Mark Bessire has been the Director of the Portland Museum of Art since March, 2009. Previously, he was Director of the Bates
College Museum of Art in Lewiston. He moved to Bates from the Maine College of Art in Portland, where he was the Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art.
Mark has earned a strong reputation for organizing unique exhibits that have increased participation in the Portland Museum of Art, and were supportive of cross-disciplinary studies at Bates and MECA.
Bessire holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University, a M.A. in art history from Hunter College, and a B.A. from New York University. He was a Helena Rubinstein Fellow at the Whitney Museum of Art and a Fulbright Fellow in Tanzania. He has published widely including three books with MIT Press, has organized numerous traveling exhibitions, is active in local, community, and national public art programs, lectures on museum studies, and has participated on national art juries. Bessire is a founding board member of the non-profit Africa Schoolhouse, which is dedicated to building schools in rural Africa.
Bob Martin, per usual, did a terrific job of introducing a guest speaker. This week it was the Dean of the University of Maine School of Law, Danielle Conway. Dean Conway, we learned from Bob has a fascinating history. She is not your typical academician, steeped in the learned books of her vocation and seldom outside the walls of the institution. Our Dean began her career and studies in the Armed Forces and found her way into the JAG. Undoubtedly, her service to our nation was the stimulus that brought her to the more traditional and formal study of law, but not on a direct path. She commenced her formal studies at NYU Stern School of Business where some spark was ignited and brought her to the Howard School of Law and went on to garner her LL.M degree from the George Washington School of Law. To state the obvious, Dean Conway is a remarkably diverse individual of proven credentials and accomplishments, but never comes across in the stilted manner of an academician of renown. It’s worthy of note that our Dean is the first black female to hold the post.
Dean Conway is remarkably current in all fashion. She was quick to mention 'Facebook' and 'Twitter' and the need to get with it and get on social media. She comes across, despite her title and credentials, as eminently approachable. As she discussed 'The School' it seems that such accessibility is an essential part of her vision for the role of the institution. It is important to point out that she set many of us clear on the misconception that 'The Maine School of Law' is part of USM. It is only sharing the campus and is a stand-alone institution which enjoys a close relationship with USM.
It's refreshing to learn that the focus of the School of Law, under the guidance of Dean Conway, is to provide a public service as it develops fresh legal minds. It is the desire of the Dean that her graduates will appreciate and embrace her vision of service. She accepts that her noble intent of service poses somewhat of a challenge, since the lure and burden of debt can be distracting. However, this lady is not going to be deterred and has plans to create programs that will serve the economically disadvantaged who are too often unable to find, nor afford, the services needed to attain justice.
In that regard she begs for our assistance to help institute the tri-partite mission of:
Defending the Constitution
Defending the rule of law
Defend the impoverished and needy
The Dean feels that we have an extraordinary 'Bar and Bench' in the State of Maine and we have to take advantage of that asset. We have to recognize the limiting implications of both poverty and geography within the state and deal with them head on.She is creating an army of legal experts prepared to go out and serve.
On top of it all, she recognizes Rotary as a bastion of community service which parallels her commitments and is thinking about joining. Now, wouldn’t that be a striking verdict in our favor?!
(Photo at right: President Bowen Depke and Dean Conway.)
(Photo at left: State Representative and Portland Rotarian Eric Jorgensen and Dean Conway.)
President Bowen opened the meeting by welcoming 65 members and 2 guests. The invocation was presented by Alan Nye and we pledged our allegiance to the flag and sang a patriotic song.
Travis Parker ran our weekly raffle, which was over $300 and our speaker drew Dick Giles' name to try and find our elusive Queen of Hearts, but couldn't find her...so the pot continues to grow for another week.
The club was basking in the warm glow of the most-successful-ever Maine Outdoor Challenge benefitting the Boys and Girls’ Club, which is expected to clear close to $60,000 when the final accounting comes in. Bravo to Kris Rosado, Mike Fortunato and all the Club volunteers who made it such a success. If you’ve not seen the great story by Dierdre Fleming in Sunday’s Telegram, it provides a great account of this event: http://www.pressherald.com/2016/06/12/deirdre-fleming-maine-outdoor-challenge-is-a-charity-event-that-teaches-skills/
The top Portland Rotarians in the Maine Outdoor Challenge were Bowen Depke, who scored a 20 in archery; Adam Shepherd, who managed a 17 in fly casting; and a tie between Peter Ingram and Kris Rosado in shooting, where each earned an 18. Overall, Peter Ingram came in 3rd out of 205 competitors, with a 52 of 75 possible points. He was only 3 points behind the competition winner.
The lobster bake/awards event on Wednesday wrapped up the 3-day competitions and was just as successful. With a packed house in attendance, awards were handed out to the winners of the event, as everyone enjoyed the tasty meals that were served. Many went home as additional winners of the silent and live auction items!
With Tom Ranello performing his effective auctioneering, we witnessed quite a bidding duel on one "Jump & Raft" live auction item by our own members Alex St. Hilaire and Bowen Depke. Alex would not be beat and walked away the winner!
Meredith Small offered a history minute, profiling the club in 1952-53, a year that saw our club chugging along with about “1,000 to 1,100 in its checking account” and awarding support for playground equipment, hearing aids, and clothing for refugees arriving from East to West Berlin. It was a year in which Richard Nixon appeared before a joint meeting of Portland Service clubs. At one Rotary meeting, the speaker (a poultry merchant) brought chickens for every member, though it was not specified whether they were live or ready to cook! The other important event that year, one that would, of course, prove prescient for Rotary, was the development of the first polio vaccine by Jonas Salk. Meredith’s sister and brother were both participants in early vaccine trials.
Amy Chipman reported that she was “housecleaning” the Rotary Foundation files and had a bunch of previously announced Paul Harris Fellowships (PHF) to award as her term as Foundation chair was coming to an end. These were presented to Julie L’Heureux (her 6th); Jon Young (his 3rd); Mark Millar and Erik Jorgensen (their 2nd each);Amy Chipman (her 4th); President Bowen (for his service as president); Gus Karlsen (his 7th); Victoria Millar (wife of Mark Millar) and Elise Hodgkin (her 2nd) from Amy. She announced that overall, 22 PHFs were awarded this year.
Janelle LoSciuto, and her helper son, Luca, announced that the Youth Services Committee will be conducting its summer “read and feed” program, featuring books and meals at North Deering Gardens at Riverton. Rotarians are needed to be trained to read to kids – for information on training and the program contact Janelle LoSciuto: jlosciuto@marchofdimes.org
President Bowen announced that the Service and Memorial Fund has entered a period of transition. The S&M Trustees have joined with the board in envisioning the fund as the core for what is hoped will be a “million dollar endowment” for Portland Rotary. More details will be forthcoming.
Finally, Past President and Club tennis commissioner Bill Blount is recovering from knee replacement surgery. He says that “he’s flexing well.”
Invocation:David Small Program Reporter: Dick Hall Bits & Pieces Reporter: Alan Nye Registration/Greeter: Adam Shepherd Sell Meal Tickets: Loretta Rowe Raffle: Leonard Scott Badge Box: Linda Varrell Collect Meal Tickets: Matt Tassey Rotary Moment in History: Alex St. Hilaire Song Leader: Alan Nye Pianist: Russ Burleigh Sgt-at-Arms (Early): Charlie Frair Sgt-at-Arms (Late): Glenn Nerbak
As we receive applications for prospective members to join our Portland Rotary Club, the names of the applicants will be included in our Windjammer. Any information and/or comments you would like to share will be handled confidentially. Please contact Loretta Rowe: lrowe@maine.rr.com. Your input will be appreciated.
PROSPECT BUSINESS (Sponsor) Elizabeth Banwell Banwell Consulting (Laura Young)
Janet Butland People's United Bank (Bowen Depke and Jim Willey)
Tom Saturley Tranzon Auction Properties (Peter Goffin)
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Mark has earned a strong reputation for organizing unique exhibits that have increased participation in the Portland Museum of Art, and were supportive of cross-disciplinary studies at Bates and MECA.
Bob Martin, per usual, did a terrific job of introducing a guest speaker. This week it was the Dean of the University of Maine School of Law, Danielle Conway. Dean Conway, we learned from Bob has a fascinating history. She is not your typical academician, steeped in the learned books of her vocation and seldom outside the walls of the institution. Our Dean began her career and studies in the Armed Forces and found her way into the JAG. Undoubtedly, her service to our nation was the stimulus that brought her to the more traditional and formal study of law, but not on a direct path. She commenced her formal studies at NYU Stern School of Business where some spark was ignited and brought her to the Howard School of Law and went on to garner her LL.M degree from the George Washington School of Law. To state the obvious, Dean Conway is a remarkably diverse individual of proven credentials and accomplishments, but never comes across in the stilted manner of an academician of renown. It’s worthy of note that our Dean is the first black female to hold the post.
On top of it all, she recognizes Rotary as a bastion of community service which parallels her commitments and is thinking about joining. Now, wouldn’t that be a striking verdict in our favor?!
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