Harvard Club of the Research Triangle

Previous Events

PREVIOUS EVENTS

PETER GOMES LUNCHEON... Monday, April 23, 2007 The Reverend Professor Peter Gomes regaled us at a luncheon program at the Radisson Hotel in RTP. Rev. Gomes lived up to his immensely impressive resume and reputation by simultaneously entertaining and enlightening a sellout crowd. You can read Rev. Gomes' impressive biography at the website of the Memorial Church of Harvard University. Rev. Gomes has spoken to our Club several times and never disappoints. We look forward to his next visit. Join us when he returns.

SCOTT ABELL, Harvard's Associate Vice President and Dean for Development for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, visited the Triangle to provide Harvard Club members with a candid update on what is happening at the University. We gathered at the Gateway Jazz Cafe in Morrisville on Tuesday evening, November 28, 2006, from 6 to 8 pm to talk face to face with Dean Abell.

Dean Abell addressed recent events at the University, the interim leadership process, current research projects, and future initiatives including the Allston development project. His remarks were followed by an open forum. Refreshments and heavy hors-d'oeuvres were served.

THE GAME...Saturday, November 18. The Yale Club organized the 2006 Harvard/Yale Game TV party at Quinn's sports bar in Raleigh. The gathering was really a lot of fun, with a good representation of Harvard and Yale folks alike.

SOUTHERN SONGS BY YANKEES - A MUSICAL REVUE FOR THE AGES

Bob Whyte performed his Southern Songs By Yankees show November 9, 2006, for a packed house of Harvard Club members and guests at the Radisson Hotel in RTP. A clever mixture of story-telling, humor, and music, Bob and his very talented sidekicks, singer Laura Jones, and piano player, Dan Wielunksi, took the audience on a Tin Pan Alley adventure featuring standards such as Swanee, and less familiar ditties like I’ve Got Those Red White and Blues. The show was structured to give the audience an emotional roller-coaster ride, moving from the snappy, saucy tunes of the 20s, such as Dinah and Hard Hearted Hannah, to the sweeter sounds of Georgia and Stars Fell on Alabama more typical of the somber depression era of the 1930s. Then the band cranked it up with Alabamy Bound and Mississippi Mud featuring a gutbucket, washboard, and kazoo band made up of audience volunteers including Phil Carl, Sean Witty and Grace Ueng’s 9-year old son, Nick. The show ended with a sing-along of Carolina in the Morning and a standing ovation for Bob, Laura, and Dan. Long time club members Jean and Tom Nuzum said it was the best Harvard Club event they had attended in years and hoped it would become an annual affair. Well, Bob?

You can view an online "slide show" of the revue on the News & Observer website at the following link: http://www.newsobserver.com/1241/story/511703.html

The November 19 News & Observer story about the show ("Dandy Yankee Tunes" by N&O Staff Writer Peggy Lim) can be found in the newsobserver.com archives.

DEAN THEDA SKOCPOL LUNCHEON MAY 9, 2006

We had the privilege and pleasure of meeting the Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at our final spring luncheon event on May 9th. Dean Skocpol's presentation on African American Fraternal Groups in the U.S. captivated an audience of thirty Club members and guests. Her upcoming book about this subject promises to open the eyes of historians and others to the essential role that these groups played in promoting the civil rights movement and preparing the African American community to take its rightful place in American society.

It was enlightening and stimulating to hear this outstanding scholar and senior Harvard administrator respond to questions about the issues and events leading to the recent resignation of President Summers. Everyone in the audience came away with a great deal of respect for Dean Skocpol and appreciated the professional and candid manner in describing a complicated and delicate situation. Dean Skocpol urged alumni to contact and communicate with faculty members to help the University move forward.

HODDING CARTER LUNCHEON APRIL 5, 2006

UNC Professor of Leadership and Public Policy Hodding Carter III knows something about terrorism. From his childhood in the Mississippi Delta as the son of a crusading newspaper publisher, through his own tenure there as reporter, editor and civil rights advocate, Carter witnessed firsthand the violent spasms of American bigotry and became a leader in the fight against institutionalized racism.

Later, as State Department spokesman during the Iran hostage crisis, Carter had intimate knowledge of our government's protracted struggle to free our citizens from their fanatical captors. As a lifelong student and teacher of history and as a man who has worked tirelessly in defense of a free press and in support of responsible journalism, Carter doesn't lose sight of the big picture even while focusing on details.

The Harvard Club was privileged to hear Carter speak at length about terrorism on April 5 at the Friday Center. Carter sought to put the current danger of Islamist terrorism in a proper historical and political perspective. He reminded his audience that terrorism is neither new nor foreign and should never be used as an excuse to diminish our precious liberties – a danger that Carter fears is all too real at the present time. Carter's talk was well attended and well received by the Club.

LUNCHEON WITH PROFESSOR BILL FERRIS

An enthusiastic crowd of Harvard alumni and their guests, along with our friends from the local Yale, MIT and Penn alumni clubs were in for a rare treat when they gathered on November 2, 2005 to hear Professor Bill Ferris help us begin to understand what makes the south so special and how the south gave birth to the blues, rock and roll and country music. He delivered his message in an entertaining way, with a sizable mix of storytelling and song. The event was held at the Radisson Hotel in RTP.

Dr. William R. Ferris, Joel R. Williamson Distinguished Professor of History at UNC and former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, is the Senior Associate Director of UNC's Center for the Study of the American South.

Professor Ferris, who is a native of Vicksburg, Mississippi, is an award-winning author, folklorist, filmmaker, and scholar of Southern Culture. Ferris has taught at Jackson State University, Yale, the University of Mississippi and Stanford. Author of over 100 publications in fields of folklore, American literature, fiction, and photography; he was made a "Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters" in 1985 and an "Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters" in 1994 by the French government; and in 1995 he was given the Charles Frankel Award by President Bill Clinton. Ferris received a Doctor of Fine Arts from Rhodes College in 1997. He has served as a consultant to The Color Purple, Crossroads, and Heart of Dixie.

Ferris, wearing his Mississippi roots with pride, is quick to point out that Elvis Presley, B. B. King, and Jimmy Rogers, pioneers of R&R, Blues, and Country respectively, all came from Mississippi. He brings the art of storytelling into his classroom, using the many compelling stories he has discovered during his distinguished career. He has conducted thousands of interviews with musicians ranging from the famous (B.B. King) to the unrecognized (Parchman Penitentiary inmates working in the fields).

As testimony to Professor Ferris's diversity of achievements and recognitions, he was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard in the 1980's and, in 1991, was named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the Top Ten Professors in the United States.