The Ruth Pauley Lecture Series will celebrate thirty years of its remarkable existence this upcoming season. Having served on the board in various capacities for twenty-seven of its thirty years, I am proud to look back at its history and success.
Although I did not personally know Ruth Pauley, I did know and serve on the board with some of her friends, Virginia Leiss, Eunice Minton, Mary Dezarn, Katharine McLeod, Annette Galbreith and Jane McPhaul. All of them were enlightened community leaders who cared deeply about important issues confronting our society. It was very fitting they would choose to start a lecture series named for their good friend, and that it would be free and open to the public.
The sponsors are four local organizations: Sandhills Community College, American Association of University Women, League of Women Voters, and Moore County Schools. They are the glue that holds RPLS together. Each offers some financial support, but they contribute greatly by serving on the board and sponsoring the receptions after each lecture, where the audience gets to meet the speakers, converse with them and enjoy refreshments.
There are also ten representatives from the community on the board. We are lucky to have access to so many persons with a wide range of expertise, experience and personal connections.
The series is committed to presenting lectures by highly informed speakers in order to help deepen our understanding of important and relevant issues facing humanity. Some of my favorites have been Dr. John Hope Franklin, Susan Eisenhower, Jane Goodall, Arun Gandhi, Alan Simpson, Robert Edsel, Ernest Green and Morris Dees. For a list of all the speakers and topics, visit our website, www.ruthpauley.org, and click on the entire list of speakers. I think it is amazing.
In the beginning we often did not have the speakers of the series decided very far in advance. I remember the year we had Maya Angelou. We had no prospects until fall, when Jack McPhaul and Dr. G. McLeod Bryan invited me to lunch and inquired if I thought the board would like to have her speak. Wow!
In this age of technology and instant information, I still love to be in the presence of a live speaker and converse personally with him or her. RPLS offers these opportunities to our community because it really is a “community” project. Thanks to our organizations, individuals and businesses for our success. As the African proverb says, “It takes a whole village to raise a child.” I think our lecture series has succeeded because of such support, and I hope it continues at least another thirty years.
Please join us. The 2016-2017 season is our most ambitious yet, with six lectures scheduled in celebration of our thirtieth anniversary.
All lectures will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Owens Auditorium at Sandhills Community College. PS — Peggy Olney
September 27, 2016. Len Elmore, “Courtside View: Saving College Sports”
October 11, 2016. Mark Shields, “The Challenge of Governing in a Polarized World”
November 3, 2016. Grace-Marie Turner and Richard Kirsch, “Experts Debate: Obamacare and the Future of Our Health Care”
February 9, 2017. Susan Southard, “Nagasaki and Beyond: The Ethics of Collateral Damage”
March 9, 2017. Abdullah Antepli, “New Frontiers in Civil Rights: A Muslim View”
April 20, 2017. Joe Romm, “Almost Everything You Know about Climate Change Is Outdated” PS
