2016 lectures being planned now
Dennis DeFrain
After this season, with several sold out Premier and Monday Morning lectures, the task of finding speakers for next season who will also appeal widely is a major challenge. And so we are asking for your help in identifying subjects of interest and speakers who can talk effectively about them. Some of our best speakers were recommended by residents who are interested in specific topics, knew someone who would be visiting and willing to speak, or who read about someone or something in the Greater Phoenix area that they thought would be of interest to our community.
Putting together a full schedule of lectures is not easy. First we put together a long list of possible speakers–-always at least three times as many as our schedule can bear. By early summer the LifeLong Learning team will have ranked the possible speakers, sorting them to ensure we have a diversity of topics to appeal across various interests in PebbleCreek. Then comes the difficult task of matching our calendar openings with those of speakers, which must be completed by mid-August, so we can put together the publicity for the season.
So April is the time for you to let us know your thoughts about potential speakers and topics. Is there a previous lecturer you’d like to hear again? Are you an expert on a topic that you’d be willing to share with your neighbors and friends?
Please contact me now so that your suggestion can be on our list of possible speakers for the coming season. You can reach me at [email protected] or 623-535-3102.
Classes, trips appeal to residents
As this season draws to a close, LifeLong Learning’s team is already gathering ideas for trips and classes for the coming season. While some classes are tried and true, new topics are always scheduled to appeal to a wide diversity of interests.
If you have ideas for classes or comments about this year’s offering, please contact Mary Gangl at [email protected] or Renee Bruening at [email protected].
Trips are always very popular and we are always looking for new destinations. If you have suggestions for trips for the coming season, please contact Judy Cowan at [email protected] or Hermine Sulzberg at [email protected].
We were surprised that some trips were filled before the first Monday Morning Lecture and we are reviewing the registration process to make it equally accessible to everyone.
The best way to be sure you are able to take part in a class or trip is to watch for the announcements in the LifeLong Learning enewsletter and follow instructions on how to register. If you are not getting the weekly newsletter, send your name and email to [email protected].
You might also want to mark your calendar for October 1, the day the 2015/16 schedule will be available online at www.lifelonglearningatpc.org and in print at the clubhouse carousels.
Sergi Khrushchev shares stories at Premier Lecture
Sergei Khruschev at a book signing with PebbleCreek’s Anna Thomas who worked at the Russian Embassy on two occasions.
Nancy Love
On March 6, Sergei Khrushchev, Ph.D., shared with those lucky enough to land a ticket to the Premier Lecture, stories about his father, the former Premier of the Soviet Union, and how he bluffed the Americans into believing the USSR was a world power.
“Nikita Khrushchev and President Dwight Eisenhower worked well together, both wanting to avoid another war,” Khrushchev said. They met originally in Geneva in 1955 and the Premier told his son at the time, “I think we can deal with the Americans but we must be strong.”
Although the Soviet military was small then, the Premier knew that if a leader was seen as strong, he needn’t prove his strength and thus is then able to negotiate. Thus, during the Cold War, which he called “war without war,” the leaders negotiated and avoided further combat.
After the 1960 U2 incident in which a U.S. spy plane piloted by Gary Powers was shot down, Khrushchev did not ask for an apology from Eisenhower primarily so he would be recognized as an equal in upcoming Summit talks, his son said.
Later in 1960 Nikita Khrushchev made news when he took off his shoe and banged it on the podium at the United Nations in New York. When asked what happened to the shoe, Sergei recalled that it had not been an important incident and the shoe had continued to be worn until no longer useful. Years later, Sergei’s son was burning a pile of things buried in the backyard and the shoe was among them.
Dennis DeFrain, co-chair of LifeLong Learning, explained that Khrushchev’s normal speaking fee was beyond the group’s ability but he had an important incentive to accept the invitation: Khrushchev and his wife had never visited the Grand Canyon. Dennis and his wife Carol took Khrushchev and his wife, Valentina Golenko, to the Canyon and Sedona. Other members of the LLL team escorted them to the Desert Botanical Garden, Taliesin West, Scottsdale and the World Wildlife Zoo and hiked with them in the White Tank Mountains. He also spoke at the Arizona Agribusiness Equine Center.
Khrushchev and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1991. Holding a PhD from Moscow Technical University in engineering, he was offered a position at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The disintegration of the Soviet Union occurred just months later. They became U.S. citizens in 1999 and have a home in Cranston, Rhode Island. They continue to hold Russian citizenship and return once a year, as children and grandchildren live and work in the Moscow area.
Dr. Khrushchev has written extensively, most recently addressing his father’s political history in a three volume set of Nikita’s memoirs and on topics such as rocket science, computer science and history. He and his wife travel periodically, speaking on the Other Side of the Cold War, lecturing at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island and serving as an advisor to the Cold War Museum in Virginia.