern.

Brian Walker has a diverse background in professional cartooning and cartoon scholarship. He is a founder and former director of the Museum of Cartoon Art, where he worked from 1974 to 1992. He taught a course in cartoon history at the School of Visual Arts from 1995 to 1996. He has served as curator for seventy-five cartoon exhibitions including three major retrospectives, The Sunday Funnies:  100 Years of Comics in American Life, at the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 100 Years of American Comics at the Belgian Center for Comic Art in Brussels and Masters of American Comics at the Hammer Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. He was Editor-in-Chief of Collectors Showcase magazine from 1997 to 2000 and is the founder and current chairman of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society.

Speaker suggested by Gehr Brown

Speaker  Summary

Brian took us on an historical and often nostalgic journey through his, his famous father’s (Mort Walker), and his family’s lives as cartoonists focusing on the creation and sustained success of the Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois comic strips. Interestingly, these two strips are “related” since Lois’ character was created as Beetle’s sister. Mort created Hi and Lois after the Korean War when he wasn’t sure how an army-based strip would perform in a post-war world, so he conceived a family-based strip for the times. In the end, these two strips were the only two of the nine he created over his lifetime that had sustained success. Along with his brothers, Brian has carried on the work of creating these strips.

Brian discussed his involvement in the development of an ill-fated Cartoon Museum and its progression through three stand-alone locations before ultimately finding a long-term home as part of the larger art museum at Ohio State University. As it turns out, the Cartoon Museum was Brian’s entry into the cartoon business. He had no intention to follow in his father’s footsteps (in fact, his college degree was in East African Culture), but he was “recruited” by his father to help create, manage, and curate the museum. This evolved into a career creating cartoons and writing books and curating exhibits about cartoons.

Brian shared that his father’s interest in cartoons began as a young child in Kansas City and grew into one of the most successful cartoon careers in the industry. Beetle Bailey grew out of Mort’s experience in army boot camp and the Sarge character was based on his own drill sergeant. He talked about the critical nature of being “true” to the characters the readers come to know and how this impacts what is and isn’t acceptable in a “gag” (the cartoonist’s word for a strip’s storyline). He also noted that Beetle never left Camp Swampy/was deployed because his dad didn’t think there was anything funny about warfare and the real work of the military.

Hi and Lois is a strip about family situations everyone can relate to. It is heavily based on the Wilton, CT area and locales (restaurants, stores, etc.) from his own life as a resident there. Brian noted that Fairfield County has always been a hotbed of industry talent with many well-known cartoonists making their homes in the area and feeding off each other as a powerful creative community for the genre.

Brian ended his formal talk with a video created by his son that provided an interesting insight into the process of creating comic strips. It was an informative and heart-warming look at how Mort Walker and his sons created their strips, starting with “gag conferences” to review and select storylines and ending with the final “inked” strip. It was interesting to note that each branded strip has a very distinctive style – in the case of Beetle Bailey, right down to the shape of the word/thought balloons.

Brian’s talk was followed by an extended Q&A session in which topics like the economics of the cartoon industry, how changes in where we get our news have impacted how and which strips are distributed, and an interesting discussion of how the movie studios have tried to translate strips into longer form cartoons with mixed results. Brian closed with a touching reference to being lucky to have worked so closely with his dad for most of his life and that he greatly admired that his dad, despite his success and acclaim, was known and respected for being a normal, nice guy.

Video Presentation 

Egalitarianism’s Muddle over Equality, Equity and Equal Treatment

Individual freedom for all law-abiding citizens, alongside equal rights and equal treatment under the law, are the prerequisites of true and sustainable democracy. Egalitarian theories and the quest for some definition of Equality are the subject of infinite debate and writings and even the most respected English language dictionaries struggles with, and differ in, their views and definitions of Egalitarianism. Against this imprecise background of semantics and interpretations, there is plenty of room for confusion, muddled thinking and misconception pertaining to these notions. DMA member Flemming Heilmann will try to bring some clarity to this confusion and offer some thoughts on solutions on how to address the challenges of trying to ensure equality, equity and justice for all.

Flemming was born in Malaysia to Danish parents and studied at Cambridge University, where he graduated with degrees in economics and law. He has since held executive and CEO positions in the manufacturing sector focused on the consumer goods packaging industry, mainly public companies listed on the Johannesburg, Toronto and New York stock exchanges, and has most recently been associated with investment in and management of buy-outs of distressed businesses, with multiple directorships in public and private companies in South Africa, Western Europe, Canada and the United States.

In 2017 Flemming published Odyssey Uncharted, a memoir of World War II childhood and education on four continents, set in mid-20th century history, and in 2019 published his second book, The Unacceptable Face, charting a career on three continents under apartheid, extreme socialism and disparate iterations of capitalism.  His translation of Halfdan Lefevre’s The Men in Denmark’s Freedom Council was published in February 2022 by Telemachus Press.

Arranged by Tom Igoe

Speaker Summary

Flemming combined perspectives on two of his “hobby horses” to provide an informative and thought-provoking talk about critical aspects of a modern democratic society and specifically applied them to the current situation in the United States: the confusion about equality, equity and equal treatment; and the role of education in preparing the average youth to participate in democracy.

Flemming argued that, while providing equal opportunities and treatment (equity) should be givens and are fundamentals for a democratic society, the notion that we can create equality is not feasible since equality is inconsistent with the realities of differences based on biological characteristics and abilities. Equality assumes that we can make humans identical/exactly the same, but that defies biological reality. He used the obvious example of trying to enable everyone to run as fast as Usain Bolt to help make his point, but the realities of human inequalities apply to other characteristics as well, driven by genetic and biological differences.  On the other hand, you can codify a means to give everyone the same opportunities and rights and that should be the focus of our egalitarian efforts. As part of the Q&A, Flemming questioned the phrase that it is “self-evident that all men are created equal” as stated in the Declaration of Independence, not to question the importance of providing equal rights and opportunities, but as a misstatement about everyone being created equal.

As his talk progressed, Flemming integrated thoughts on the critical role of education in ensuring the health of a democracy, arguing that an uninformed citizenry cannot hope to have the knowledge needed to understand the issues facing the nation to effectively participate and make informed decisions. He bemoaned the poor knowledge of civics, the low voting turnout rates and, the abysmal literacy rates in the United States, especially compared to other leading democratic nations. He also touched on the misconception that everyone should pursue a college education, talking to the role and opportunity of the trades and apprenticeships in meeting the employment needs of the nation (and how these are handled in other nations).  Flemming focused great attention on how your “zip code” should not impact your educational opportunity with an emphasis on the need to allocate/reallocate resources and funds between higher and lower income zip codes to improve the opportunities for those in poorer areas (and he noted that this is as much a rural America problem as it is an inner city/urban issue). He made it very clear that he rejects the notion that our educational system can’t be fixed and that he is pessimistic about our democracy if we don’t address this educational gap. Flemming then spent some time discussing the program he has been involved with in Queens that has dramatically improved and impacted the literacy rates and opportunities for its participants as an example of how the appropriate use of resources to provide equal opportunities can make an important difference.

An engaging discussion and Q&A session followed Flemming’s prepared comments and reflected how his thoughts had struck a responsive tone with the DMA membership.

Video Presentation

Good Vibrations: Music and Well-Being

Speaker Summary

Music therapy professor and licensed clinical music therapist Heather Wagner took the group through an enlightening and stimulating session on the power of music to enhance your life by impacting you physically, emotionally and psychologically, with a goal of helping people use music intentionally to enhance their well-being. She noted the universality of music and how all people, all cultures and all times have had musical behaviors. She then went into a brief discussion of how music impacts the brain in multiple areas, which helps explain the many ways music can be used to help with therapies for many health and wellness problems.

Heather talked about the physiological, chemical, physical, and emotional responses that music generates. To demonstrate some of these responses, she played different types of music (quiet/sedative, stimulative and emotional) that helped us experience the responses to different styles of music. Of note was watching the involuntary toe-tapping response to the stimulative piece throughout the room as soon as she played it.

Heather emphasized how your music can be especially impactful. Music that reflects your preferences and that is especially relevant in your life for any number of reasons can be particularly powerful in impacting your responses to music. So, your personal music can be especially useful in a range of treatment/wellness situations. She also noted how music contributes to your identity, with what you liked/listened to between the formative years of 16-25 is especially salient and helps tell your life story.

Wagner then shared the definition of music therapy in a clinical context, the 4 types of music therapy methods and how it is/can be an alternative to more traditional talk therapy to meet individual needs. She also discussed her work to elevate the discipline including licensing of music therapists in CT and the challenges of getting insurance funding as a treatment.  Throughout her talk, Heather gave powerful examples of how music can play a role in the treatment of many conditions including strokes, comas, end-of-life, dementia, and Alzheimers, as well as dealing with psychological/emotional conditions.

During the Q&A session, Heather shared thoughts on how you can intentionally use music in your life via active music making and music listening.  She closed with thoughts on how you can write your own “audiobiography” to determine what music tells the story of your life. Anyone who would like Heather’s slides on these two topics can contact Frank DeLeo for copies of them.

Video Presentation 

U.S. Senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, will provide his perspectives on key issues currently facing the United States 

Chris Murphy is the junior United States Senator from Connecticut. He serves on the Foreign Relations Committee, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and the Appropriations Committee. Prior to the Senate, Murphy served for three terms in the U.S. House representing the state’s fifth congressional district. In Congress, Murphy is acknowledged as a leading voice for stronger anti-gun violence measures, a smarter foreign policy, and reform of our nation’s mental health system.

Before being elected to Congress, Murphy served for eight years in the Connecticut state legislature. Murphy graduated with honors from Williams College in Massachusetts and received his law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law. He is married to Catherine Holahan, an attorney, and they have two sons, Owen and Rider.

Speaker Summary

Fresh out of a Foreign Relations Committee briefing on Ukraine, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy provided thoughts on the war in Ukraine and the recent Hamas attacks and Israel’s response to them, followed by over 30 minutes of Q&A on a broad range of subjects that were on the minds of the DMA members.

He started by explaining his position as being essentially “anti-war” but that he is willing to supports “just” wars, and that the war in Ukraine is such a war. The senator commented about the impact on the world order if Russia succeeds and how what happens in Ukraine could impact how China perceives its opportunity to invade Taiwan. So, he sees our support to ensure Ukrainian victory as a wise use of resources, especially since it involves funding and materials but no ask for us to involve our troops in the fight. Regarding Israel, he talked to the barbarism of the Hamas attacks and the need to hold terrorist groups accountable while expressing concerns about civilian losses and working to minimize this aspect of the response. He discussed the differential funding needs for each war and the challenges — and his frustration — in gaining congressional support to fund both efforts due to Republican efforts to tie the funding to other policies/programs having nothing to do with these emergency funding needs.

He closed his prepared remarks by thanking us for giving him the opportunity to serve in his position and stating that he prides himself in taking a leadership role in working in a bipartisan manner to find solutions to problems facing the country.

A robust Q&A session followed in which Senator Murphy provided his perspectives on the state of the current immigration crisis including the change in the “mechanics of migration” and the worldwide market for immigrants, as well as his thoughts on what the key elements of meaningful immigration reform would include.  These are: an increased standard for fear for asylum seekers; increased resources to facilitate more rapid processing of asylum applications; and the need for easier/improved access to temporary work visas to meet the needs of those seeking to enter the U.S. primarily to work (versus for asylum), which will also help address our need for more labor.

Among the other topics that were addressed in the Q&A were: how the challenge of approving hundreds of government promotions when tying these to policy disputes has undercut the logistical realities of getting the promotions approved; how the power of lobbies and campaign funding impacts the ability to find solutions to budget/deficit reduction issues like entitlement reforms (and how it talks to the need for campaign finance reform); how gun violence is about an environment of fear in low-income areas in addition to loss of life;  his belief that there will be substantive progress on assault weapon bans and universal background checks (although he talked to a 10 year horizon for these changes); and that there are some “easy” gun safety changes that can happen sooner (like raising the age to purchase an AR-type gun and requiring licenses).  Like Ken Bernhard, our recent speaker on the 2^nd Amendment, he talked about the intention of our founding fathers to empower and enable the states to regulate gun ownership and use.  Murphy noted how the breakdown in intelligence that occurred in Israel was not a surprise (while often right, intelligence is also often wrong), but that the real lesson learned is that intelligence to avoid attacks is not a substitute for policy that addresses the root cause of the issues that leads to them (and, in the case of Israel and the Palestinians, he believes a two-state solution is integral to that solution).

Interestingly, when asked about the challenges and risks to our democracy due to the extreme degree of current political partisanship, Murphy pushed back and talked to the number of pieces of bipartisan legislation that have been recently passed and that, while not naïve about partisan politics or defending the current situation, he believes the narrative is worse than the reality. He also noted that this is worse in the House than the Senate, where he sees more effective bipartisanship. He also attributed some of the problems in the House to issues around redistricting.

The senator ended with an appeal for all of us to be vigilant and sensitive to the needs and dangers in Jewish and Muslim communities in the U.S., for our need to support them, and to report threatening actions to the appropriate authorities.

Video Presentation 

Public Policy in the Era of Political Extremes: Getting Back to the Center

Former Congressman Christopher Shays will talk about the challenge of having both political parties playing to their extremes, and what the general public can and must do to help bring public policy back toward the middle of the political spectrum.  The  discussion will include what we should expect/demand from our elected officials.

Christopher represented the 4^th District in Connecticut from 1987 to 2009 in the United States Congress. Before then, he served 13 years in the Connecticut General Assembly. A moderate Republican, socially progressive and fiscally conservative, Shays had a strong and successful record of reaching across the aisle to address our Nation’s problems.

The only Republican Congressman from New England re-elected in 2006, Shays was consistently recognized for his bipartisan leadership. During his 21 years in Congress, Shays rose to become a senior member of the Budget (Vice-chair), Financial Services, Homeland Security, and Government Reform (Vice-chair), committees, and Chaired the Reform Committee’s National Security Committee with oversight of the Defense and State Departments.

Shays was the primary author of the laws requiring: Congress to live by the acts it writes for the rest of the nation; Congressional gift ban; lobby disclosure; campaign finance reform. As chairman of the National Security Committee, he helped establish the: 9/11 Commission; Director of National Intelligence; Department of Homeland Security; and led 19 oversight trips to Iraq, meeting with our troops, Iraqi government officials, Shia and Sunni leaders, and their followers.

After Congress, Shays Co-chaired the Commission on Wartime Contracting. Then served as a Distinguish Fellow in Public Service at the University of New Haven, and later as a Resident Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, Institute of Politics.

Christopher and his wife, Betsi, are former Peace Corps volunteers (Fiji). As a former volunteer, he championed the Corporation for National and Community Service, helping create AmeriCorps.

Christopher Shays is a graduate of Principia College, NYU’s Stern School of Business (MBA), and its Wagner School of Public Administration (MPA). Christopher and Betsi have a daughter Jeramy Alice, and now reside in Easton, Maryland.

Speaker suggested by Tom Igoe.

Speaker Summary

Former Darien resident and U.S. Congressman Chris Shays shared his thoughts on what good representation and service to his constituents and the country looks like. He started with thoughts on how his upbringing in a town where some groups/minorities were not well represented (and, perhaps, welcome) and where having  parents that emphasized the importance of work and engagement on the events of the times (influenced by nightly dinner discussions around topics his father pulled from reading newspapers on his daily commute to-and-from NYC) related to his future in politics. He also mentioned how his third-grade teacher at Hindley School influenced his love for reading and our country and inspired his interest in going into government work early-on in his life.

Shays then talked about how, upon returning from his service in the Peace Corps and moving to Stamford, he began his career in politics. He emphasized that he learned early-on to listen, engage and not make stereotypical assumptions about his constituents to better understand their views, needs and what he needed to do to serve them. He shared several pointed stories that demonstrated this.

Chris spoke about how, despite being/coming from a Republican home, he was influenced by JFK’s view of commitment to the future and doing what was in the best interests of the country and future generations. He said, “Kennedy spoke to him” and influenced his view of government service – focusing on what politicians should do for their constituents/the country versus what they wanted for themselves.

Shays talked at length about taking time to understand what those who had different views than you believed, with the focus on why they believed it so he could represent all his constituents and better work across-the-aisle to find compromise solutions. And, how compromise to getting to solutions was more important than holding out to win.  He was especially critical of the current news media that focuses on one side of issues based on their politic bias, contributing to the lack of a complete understanding that feeds so much of our partisan politics and ideology.

After 20 minutes of prepared comments, a very engaging 40-minute Q&A session allowed Chris to expound upon and embellish his views on what good, bi-partisan service and partnership looks like, his concerns about the current state of politics and his thoughts on some of the key issues facing our country and world today. He mentioned 3 key changes he thinks are critical to an improved democratic process: eliminating gerrymandering as a hindrance to proper representation; concerns with the electoral process/the electoral college that enables the President to be elected without the majority support of the voters; the Senatorial filibuster as a barrier to legislative progress.

Chris closed with two examples from his time as a congressman when foreign leaders expressed powerful views of the United States as a world leader making him feel especially proud to be in his position and of our country, and how he wonders if we are still viewed this way based on the current state of U.S. politics/leadership.

Video Presentation 

The Community Fund of Darien and the Thriving Youth Darien Survey

 Janet King will provide an overview of The Community Fund and its key elements: Grants, Thriving Youth Darien, Human Services Planning Committee, Volunteer Hub, and Youth Programs. She will share data and trends on key social and welfare issues in our area and how they relate to the work of TCF and discuss TCF grant process and funding goals, as well as the Grant Panelist program and volunteer opportunity.

Susannah Lewis will provide an overview of the recently completed (October, 2023) bi-annual Thriving Youth Darien Survey of Darien middle school and high school students that provides insight into their mental health and substance use patterns.

Janet King has been the Executive Director of The Community Fund of Darien (TCF), since 2018. As Executive Director, she oversees all the operations of TCF, which since 1951 has granted $27,000,000 to local nonprofits. The Community Fund of Darien also convenes Thriving Youth Darien, and Human Services Planning Council, and runs four youth volunteer programs for middle and high school-aged students, as well as The Volunteer Hub for Darien adults looking for volunteer opportunities.

Prior to joining the Community Fund of Darien, Janet was the former Director of Volunteers at Person to Person where she recruited, trained, and organized more than 4,000 volunteers, working alongside clients, corporate teams and community groups. She has experience in program and special event management, employee training, marketing, and fundraising from a variety of companies including Western Athletic Clubs, Brooks Brothers, Esprit de Corp, and May Company. She was raised in Cleveland, Ohio and is a graduate of The Ohio State University. She has volunteered with Tokeneke Parents Teacher Association, Saint Luke’s Parish, Darien Junior Sailing Team, Darien Youth Soccer, Stamford Hospital and Chi Omega alumnae. She serves on the Town of Darien Human Services Commission. Janet has lived in New York City and San Francisco and currently resides in Darien with her husband and enjoys the company of their two sons, a golden retriever and two cats.

Susannah Lewis works in the field of public health, currently as Director of Community Relations and the New Canaan Urgent Assessment Program at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan. Prior to this role she was Mental Health Program Coordinator for Correctional Services with New York City Health and Hospitals. She is currently a board member of the Community Fund of Darien and co-chairs Thriving Youth Darien. She is also the Treasurer for the Connecticut Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Susannah is a past vestry member at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Manhattan and chaired its Development Committee.

Susannah received her Bachelor of Arts in Ancient Greek and Latin from Wellesley College and her Masters of Public Health in Epidemiology from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Susannah and her husband William have lived in Darien since 2015 and are members of St. Luke’s Parish. They have a year-old daughter, Annabelle, and an exceptional rescue poodle, Master Kippy.

Speaker Summary

Janet King took us through an overview of The Community Fund pf Darien and how we can participate in The Fund’s grant review and award process. This was followed by a presentation of the bi-annual Darien Youth Survey of middle and high school students about their mental health and substance use patterns. The talk was followed by an engaging Q&A session that focused primarily on thoughts, concerns and suggestions related to the survey.

Janet discussed the history of The Fund, it’s $27,000,000 in grants since its inception in 1951, and their intended impact “to initiate solutions, build collaboration, and implement and support programs to strengthen youth, adults, and families for lasting impact in Darien, Norwalk and Stamford”. She shared data about social issues being faced in these 3 communities including hunger, homelessness, and poverty levels, noting that even in Darien 4%, or 840 homes, have household incomes below the poverty level. She then discussed the 4 key areas of impact for The Fund (basic needs, workforce development, community health and youth success), each of which received between $168,000 and $214,000 in grants last year. Janet then spoke briefly about the 4 Youth Program groups, the Thriving Youth Darien Survey, the Human Services Planning Council (which convenes non-profit, government, healthcare, safety and educational leaders to address social service needs), and The Volunteer Hub which matches residents seeking a local volunteer opportunity with appropriate organizations. She briefly mentioned their two key fundraising activities (The Darien Road Race and Designed to Dine) before closing with an explanation of their grant review and award process and how DMA members can participate in this process to ensure The Fund is investing in the most effective local non-profits.

Susannah Lewis then presented the results of the just completed Darien Youth Survey on substance use and mental health issues. From a timing and topicality perspective, the results were reported to the town and school leadership just last week and were featured in both the Norwalk Hour and Stamford Advocate on the day she shared them with us, as well as in this week’s The Darien Times. This was the 6^th iteration of the survey which was first conducted in 2008.

The results, based on a 79% response rate for 6-12^th graders (with the 6^th grade included in the survey for the first time this year), showed that Darien teens responded favorably for individual and community “protective factors” (with the noted exception of only 52% knowing where to go for help with substance abuse).  While at much lower levels than the protective factors, “risk factors” were still at concerning levels (35% feeling worse due to social media, 30% losing sleep due to gaming and a surprising 22% engaged in gambling activities). Noteworthy was that youth who identified as LGBTQ+ (9% of the population) reported substantially lower levels of protective factors and higher on risks, putting them at greater overall mental health risk.

Susannah then shared the results regarding alcohol use. There is almost no use prior to high school. Usage increases by grade but jumps dramatically for 12^th graders to an alarming 50% in the past 30 days, more than double for 10^th and 11^th graders. On a positive note, stated use is down dramatically from 2018 which suggests the positive impact of programs to improve education/reduce usage. Compared to other towns in the area, alcohol use in Darien is similar to most other towns with the notable exception of 12^th graders which is substantially higher for Darien.  In subsequent discussions about this, Susannah suggested several factors that could be causing this, including a generally higher acceptance of drinking in Darien (i.e., the town appears to have more of a “drinking culture”). Use of other substances (marijuana, vaping, smoking, prescription drugs) were all down dramatically from 2018 and at generally low levels (.3 – 4%). In looking at the culture of drinking, the most notable findings were that peer pressure/involvement matters, alcohol is readily available, nearly 25% stated they drink at home with their parents present, and one of the top reasons for not drinking was parents being strict about it. She closed with the statistic that Darien teens are 9X more likely to drink if they don’t think their parents disapprove.

 When it comes to mental health, 1 in 4 high schoolers and 1 in 5 middle schoolers report persistent sadness, hopelessness and anxiety. While these are concerning levels, they are generally comparable to other local towns and well below state and national levels. Comparing males to females, boys had generally lower levels of these conditions but scored worse on the impact of gaming and had higher rates of bullying. Girls reported higher rates of sadness, anxiety and loneliness, restrictive eating behavior, self-harm/suicidal ideation and negative social media consequences.

Depression and suicide data are clearly concerning, with 20+% feeling so sad, hopeless, or anxious almost every day for 2+ weeks that it impacted their usual activities.  9% (163 respondents) seriously considered suicide, 6% (115 respondents) made a plan for how they would do it, and 2% (46 respondents) reported attempting suicide. While well below state and national levels, the fact that this many of our youth reported these behaviors is very concerning.

Susannah summarized by stating there’s evidence that town initiatives have helped move the needle in the right direction but there is still work to do, especially in setting clear family rules around substance (primarily alcohol) use and relaxing them at too young an age. She also emphasized the heightened concerns and needs for the LGBTQ+ and minority communities in town who feel less protected and are at greater mental health risk. She closed by sharing three programs that are being supported by the town/The Fund to continue to inform and support Darien Youth.

Video Presentation 

Beauty and Community: Exceptional Landscapes as Public Spaces 

Can landscapes of great natural beauty and cultural legacy also become generous public spaces that serve their immediate communities and afford destinations for visitors? How can we interpret and adapt these landscapes to meet contemporary needs? How can we program them appropriately and operate them to ensure they are economically and environmentally sustainable? Beka Sturges of Reed Hilderbrand will address and help answer these questions. Her presentation will provide valuable insights that might be especially helpful as Darien determines next steps for the Great Island property.

Reed Hilderbrand is an American landscape architecture firm recognized for many award-winning projects that have guided the growth and change of significant landscapes from Boston’s 527-acre Franklin Park to Patagonia’s Parque Nacional Corcovado. In addition to private residences and work on university and museum campuses, Reed Hilderbrand works with organizations and communities on strategic and transformative projects. In Cambridge, they have completed an Urban Forest Plan to advance city-wide green infrastructure. They are currently guiding the transformation of a private estate into a new Audubon Society sanctuary on the Concord River and the adaptation of a famous summer camp into a new park and civic center for the Town of Brewster on Cape Cod.

Beka Sturges is partner and principal of Reed Hilderbrand and a senior critic at Yale University School of Architecture. She leads the practice’s office in New Haven. Her projects include the landscapes of The Clark Art Institute in the Berkshires, Storm King Art Center in the Hudson Valley, Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C, and Elizabeth Park in Hartford, Connecticut. In “Beauty and Community” Beka reinterprets contemporary American landscape architecture through the careers of Beatrix Ferrand and Cornelia Hahn Oberlander to arrive at Reed Hilderbrand’s unique design approach to place, community, and beauty. As communities and institutions continue to evolve in the twenty-first century, Beka considers how Connecticut’s diverse landscapes might be best positioned to serve goals of climate resilience, equity, environmental justice — and beauty.

Beka earned her BA in English from Sarah Lawrence College.  She began studies towards a PhD in English Literature at Princeton University before earning a Master of Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Speaker arranged by Richard Grefe

Speaker Summary

Landscape architect Beka Sturges provided an informative and thought-provoking talk about creating beauty in public spaces and then talked about how this process can be applied by Darien as it plans for the development of the Great Island property.

Beka commented on what makes for a beautiful landscape and how its development needs to evolve and endure, then shared examples like The Clark Art Institute and the New Orleans Museum of Art. She talked about how offering a variety of experiences and the quality of the transformation of the space helps make a space deeply loved.

She emphasized that a guiding principle of her firm’s work is identifying and bringing out the one thing that is most distinctive about each piece of land to both ensure it is preserved and emphasized in the development. And that determining what needs to be preserved (and, what does not) is a key first step in any design project.

As Beka moved to thoughts on Great Island, she spoke about the things that contribute to beauty in nature – light, color, stone and texture. She provided some inspiring thoughts about islands and how they embody and inspire things like fantasy, hope and even utopia with examples like Hawaii, Martha’s Vineyard and the nearby Thimble Islands. Beka spoke at some length about the decisions that need to be made about the current structures and some of the considerations involved in deciding which to keep, including historical significance and cost to update and maintain them.

Beka spent a great deal of time in her talk and during the Q&A talking about how critical the process to determine what will be done with a space – especially a public space – needs to be to ensure commitment, arrival at clearly defined “shared values” and buy-in by all constituents. And how a clear, well-defined process and transparent sharing of information and decision-making facilitates this. She also talked to the need to manage the number of decision-makers and how government versus outside resources can be used to ensure a perceived sense of objectivity in the process, as well as leveraging expertise that may not be available within government/local resources.

Finally, she talked about governance and funding models for a spaces like Great Island including public, non-profit and private options and how a combination of them often makes the most sense from a financial perspective.

There was a lengthy Q&A that focused primarily on Great Island and served to expand upon many of the points Beka made during her prepared remarks.

Video Presentation 

Speaker Summary

Attorney Ken Bernhard provided an historical perspective on the 2nd Amendment with a view towards: understanding the original intent of the writers of The Constitution; how the amendment does or does not relate to an individual’s right to bear arms; the long-standing view of the Supreme Court as it pertains to the right to limit gun ownership and use; and, his view as to what led up to the changes in The Court’s decision to relax the limitations on gun ownership and use. Ultimately, his perspective is that what was intended to be a right controlled by the states had been turned into a constitutionally protected right based on decisions rendered by a more politically motivated and influenced court, with the funding and power of the NRA being the largest factor in this change.

Much of his discussion focused on the wording and meaning around the reference to “the right to bear arms” tied to state Militias at the time of the writing of The Constitution versus an individual’s right to bear arms. He provided some historical background and context that made it seem clear that the intent was related to supporting state Militias in the absence of a Federal army/Militia for protection. Ken then discussed 3 Supreme Court cases that, over the next 230 years, consistently reinforced that the 2^nd Amendment gave the states the right to regulate guns. And, that it did not constitutionally guarantee the individual’s rights to bear arms.

He discussed key elements that led to a change in the thinking by The Court:  civil unrest and assassinations in the ‘60’s, and the emergence of the NRA and it’s deep-pocketed support for gun ownership rights in the ‘90’s. This led to 3 landmark cases that “rewrote” the amendment, ignoring the focus on the Militia and focusing instead on “the right to bear arms”.  The first case allowed gun ownership to protect your home and possessions and subsequent cases took the rights outside the home into public spaces.

Despite strong public sentiment for some degree of gun control, Ken’s perspective is that these cases have fundamentally changed gun ownership to now be a constitutional right that supersedes state gun control laws which have been, and likely will be, under constant legal attack by gun rights activists and organizations. In the end, it appears anything short of an unlikely Constitutional Amendment that either redefines national gun rights or returns the control to the states will change this.

A spirited debate and discussion followed, and, in closing, Ken made it clear that he does not oppose gun ownership, just that it has become a federal/constitutional right versus leaving the control with the states as he believes was the intent of the writers of The Constitution.

Video Presentation 

Speaker Summary

Mike Curran provided a lively and informative overview of the history of European exploration and settlements in North America and their relationships with Native Americans leading up to the French & Indian Wars and, ultimately, the role this history and experience had on the subsequent Revolutionary War.

He started with an historical timeline of the varied expeditions to North America by many European countries motivated primarily by opportunities for financial benefits related to trading opportunities. An interesting point was that many/most of the explorations were funded and conducted on behalf of nations other than that of the explorer. Mike also showed the numerous Native American tribes and their territories in what was primarily the northeast, mid-west, mid-Atlantic and southern areas of what is now the United States, as well as into Canada. Another interesting fact – most of the tribal names were derogatory terms used by their enemies to describe them, not the names the tribes called themselves.

Mike then went into a detailed discussion of several of the wars that occurred and about the French and British settlers.  He talked about what motivated each nation (the French wanted trade while the British also wanted territory), how that influenced their relationships with the Indians (largely allied with the French), and the relative military strengths of each and how the French & Indian War played out as a result. He closed with a discussion of the lessons learned from these wars and how they helped embolden and prepare the U.S. colonies to take on the British during the Revolutionary War, and why the French was an ally to the U.S during that war.

An expansionary Q&A followed that provided additional information and perspectives on key battles and aspects of the Revolutionary War, including an interesting perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of George Washington as a military leader.

Video Presentation

Darien School Safety and Security

Darien Public Schools Director of Security, Leon Krolikowski, will discuss how the Darien School District is embracing best practices in school safety and security. The talk will include discussions about the district’s armed school security officers (SSOs), campus monitors, training, accreditation, best practices, and related initiatives that will enhance the district’s safety and security.

Leon Krolikowski has been the Darien Public Schools Director of Security since January 9, 2023. Before coming to Darien, Leon was a member of the New Canaan Police Department for over 34 years. Before becoming Chief in June 2013, he served in many different Department roles and ranks of increasing responsibility.

While working full-time, Leon earned an M.B.A., a law degree, completed an executive education course at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and began coursework towards a Ph.D. He is admitted to practice law in the States of Connecticut and New York, Connecticut Federal Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and the United States Tax Court. Leon is a graduate of the F.B.I. National Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and he is a Marine Corps Infantry Combat Veteran.

Leon has lived in New Canaan for over 32 years. He has been married to his wife, Anna, for 29 years and has three children, Morgan, Kelsey, and Ryan.

Speaker Summary

Darien School Security Director Leon Krolikowsi provided a comprehensive review of the history, current program, and some of the future initiatives for the Darien Public School Security Program. He explained that the focus is on prevention and mitigation to minimize risk and the likelihood of issues and emergencies requiring a response by his team, while ensuring they are trained and prepared should the need arise.

Leon talked about the roles of the 3 groups currently providing support and safety at the Darien schools: Campus Monitors, School Resource Officers at Darien High School and Middlesex Middle School (active uniformed members of the Darien Police Department) and the armed elementary school SSO’s (School Safety Officers, all retired former police officers). He then detailed the screening, hiring and training of the SSO’s, their specific roles and responsibilities and their day-to-day activities and reporting relationships within the schools.

He also talked to the importance of the SSO’s as it relates to response time in the unlikely case of an incident in a school and how an on-site officer dramatically reduces the risk by discouraging would-be attackers and/or shortening the response time from a few/several minutes to as little as seconds. He shared notable examples from across the country and how depending primarily on outside resources like the local police department resulted in response times of as long as 77 minutes or, in even the best case, 6 minutes. In all cases there was a loss of lives and substantial injuries that having a trained officer committed to action on-site might have reduced.

Leon also explained the ongoing work being done through desktop planning and exercises to better prepare the SSO’s and school staff to handle a broad range of scenarios and talked about testing and development of new approaches and technologies to improve school safety and reduce risk. He also talked about Darien being the first K-12 public school system in the country to be pursuing the highest level of safety accreditation.

His presentation was followed by a short Q&A.  His most emphatic answer was to the question of whether arming teachers to deal with potential emergencies was a good idea.  His response was “No. No. No.” due to the risks of someone having a gun without the experience and training to truly know when to use it.

The clear takeaway of Leon’s talk was Darien’s commitment and progress towards offering a best-in-class school safety program to protect the town’s most valuable asset – its children.

Video Presentation

It’s Complicated:  The Decision Around Dropping the Atomic Bombs on Japan.

Ted Aldrich will be speaking about all the factors that went into the decision by President Harry Truman to drop atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945 and, to a lesser extent, about some of the key figures who influenced the decision. In his 2022 book, The Partnership, Aldrich devoted a chapter to the discussions that took place between members of the High Command about how to end the war in Japan. Since publication of his book last year, he has been invited twice by Colgate University to lecture to a class studying all aspects of the atomic bomb. This past spring, Aldrich served on a panel with historian Evan Thomas and journalist/author Barbara Slavin at the Stimson Center in Washington D.C. which was devoted to addressing the reasons for using the atomic bomb on Japan.

DMA members can expect to hear about all the misconceptions regarding the decision that have emerged over the years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He will attempt to take the audience back in time to July 1945 and firmly in the shoes of those saddled with the terrific responsibility of ending a War that had already killed approximately 420,000 Americans and wounded another 670,000.

Edward “Ted” Aldrich was born and raised in Rowayton, Connecticut. He attended Colgate University majoring in economics and political science before receiving an MBA in finance from Boston College. He then began a career in banking with UBS in New York.  He spent thirteen years with UBS working in New York, Zurich, and London specializing principally in commodities. Aldrich held senior positions at Deutsche Bank and Fortis before launching a trade and commodity finance business at Mizuho Bank, a business he ran for eleven years. Aldrich currently works as the head of corporate development for Auramet Trading, one of the world’s largest physical precious metals merchants in the world.

Aldrich’s love of history began on the day he entered the 2^nd grade at Rowayton Elementary School and saw portraits of all the U.S. presidents on the wall of his classroom. Since that day one of his primary hobbies has been the study of history. Today, he has a library of nearly 700 books, most of which he read during his thirty plus years of commuting by train back and forth from Connecticut to Manhattan. His first book, The Partnership: George Marshall, Henry Stimson, and the Extraordinary Collaboration that Won World War II (published last year) was written on his commute over a seven-year period (Aldrich spoke to the DMA about The Partnership last May and is still on a book tour).

Aldrich and his wife Susan Scull Aldrich (a Darien native and daughter of DMA member Pete Scull) have lived in Westport since 1999 where they raised three sons. Along with history, Aldrich’s main interests are soccer (he played four years at Colgate and still plays in a Westport men’s league), piano, and gardening (his wife is a prominent landscape designer who designs landscapes from Greenwich to Fairfield).

Speaker arranged by Charles Salmans

Speaker Summary

Ted Aldrich provided a compelling review of the background, issues and factors that went into the decision to drop 2 atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945 that ultimately led to surrender by Japan. He took us through the timeline for both the development of the bomb and the rapid progression from the formation of a committee in May 1945 to decide what to do once the bomb was finalized until the bombs were dropped on August 6 and 9, 1945.

Noteworthy was the fact that President Truman didn’t even know the bomb project existed when he was sworn in on April 12, 1945, yet the decision was made to drop the bomb 3 months later. Ted took us through the steps that occurred between these dates, the key players in the process (with a focus on Henry Stimson and George Marshall, the subjects of Ted’s book, “The Partnership”), and the factors that led to the decision to use the atomic bomb.  While there were many factors (some quite ancillary), the greatest of these was: the need to put an end to the war; the belief that more US (and, ultimately, Japanese) lives would be saved by a rapid end to the war;  and, that anything short of showing the Japanese the destruction they would endure in the face of this new weapon would not bring about an end to the war based on Japan’s until-that-point’s demonstration that they would never surrender despite the losses that they had already endured. To prove his point, Ted shared that, even after the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, there was a 3-3 deadlock among Japanese leaders as to whether they should surrender.

All-in-all, an insightful, engaging presentation and Q&A on what was one of the most critical, and afterwards controversial, decisions in the history of warfare. Ted also made the clear point that, at the time, there was actually little controversy and broad support for the decision to drop the bombs and that, in his opinion, it was the right decision and likely saved millions of US and Japanese lives despite the loss of life from the bombs.

Video Presentation 

Bob Heussler is a veteran radio and television sportscaster with over 35-years of experience working in New York and Connecticut. He was an update anchor for the country’s first all-sports radio station – New York City’s WFAN – for 30 years and remains with the station on a part-time basis. Heussler has a long association with the Fairfield University men’s basketball program as their radio and television play-by-play announcer, recently completing his 35^th season with the Stags. Heussler was the radio and television play-by-play announcer of the WNBA’S Connecticut Sun for 17 years, beginning with their inaugural season in 2003.   He remains a back-up play-by-play radio announcer for the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets. Heussler was a sportscaster for the Connecticut Radio Network for over 15 years, serving as the radio play-by-play announcer for UConn basketball and football and providing coverage of the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament and PGA Greater Hartford Open. He is a former network anchor for ESPN Radio and remains an anchor with the CBS Sports Radio Network on a part-time basis. Heussler is a former sports director at WICC in Bridgeport, has been an instructor of student broadcasters at Yale and Fairfield and was the longtime director of public relations at Milford Jai-Alai. A graduate of the University of Bridgeport, Heussler currently resides in Stamford.

Speaker Summary

Long-time sports announcer Bob Heussler took us through a tour of the history of the development and evolution of sports radio, with a focus on the New York sports market and its biggest and, in his opinion, best broadcasters and personalities.

A life-long Mets fan, Bob got his passion for radio from his mother and turned it into a career that encompassed announcing games for college and professional sports teams in the New York area as well as providing sports updates on the original sports talk radio station, WFAN, including a stint with the revolutionary team of Mike & The Mad Dog.

Bob started with a history of how the print medium dominated sports reporting before radio became a primary vehicle for sports coverage. He talked about early radio pioneers and how they influenced those who came after them and notable broadcasters who have been associated with New York sports teams. He shared the progression from sports announcers to sports personalities to broadcast teams. Bob paid special homage to 2 of the stars of NY sportscasting, Marty Glickman and Marv Albert, and what made them special and how they influenced the next generation of NY sports voices. To emphasize his points, Bob shared audio clips of famous moments in New York sports history and of key voices of sports in New York.

Bob then talked about the rise of “sports talk” radio, including some of the early stars in New York who had programs on radio stations that also provided news, music, etc.  He then detailed how WFAN created 24-hour sports radio despite initial poor performance and how it was saved thanks to Don Imus and the creation of the legendary team of Mike Francesa and Chris Russo (Mike and the Mad Dog) who redefined sports talk radio and became the blueprint for so many other radio and TV talk shows that are about sports debates and “hot takes”.  He also noted that they have been imitated but never matched.

Bob shared his personal list of New York’s five most impactful sportscasters: Marv Albert, Mike and the Mad Dog, Marty Glickman, Mel Allen, and Bill Mazer. He then closed with a few thoughts on some other New York sports voices that were important and needed to be acknowledged.

An engaging Q&A session followed including suggestions of other great voices in other markets and how current trends (e.g., corporate sponsorships and sports betting) have impacted the state of current sports broadcasting.