Washington College Grad Wins Oscar

Chestertown, MD — Tamara Tiehel Stedman, who graduated from Washington College in 1986, captured an Oscar last night in the short film—live action category for "My Mother Dreams the Satan's Disciples in New York." The film is a mother/daughter/biker comedy about a Midwestern housewife who travels to Manhattan for the first time and begins to spin a fantasy about the seemingly malevolent motorcycle club housed across the street from her daughter's East Village apartment.

Stedman, 35, has a degree in international relations. At the urging of her sister, Amy, a freelance producer based in New York who also graduated from Washington College, she became a script editor in Philadelphia, then entered the American Film Institute in Hollywood as one of 28 producing fellows. Invited back with seven other students for a second year, Stedman earned a master's degree and worked on making "My Mother Dreams." Working primarily for the Discovery Channel and its subsidiary, The Learning Channel, over the past two years, Stedman has produced several documentaries, including "Super Racers," a two-hour special featuring interviews with notable race car drivers and team owners such as Mario Andretti and Paul Newman.

This is the first Academy Award nomination for producer Stedman and director Barbara Schock. Prior to its nomination for the Academy Award, the film won top honors as the best short film at Naples, was honored by the Directors Guild of America, and won the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival. The film was the only American film nominated and the only one shot in 16 mm.

Tammy Tiehel married Nike executive Bill Stedman last year in Kent County, MD. She is expecting her first child in May. Speaking recently with Trish McGee in the Kent County News about her upcoming award, Stedman said she chose Washington College because of the interest the College showed in her as a prospective student, including a personal letter from the director of admissions.

"It was such a warm feeling and made a big impression on me."

She discovered her interest in film in a class at the College in 1985. "Ever since that class, I had been intrigued by film making but didn't believe I could make a living at it."

With an Oscar to her credit, Stedman should have no worries about her prospects.

Mount Vernon's Art and Decorative Treasures at WC

Chestertown, MD — The Friends of the Miller Library present "The Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon," a lecture by Linda Ayres, former curator of prints and manuscripts at the Library of Congress. Her talk is at 1 p.m. Saturday March 25 in the Casey Academic Forum.

Now associate director of collections at Mount Vernon, Ayres is eminently qualified to speak about fine and decorative arts. A graduate of Washington College who received her master's degree in art history from Tufts University, Ayres began her career in the art field as assistant curator of American art for the National Gallery of Art. She served as chief of the prints and photographs division at the Library of Congress from 1997 through 1999. Prior to that she was a museum consultant, assistant director of the museum program for the National Endowment for the Arts, and deputy director in Hartford, Conn., of the Wadsworth Atheneum. She was also the curator of paintings and sculpture at Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. In addition to her position as director of collections at Mount Vernon, Ayres serves as associate director there.

"The Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon" is free and open to the public.

NYC-Based Poet/Chanteuse Performs at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — Jane LeCroy, New York poet, singer and novelist performs poetry/jazz with bassist Tom Abbs at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 6 at the O'Neill Literary House on the campus of Washington College.

Of LeCroy's jazz/poetry, New York Press writer Jordan Flaherty said, "Her lyrics bring a world-weary cynicism and a newborn's sense of wonder to songs about everything from outer space and electricity to sex and numbers." Avant Garde Classics Series said, "Her clever verse cuts through the superficialities of life. . . . and her dark cabaret style haunts the listener." Abbs has been called "a force of nature playing the upright bass. Together the two are raw and beautiful." The audience will find their performance characterized by spontaneous acts of courage—half their set is improvised, while the other half is "as alive and open as it is planned and refined."

LeCroy's jazz/poetry performance is sponsored by the Washington College Friends of the Arts, Friends of the O'Neill Literary House, and The Writers Union. It is free and open to the public.

DuPont Company CEO To Speak at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — Charles O. Holliday Jr., chairman and CEO of E. I du Pont de Nemours & Co., will speak about global companies' global responsibilities at 7 p.m., Friday April 7 in the Casey Academic Center Forum at Washington College.

His talk is free and open to the public.

Holliday is well positioned to discuss business and its responsibilities from a global standpoint. He is the first DuPont Company chief executive with extensive experience outside the United States and was elected chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in January 2000. Holliday spent seven years as chairman of DuPont Asia-Pacific, prior to returning to the United States to assume leadership of the company. Of his experience in Tokyo, he said, "Living in Asia enabled me to realize both the complexity of the global marketplace and the regional and national interdependencies that make our economic system work." He also served as director of global business for Kevlar(R) and Nomex(R).

Holliday's business strategy is based on sustainable growth that creates value for the company's shareholders and global societies and reduces the company's environmental footprint. Citing the DuPont Company's singular longevity, 200 years in 2002, Holliday says, "This makes us one of the most sustainable industrial companies anywhere in the world."

Washington College honored Holliday with a doctorate in 1998, the same year he was named CEO of the company. In 1999 he became DuPont Company chairman. A native of Nashville, Tennessee, Holliday joined the company in 1970 after receiving his B.S. in industrial engineering at the University of Tennessee. He has worked throughout the United States during his career, with diverse responsibilities in several divisions of the company.

Holliday's talk is sponsored by the J. C. Jones Seminar in American Business.

Zen Master at Washington College March 23

Chestertown, MD — The Zen principles of mental tranquillity, fearlessness, and spontaneity will be clarified by Reverend Keido Fukushima, chief abbot of Tofukuji Monastery in Kyoto, Japan, at Washington College on March 23. His lecture, "What is Zen?" takes place at 7:30 p.m. in the Hynson Lounge. At 4:30 p.m., Reverend Fukushima will give a demonstration of calligraphy in the O'Neill Literary House. Both events are free and open to the public.

Reverend Fukushima is well known as a Zen Master of special depth and insight as well as a calligrapher of rare discipline and adeptness. His calligraphy is highly prized in Japan as well as the United States, where it has been exhibited to great acclaim in New York and San Francisco. While touring America recently, Reverend Fukushima gave a calligraphy demonstration at Columbia University. Kay Larson, an art critic who also practices Zen, wrote for The New York Times that Reverend Fukushima "chatted freely with the audience. Suddenly he stopped talking. He mediated for a few moments, seeming to reach deep within himself. Then he picked up a thick, chunky brush and paused. Strike! The deed was done: a dense black circle. He gave it away."

Born in Kobe, Reverend Fukushima joined the Rinzai Zen school of Buddhism in 1947. After graduate studies at Otani University in Kyoto, he joined the monastery of Nanzenji in 1961. In 1971 he became the vice abbot at Hofukuji temple in Okayama prefecture. He came to Tofukuji as the leading Zen Master in 1980 and was appointed the head abbott of the Rinzai school of Buddhism in 1991. He has given lectures at 20 universities in the United States, including Harvard, Columbia and Bucknell.

Reverend Fukushima's appearance at Washington College is sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures and the Campus Events and Visitors Committee.

National Book Award Winner Speaks on Andrew Jackson

Chestertown, MD — Ever the controversial figure, Andrew Jackson's success as a military leader of the Battle of New Orleans will be the subject of a lecture by Robert Remini, distinguished professor of history emeritus at the University of Illinois, Chicago. The lecture takes place at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday March 22 in the Hynson Lounge at Washington College. Beginning at 4 p.m., preceding the lecture, Remini will sign his latest book, "The Battle of New Orleans."

Remini, who has been called "an historian in love with his subject," says that the Battle of New Orleans, fought after a peace treaty ending the War of 1812 had been ratified by Britain and the United States, "was one of the great turning points in American history" because it "produced a President and an enduring belief in the military ability of free people to protect and preserve their society and their way of life." Carlo D'Este, writing in "The New York Times Book Review," calls Remini's latest work, "an exceptional book that combines impressive scholarship with a riveting narrative." The book has also received rave reviews from readers.

Remini's three-volume biography, "Andrew Jackson," won the National Book Award and was reissued in 1998 as a Main Selection of the History Book Club. He is also the author of biographies of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.

"Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans" is sponsored by the Washington College History Department. Washington College Phi Beta Kappa Associates, theCampus Events and Visitors Committee and the Robert Julian Emory Lecture Fund. It is free and open to the public.

Chesapeake Bay Watershed Lecture March 23

Chestertown, MD — The Chesapeake Bay Watershed's past, present and future will be considered in a lecture by Wayne H. Bell, vice president for external affairs at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The talk takes place at 7 p.m. on Thursday March 23 in the Litrenta Lecture Hall in Dunning Hall on the campus of Washington College. It is free and open to the public.

Bell combines a scientific background with the ability to translate into plain English important scientific information so that policy makers, educators and interested citizens can understand and use it. He is actively involved in developing and organizing international conferences on the management of coastal seas.

Bell's lecture is sponsored by the McLain Program in Environmental Studies.

Alumni Return with Advice for Life after Liberal Arts

Chestertown, MD — Successful Internet entrepreneurs will return to the school that gave them their foundation for success at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday March 23, in the Casey Academic Forum on the campus of Washington College. Linda Ferguson '88, Eva Kaplan-Leiserson '98 and Brandon White '94 will talk about how their liberal arts background helped them in their current careers and will answer questions from Washington College students.

Linda Ferguson is the president and CEO of Relicorp, Inc., a web development company. Relicorp Inc. is also the parent company of CoolOldStuff.com, an on-line antiques and collectibles shop where Web surfers can buy vintage clothing, pottery, jewelry, and other scarce items.

Eva Kaplan-Leiserson is the English and Reading Department Chair for Tutornet, an on-line real-time tutoring company. The start-up firm is "the Internet's first virtual classroom designed to connect real teachers and students from their home, school or anywhere there is Internet access."

Brandon White owns worldwideangler.com, a complete Internet fishing site offering products, articles, advice, and links to fishing magazines and sites from all over the world.

Life After the Liberal Arts was organized to offer current Washington College students an opportunity to interact with and learn from alumni who have put their degrees to good and sometimes unusual use in the working world. This is the second year the symposium has been offered. Each year features a different field of endeavor.

The symposium is sponsored by the Washington College Alumni Council.

Award-Winning Author William Kennedy at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist William Kennedy will read from his work at 4 p.m., Friday March 24 in the Norman James Theatre at Washington College.

Kennedy is best known as the author of the "Albany Cycle," seven novels set in a semi-fictional Albany, N.Y. The narrative force of his fiction spurred critic James Atlas to write, "What James Joyce did for Dublin and Saul Bellow did for Chicago, William Kennedy has done for Albany, New York. His cycle of Albany novels is one of the great resurrections of place in our literature."

Kennedy's Albany novels include "Legs" (1983); "Billy Phelan's Greatest Game" (1978); "Ironweed" (1983), which was subsequently made into a movie starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep; "Quinn's Book" (1988); "Very Old Bones" (1992); and "The Flaming Corsage" (1996). His latest work, "Roscoe," deals with the life of the all-powerful political machine that ran Albany between World War I and II.

Kennedy, whose writing has been characterized as "funny . . . rich . . . grounded in detail and humanity . . . pure verbal energy" won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Circle Critics award for Ironweed. He received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship, a portion of which supports the New York State Writers Institute.

William Kennedy appears courtesy of the Sophie Kerr Committee and the O'Neill Literary House. The reading is part of Sophie Kerr Weekend during which high school student writers are invited to Washington College for readings and writing workshops. Kennedy's reading is free and open to the public.

Fourth Annual Washington College All-America Regatta March 18

Chestertown, MD — The 4th annual Washington College All-America Regatta will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday March 18 on the Chester River off the Lelia Hynson Boating Pavilion. The All-America Regatta recognizes excellence in college sailing, taking competitors back to basics. To be invited, all competitors must have achieved All-American status during their collegiate careers. That high standard has made the event one of the most prestigious Collegiate Afterguard Regattas in the country. In addition to All-American honors, many of the participants have competed in the America's Cup, the Olympics and national championships. Several have received College Sailing's most prestigious honor, the Everett Morris Trophy, presented annually to the college sailor of the year.

The regatta will be sailed in Washington College's fleet of 15-foot Flying Junior dinghies, a popular class for collegiate racing and an exciting challenge for the competitors. The event offers a rare opportunity for these world-class sailors to compete in short-course racing in small, high-performance sailboats. Bill Ward, Washington College Head Sailing Coach, has assembled a competitive field of All-Americans from around the nation. This year's participants include Terry Hutchinson, a two-time College Sailor of the Year from Old Dominion University, main trimmer for AmericaOne, and Louis Vuitton Cup Finalist in the 1999-2000 America's Cup; Senet Bischoff, 1996 Sailor of the Year from Tufts University; John Wright 1971 College Sailor of the Year from King's Point and 1987 America's Cup Veteran; Scott Steele All-American from St. Mary's College and 1984 Olympic Silver Medalist.

Other former All-Americans include Jim Weber and Todd Hudgins from Old Dominion University; Scott Nixon and Peter McChesney from St. Mary's College; Chad Demarest from the Coast Guard Academy; Stan Schreyer from Boston University, the 1999 Collegiate National Champions; and Women's All-American Amy Rosenfeld from Brown University. As it has in the past, this year's the All-America regatta should provide competitive, spectator-friendly racing with excellent views from the Lelia Hynson Pavilion. For more information, contact Bill Ward, head sailing coach, Washington College, 410-778-7242.