I might hide out behind my door as I step back to re-evaluate my next projects.
>>> SOME SURPRISES IN THE NEWS:
1.
Joel Pritchard Smith 1933 - 2014
It is with a great deal of sadness that I learned of Joel Smith's having passed April 10, today. He was President of Denison University during the years that I attended it, and in fact, in spring of 1969 when I was exploring the campus and he had just been announced as moving into the presidency the next fall, my parents and I were asked to join his party at the Granville Inn for lunch. I was an "underdeveloped" 6' 11" basketball player and Denison's coach (who could not offer sports scholarships), went all out to try to attract me. That SURE AS HELL impressed my parents and me!!!
President Smith was responsible for an intentional increase in diversity of students, faculty and staff. He also supervised the move from the male/female segregation of east and west quads into mixed usage. In addition, he piloted the creation of the University Senate, and increased scholarship assistance by MORE than 100%.
The year after I graduated, he hosted the largest campaign to increase the college's endowment (making those scholarships possible), and got the second largest donation to that campaign from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust -- something between one and two million. As former Dean of Students at Stanford University (one of the most Kenan-supported of universities), he would have been well aware of my distant relatives' philanthropies.
President Smith was responsible for an intentional increase in diversity of students, faculty and staff. He also supervised the move from the male/female segregation of east and west quads into mixed usage. In addition, he piloted the creation of the University Senate, and increased scholarship assistance by MORE than 100%.
The year after I graduated, he hosted the largest campaign to increase the college's endowment (making those scholarships possible), and got the second largest donation to that campaign from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust -- something between one and two million. As former Dean of Students at Stanford University (one of the most Kenan-supported of universities), he would have been well aware of my distant relatives' philanthropies.
And during my years at Denison, he and his wife Fran, always had a moment to stop and talk, although I never had long discussions with them except ONCE, when Fran bought the first piece of art I ever sold -- as a birthday gift for her husband. "Racing Fate" was an orange and blue serigraph via cut paper stencil that through disturbances in the alternating horizontal bars of either color, showed an amoeba-like shape that popped back and forth in space -- definitely "Op Art"!!!
In later years, Joel Smith wrote extensively about his life-long battle with depression, and was lauded as an early advocate for the mentally ill.
2. The man I claim credit for STOPPING from running for re-election, NC Senator Thom Goolsby, Republican, RESIGNED the Senate immediately, yesterday:
Scott Kenan shared a link.
Besides being a total ASS to me (and I've even been invited into his house), Goolsby sponsored and got passed a bill to allow CONCEALED WEAPONS to be carried in NC churches!!!
http://www.wral.com/nc-state-sen-thom-goolsby-resigns-seat-early/13866490/?utm_content=buffer5c023&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
http://www.wral.com/nc-state-sen-thom-goolsby-resigns-seat-early/13866490/?utm_content=buffer5c023&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
>>> BUT THERE IS MORE GOOD NEWS -- AND IT INVOLVES DENISON UNIVERSITY!!!:
Denison campus, Granville, Ohio
I was browsing the alumni magazine that arrived here in Puerto Vallarta, today, and I am GLAD I have put off seeking both creative and legal help. I think I found whom I will contact first -- and no, it's not Michael Eisner, Trustee-for-Life, who made Disney what it is today, and now has his own company developing and showcasing entertainment talent -- and particularly, that which is "story driven". He's an older generation, so I have another idea, first, anyway.
Two people I knew from the Theater Department have gone on to manage productions of both music and theater in America's top stage venues from coast to coast. I heard about their projects a year or so ago when I first re-contacted Edith Love, a best friend from Denison who managed the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta for many years (and later the top theaters in Austin, Texas and Portland, Oregon), nursing the production of DRIVING MISS DAISY to the stage and eventually traveling with it to Russia, but also Tennessee Williams' TIGER TAIL, his stage adaptation of his original movie BABY DOLL.
A funny thing:
This photo of Whale's Tale in Cape May, NJ, founded by Hilary Ann Russell-Pritchard, Charles Octavius Pritchard and me in 1974 (all of us Denison grads), was the FIRST not-Denison image to come up when I image-googled Denison -- at about #45.
Again, it is linked to this blog, a function of my half million blog hits (so far)!!!
>>> AND HERE'S THE LEGAL DEAL:
Someone else from my time at Denison, is now Managing Partner of a Global Law Firm -- while also teaching Law at a major university. He is a former Federal Prosecutor who has argued before the US SUPREME COURT and been awarded highest honors for his work for the Republic of Hungary.
I DARE say, that if he's interested, he (or someone in his firm), could EASILY sue the CRAP out of Jamie Lee Sutherland, Saper Law, LLC, Chicago, and possibly Wells Fargo, etc. -- and maybe even help set things up for charges of RACKETEERING by them -- plus many in Dekalb County, Georgia and Wilmington, North Carolina.
At least it is EASY TO PROVE I was never legally served by Saper Law before they tried me in absentia, on false charges of LIBEL getting ten times what Jamie asked for -- and my memoir, WALKING ON GLASS: A MEMOIR OF THE LATER DAYS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS.
1. I would LOVE to give Denison a good portion of law-suit winnings -- as well as of future other activities.
2. And just so you know, my book, now published online for FREE, has gotten another 134 hits in the first 4.5 days of August!!! Rave reviews by John Lahr and others can be found there too:
Scott
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