1995 Presenters

C. Everett Koop

A Conversation with C. Everett Koop on 4 Provocative Issues

Wednesday, January 4
Underwritten by: Butterworth Health Corp.

C. Everett Koop, a pediatric surgeon and public health administrator, served as the 13th Surgeon General of the United States under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1989. He was known for his work to prevent tobacco use, AIDS, abortion, and for his support of the rights of disabled children. 

Richard Lederer

An Hour of Language and Laughter

Thursday, January 5
Underwritten by: Grand Oldsmobile Center

Richard Lederer is an American author, speaker, and teacher. He is best known for his books on the English language and on word play such as puns, oxymorons, and anagrams. He refers to himself as "the Wizard of Idiom," "Attila the Pun," and "Conan the Grammarian."

Brass Band of Battle Creek

Frank Renton from London, England conducts

Friday, January 6
Underwritten by: Kool Chevrolet of Grand Rapids and Plainwell

The BBBC is best known for its ability to expertly perform many styles of music. From swing, to brass band classics, orchestral transcriptions show tunes, pop selections, dance music, marches and dixieland the BBBC will wow you with its stunning energy, power and technical virtuosity.

Tony Snow

The President and the Press

Monday, January 9
Underwritten by: Luis A. Tomatis, M.D. and Gretchen Minnhaar, A.I.A.

Tony Snow is an American journalist, political commentator, television news anchor, syndicated columnist, radio host, and musician. He also worked for the first President Bush as chief speechwriter and Deputy Assistant of Media Affairs, from 1991 to 1993.

Ronald Takaki

A Distant Mirror: A History of Multicultural America

Tuesday, January 10
Underwritten by: D & W Food Centers

Ronald Takaki, professor of Ethnic Studies at University of California Berkeley, is the author of several books. A prominent advocate of multicultural education, he worked toward the establishment of an American cultures requirement intended to broaden students’ understanding of racial and ethnic diversity.

Edward E. Ericson

Home Again: Solzhenitsyn at Seventy-Five

Wednesday, January 11
Underwritten by: Creative Dining Services

Edward E. Ericson, Jr.  is Professor Emeritus of English at Calvin College. He is the author of Solzhenitsyn and the Modern World, and he also served as the editor of the abridged, single-volume version of The Gulag Archipelego , which was authorized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Stephen L. Carter

The Culture of Disbelief: How Our Legal and Political Cultures Trivialize Religious Devotion

Thursday, January 12
Underwritten by: Miller, Johnson, Snell & Cummiskey

Recognized by Time Magazine as one of the 50 leaders of the next century, Stephen Carter has become one of America's leading contemporary intellectuals. As William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale Law School, Carter grapples with the nation's thorniest political, social and business challenges in a manner that speaks to Americans of every race, class and ideology. His lecture will include illustrations of ways in which spiritual perspectives make vital contributions to our national debates.

Thomas Long

Contemporary Preaching: Loss of Memory, Failure of Nerve, Recovery of Voice

Friday, January 13
Underwritten by: Carroll & Jeanette Bos

The Rev. Dr. Thomas G. Long is the author or editor of 14 books on preaching and worship. Dr. Long received his BA and M.Div. from Erskine Seminary and his Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1980. He began his career as a preacher at McElroy Presbyterian Church near Atlanta, GA and since that time has taught at a number of seminaries, including Princeton. Columbia, and Candler. 

George Marsden

The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Non-Belief

Monday, January 16
Underwritten by: Lawrence D., Sr. and Dolores Bos

George M. Marsden has taught history at Calvin College, Duke University Divinity School, and the University of Notre Dame, where he is now professor emeritus. He is the author of Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Theological Seminary and the New Evangelicalism.

Charles Murray

The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life

Tuesday, January 17
Underwritten by: Friends of the January Series

A political scientist, author, and libertarian, Charles Murray first came to national attention in 1984 with the publication of “Losing Ground,” which has been credited as the intellectual foundation for the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. His 1994 New York Times bestseller “The Bell Curve” (Free Press, 1994), coauthored with the late Richard J. Herrnstein, sparked heated controversy for its analysis of the role of IQ in shaping America’s class structure.

Anonymous 4

A Program of Chant, Song & Poetry

Wednesday, January 18
Underwritten by: Holland American Water Co. 

Jean Kilbourne

The Naked Truth: Advertising's Image of Women

Thursday, January 19
Underwritten by: Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services

Jean Kilbourne is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking work on the image of women in advertising and for her critical studies of alcohol and tobacco advertising. She is the author of Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel, paints a gripping portrait of how this barrage of advertising corrupts relationships and feeds an addictive mentality.

David Aikman

After the Cold War: Global Peace or Global Pieces

Friday, January 20
Underwritten by: Mazda Great Lakes

David Aikman is an award-winning print and broadcast journalist, a best-selling author, and a foreign affairs commentator based in the Washington, D.C. area. His wide-ranging professional achievements include a 23-year career at TIME Magazine with reporting spanning the globe of nearly all the major historical events of the time. Since leaving TIME, he has authored ten books.

Linda Wertheimer

A Better Understanding of Washington

Monday, January 23
Underwritten by: Varnum, Riddering, Schmidt & Howlett

As NPR's senior national correspondent, Linda Wertheimer travels the country and the globe for NPR News, bringing her unique insights and wealth of experience to bear on the day's top news stories. A respected leader in media and a beloved figure to listeners who have followed her three-decade-long NPR career, Wertheimer provides clear-eyed analysis and thoughtful reporting on all NPR News programs.

Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble

In Concert

Tuesday, January 24
Underwritten by: James and Judith Chambery

The LRJE is a nine-member group of New Orleans-based musicians who have been performing classic New Orleans jazz in absolutely authentic formats with period instruments since 1979. Members of the ensemble can trace their musical or family/musical genealogy to the earliest days of jazz. Veterans of years on Bourbon Street, Mississippi steamboats, and in local brass bands, the LRJE players are drawn form all the racial and ethnic groups that make up the New Orleans "melting pot".