Remember the Ladies

We’ll read and discuss biographies of the wives of our first two Presidents – Martha Washington (Martha Washington – An American Life by Patricia Brady) and Abigail Adams (Abigail Adams by Woody Holton).

Join us in discussing, comparing and contrasting their lives; their views on colonial America, the Revolution, and the early Republic; and their influence on their husbands’ role as President and how they shaped their own roles as what eventually became known as the First Lady.

Steve is an artist, photographer, graphic designer, historian, teacher, and lifelong learner.

This course meets on Monday mornings via Zoom from 10:00 to 11:30AM on January 24th and February 14th.

Friendships are complicated, and the intense and important friendship between Canada and the United States is no different. This three session course will examine the history of this friendship, and how it evolved into the closest relationship between any two countries on the globe. We will examine the political, economic, cultural, sociai, and philosophical differences with the hope of gaining a better understanding of how we can learn from each other. If this friendship is going to be maintained, we need to have a greater appreciation of each other. There is so much to gain from a true understanding of our perspective strengths and weaknesses. How can two countries be so close yet so different?

Class days: Tuesday 2/1, 2/8, 2/15  2-4 pm

Hal Hannaford  (halhannaford.com) has spent his entire professional life in education. In June, 2020 Hal retired after completing his 31st year as a Headmaster in Canadian Accredited Independent Schools (CAIS) schools. He studied at Queen’s University (Economics), Concordia University (B. Comm.), University of Toronto (B. Ed.), and The European Institute of Business Administration (M.B.A.). 

Hal was Director of Kilcoo Camp from 1982 – 1984, and as a teacher; he has had experience at both an elementary and high school level in Canada (Crescent School); and at university where he was a member of the Faculty of International Business at the American University in Paris.   

He has a keen interest in athletics, public speaking, auctioneering (has raised over $30,000,000 for charitable causes), landscaping, drumming, and has a musical passion for The Blues. Hal and his wife Susan (susandohertyhannaford.com), an author, live in Montréal and have two children; Alisse, a medical doctor doing her infectious disease residency at the Hospital of UPenn, and Reid, a graduate from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, a filmmaker in New York.

 Our two session course covers the War of 1812, which occurred at a time when the United States was in its infancy, struggling to establish itself as a viable and independent nation, caught between the superpowers England and France. Join us in reading and discussing local author Kenneth Robert’s two historical novels, The Lively Lady (March 14 th ) and Captain Caution (April 11 th ). These two individual, yet similar swashbuckling tales of sea battles, capture, imprisonment, and dramatic escapes from the infamous Dartmoor Prison will help us better understand this period of our nation’s history. And we’ll be accompanied on our voyage by Robert’s colorful characters.

Steve is an artist, photographer, graphic designer, historian, teacher, and lifelong learner. This course meets on the two Monday mornings via Zoom from 10:00 to 11:30AM.