HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE -- The Ouachita Speaker Series, now in its fourth year, recently announced its 2015 spring session, which will feature three speakers.
Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Lawrence J. Enders, MD, a Village resident, will be the featured speaker at 7 p.m. March 19 in the Ouachita Activities Building of the Ponce de Leon Center. His presentation, "Surviving Serendipity," is also chronicled in his book by the same title.
His career began with a medical degree that led to becoming a specialist in aerospace medicine and he was requested by NASA to be put on loan from the Air Force to be one of the doctors for the Mercury and Gemini astronauts.
He later flew 75 combat missions, and received two Air Medals.
During the Vietnam conflict, he helped build a small hospital at a jungle base. In addition, he volunteered to provide medical care to natives in a nearby village.
He went on to command two hospitals and, finally as a full colonel, assumed command of the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine.
Will K. Jones, formerly a senior executive with the U.S. Information Agency in Washington, D.C., will be the speaker at 7 p.m. April 21 in the Ouachita Activities Building.
Before joining the USIA, Jones was a director-curator of two different presidential libraries.
He served as a member of several committees of the Oklahoma City Murrah Bombing Memorial and was one of a three-member team that designed and built the first Oklahoma City Memorial exhibition.
He has published extensively in the fields of Native American ethnology, museum design and exhibit development and management.
Anne Greenwood, a native Arkansan, will be the speaker for the third spring session at 7 p.m. May 19 in the Ouachita Activities Building.
She worked in Hot Springs at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts teaching in the humanities department.
Recently, she took a position at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art as an interpretation manager, which she considers an opportunity to explore the interdisciplinary connections between works in the museum and subjects such as biology, history and English literature. This led to another opportunity to work on interpretation in the museum's collection as a whole.
"The Ouachita Speaker Series was launched in fall 2012, as a vehicle for open, thought-provoking forums, providing intellectual enrichment and the exchange of ideas," says President Wilbur Smither. "Our goal is to invite distinguished speakers to share their knowledge and observations, introduce new ideas and inspire conversation."
The Ouachita Speaker Series is open to the public. General admission is $12 per session, or $30 for the spring season of three presentations. Tickets may be purchased from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays at the Ponce de Leon Center office, or at http://www.hsvticketsales.com.
Email [email protected] for more information.
Local on 02/27/2015