October 9, 2009
Speaker: Barbara Forster N55
Alumna of the Year
Northrop alumna, former parent and longtime supporter of the Blake community, Barbara Forster’s life has been exemplified by her business acumen, commitment to service and philanthropic generosity.
After a banking career spanning more than 30 years, Forster now serves on several boards, including the Center for Victims of Torture and the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota. Her commitment to the community is characterized by her role as founding director of both the One Percent Club and the Domestic Abuse Project, as well as 20-plus years of service with the American Refugee Committee
Among her many awards and recognitions, Forster has been honored with the University of Minnesota Regents Award, Junior League Volunteer of the Year Award and the Headwaters Foundation Human Rights Award. The Blake School is proud to join this chorus of admiration by bestowing on her its 2009 Outstanding Alumna Award.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Speaker: Dr. Sabina Zimering
Holocaust survivor and author
Dr. Sabina Zimering was 16 years old when she and her family were rounded up by Nazis in 1939 and forced into a Jewish ghetto in Poland. After three years of fear, arrests, hunger and typhus, the deportation to the gas chambers of Treblinka began. Zimering and her sister escaped and, with the help of false IDs from family friends, began posing as Polish Catholic girls. They worked in a hotel for high-ranking Nazi officers until liberation by the Allies in 1945.
When the war ended, Zimering studied medicine in Munich. After graduating, she immigrated to Minneapolis where she married, raised a family (including Mark ’73) and practiced medicine for 42 years.
She is the author of Hiding in the Open: A Holocaust Memoir, which will be the focus of her presentation.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Speaker: Roger Hale ’52
Board Chair of the Ploughshares Fund
Roger Hale has been on the board of directors of the Ploughshares Fund since 1995. He was president and CEO of Tennant, a leading manufacturer of industrial and commercial floor maintenance equipment, from 1976 to 1998. He was also a director of five NYSE companies during his career. He retired in 1999.
Hale has served on the boards of the Walker Art Center and Public Radio International. He is a graduate of The Blake School, Brown University and Harvard Business School and served as an officer in the United States Navy from 1956 to 1959. Other Blake alumni in Hale’s family are brother Charles '47 and daughters Jocelyn '81, Leslie '83 and Nina '85.
The topic of his presentation will be "Nuclear Weapons Past, Present and Future."
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Speaker: Larkin McPhee, www.larkinmcphee.com
Larkin McPhee is an award-winning director, producer and writer of documentary films. She is best known for her films "Depression: Out of the Shadows," "Dying To Be Thin," and "Children By Design." Her other film and television projects include "Smithsonian World," "National Geographic Explorer," "Big Ideas," as well as a special about quintuplets for the Discovery Health Channel and a panel discussion on heart disease hosted by Larry King on PBS.
McPhee has received wide recognition for her work, including the prestigious Peabody, Emmy and CINE Golden Eagle Awards. She is a graduate of Middlebury College and lives in Minneapolis with her husband and children, Tess '10, Dylan and Lucas '17.
The topic of her presentation will be "Larry King, Suze Orman, the Gerhardts and Me"
Please RSVP by February 11 to advancementrsvp@blakeschool.org or 952-988-3445.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Speaker: Elizabeth Royte
Otis Environmental Visiting Author
Author, Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash
Elizabeth Royte is the author of several books including Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash, The Tapir’s Morning Bath: Solving the Mysteries of the Tropical Rain Forest and Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It.
Her writing on science and the environment has appeared in Harper’s, National Geographic, Outside, The New York Times Magazine, and other national publications. Royte is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review, a contributing editor for OnEarth, and a correspondent for Outside magazine. A former Alicia Patterson Foundation fellow and recipient of Bard College’s John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public Service, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.
As the 2010 Otis Environmental Visitng Author, Royte is in residency at Blake for the week of April 11. Her Breakfast at Blake topic will focus on her interest in consumption and waste and the research she conducted when writing Garbage Land and Bottlemania.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Speaker: Becky Roloff
CEO of the YWCA of Minneapolis
Becky Roloff is the CEO of the YWCA of Minneapolis. Formerly she was a senior vice president at American Express Financial Advisors, and prior to joining American Express, Roloff was with the Pillsbury Company and Cargill.
Roloff’s current board service includes Ready for K, C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. and Allina Hospitals and Clinics. She is a member of the Minnesota Women’s Forum, the Greater Twin Cities United Way Women’s Leadership Council and the current president of the Minnesota Women’s Economic Roundtable.
Roloff is an aspiring triathlete who also enjoys reading, needlepoint, piano and travel, and she published her first children’s book in 1996. She holds a B.A. from the College of St. Catherine and an MBA with distinction from the Harvard Business School. She and her husband, Mark, have two sons, Luke ’03 and Sam ’07.
The topic of her presentation will be “Lessons Learned: The Journey from Charity to Justice."