April 4, 2015

Finest Hour 133, Winter 2006-07

Page 16

By James F. Lane

*STANDING ROOM ONLY was the rule at a unique “combined operation” between The Churchill Centre and the University of Washington’s Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs in October.


In a unique joint venture with the University of Washington’s Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs in Seattle, The Churchill Centre staged an end-of-October series of educational seminars, receptions and the 2006 Churchill Lecture, by Winston Churchill himself, a longtime honorary member and trustee of The Churchill Centre.

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Centerpiece of the three-day program was our indefatigable honorary member and trustee, Sir Winston’s grandson, who combined wit, charm, reminiscences and astute political commentary in addressing a series of soldout, standing-room-only events that included students, teachers, and business, social and civic leaders from throughout the Pacific Northwest. Preceded by a reception, the Sixth Churchill Lecture was delivered on October 26th at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus. The second of six Churchill Lectures held outside Washington, D.C., its audience of 500+ was larger than all previous Churchill Lectures combined. Mr. Churchill also engaged with former Washington Governor Dan Evans in an armchair discussion of lecture topics.

Introduced by Mark Emmert, President of The University of Washington, Mr. Churchill spoke on “Leadership in Times of Crisis.” He presented a historical panorama of seven decades, from his grandfather’s heroic stand against tyranny in 1940, to the somber warnings of the Cold War at Fulton in 1946, to the fall of Communism in 1989, which Sir Winston had predicted forty years earlier. In words reminiscent of his grandfather’s at Fulton, Mr. Churchill brought us to the “gathering storm” of our own time in the shape of radical Islamicism. (See sidebar.)

On Friday, October 27th, a faculty and graduate student seminar was held at the Evans School on Winston Churchill’s early book The River War. The seminar was led by Paul Alkon, Professor of English and American Literature at the University of Southern California; Mark Blitz, Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College; and James Muller, Professor of Political Science at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Others in attendance included Chris Harmon, Bob Harmon, John English, Shasta Miller, Hans Hanson, and several students from the Evans School. Among the highlights of the seminar was a visit from Winston Churchill, editor of a recent book of his grandfather’s speeches, Never Give In!

On Saturday the 28th, an international seminar for Canadian and American undergraduate students was held at the Seattle Public Library, focusing on Churchill’s autobiography, My Early Life, and his interwar book of essays, Thoughts and Adventures. Nine undergraduates from half a dozen colleges and universities in Washington, Alaska, and British Columbia attended the seminar, which was moderated by Professors Alkon, Blitz, and Muller. The students had an extensive discussion of Churchill’s character and political aims. They also enjoyed getting to know each other, singing Harrow School songs, and talking to Mr. Churchill, who was again present at the seminar.

Twenty-one Seattle-area high school history teachers joined Professors Alkon, Harmon and Blitz for a day-long seminar at the Seattle Public Library. Eight teachers received 5-5 professional development credits for the seminar, which had been approved in advance by the Puget Sound Educational Service District.

The seminar, entitled “Winston Churchill: The Gathering Storm and His Finest Hour,” included sessions on Churchill as biographer, essayist and thinker; the gathering storm of the 1930s; Churchill in the Battle of Britain; and Churchill exercising executive power.

A few teachers’ comments from the evaluations:

• “I did not realize how forward-thinking Churchill was about so many things, nor did I know that he had won the Nobel Prize for Literature.”

• “I thought the Socratic method was most interesting.”

• “The portion of Churchill’s radio broadcast we heard … was powerful. It makes me think about our leaders today.”

• “I really don’t cover the military aspects much, so I learned a lot from the attendees as well as the teachers. I teach cause-and-effect (Cold War) and have previously left military aspects out. I will now cover the Battle of Britain.”

• “I plan to use several Essays with my seniors.”

• “As a history teacher, it was great to be able to sit in a small group with historians. I wasn’t in a classroom of 500 teachers at a hotel being talked at. Being in a small group, to me, enhanced my ability to learn.”

On behalf of the Centre, Mr. Churchill presented the Winston Churchill Leadership Award to William H. Gates, Sr., chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for his work in improving health conditions and educational opportunity in under-developed areas of the world. The presentation was made at the City Club, which jointly hosted the luncheon program with the Evans School and the Centre.

The Centre presented a framed photograph of the Prime Minister taken in 1941 as he stood looking skyward at an early model B-17 Flying Fortress, provided under the Lend Lease Program by The Boeing Company of Seattle. The picture was accepted by Michael Lombardi, senior historian of the Boeing Company, who pointed through a 76-stories high view window to show the present Winston Churchill the building where that plane had been built!

Perhaps nothing characterized the success of the meeting better than the elderly gentleman who approached Mr. Churchill at the end of one of his presentations: “I was privileged to be in the audience when your grandfather addressed the joint session of the U.S. Congress in December of 1941.” Winston replied, “You must have been only five years old!” “Actually I was fifteen,” the man said. “I was a Congressional page and was privileged to hear history being made!”

Our honorary member and trustee was astonished by this encounter and others: “A lady came up to me and said: ‘Do you remember where you spoke when you visited Seattle thirty years ago?’ I replied I didn’t have the foggiest, though I knew it had been in the mid-Seventies as, when I visited Boeing Aircraft Corporation, I had been horrified to learn that they had just laid off 50,000, or perhaps even 100,000 workers. She replied: ‘I can tell you it was the Seattle Women’s University Club—I was there!’

“The natives were certainly most friendly and enthusiastic! Dan Myers, Bill Ives, Suzanne Sigman, James Muller and Jim Lane of the Centre organised an excellent programme, and it was wonderful to see the enthusiasm of the younger generation for knowledge of my grandfather.”

The Churchill Centre is grateful to the Daniel J. Evans School at the University of Washington; to Dean Sandra Archibald, a bulwark throughout; and to Bill Jacobs, former chief of staff to Governor and Senator Evans—who, most importantly, will lead in the formation of the new Seattle-Puget Sound Chapter of The Churchill Centre. The chapter’s first member will be Gary Alexander, chief justice of the Washington State Supreme Court.


Mr. Lane, a former CC governor, helped organize these events.

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