Ted Turner makes a point at the Cosmos Club Rountable.
above:
© 2007 Arthur H. Feller
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Creativity Celebration 2007
 n Friday, April 20, 2007, at the Baird Auditorium of the Natural History Museum, Ted Turner was presented with the Benjamin Franklin Laureate Prize for Creativity by Laurie Kahn-Leavitt, who took over as Chair of the Junto, the Executive Committee of the Foundation after the death of her father and founder, B. Franklin Kahn on March 8, 2007.
It was a fascinating program with Turner answering questions put by Bernard Shaw. Quoting from former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, Shaw described Turner as, "the most unique individual I've ever known. He's also the most authentic. Totally honest, no secrets person and someone with a feeling that nothing is impossible." Turner well lived up to his description during the two-day celebration.
Ted Turner, recipient of the 2007 Benjamin Franklin Creativity Laureate Award.
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Ted Tuner and Bernard Shaw engaged in discussion.
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When questioned on the subject of creativity, Turner defined it as, "how to make things happen and not make a mistake." His current heroes are, "Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. And when I was a boy, my two biggest heroes were Horatio Nelson and Alexander the Great. I went from conquerors to peacemakers."
Junto members Dudley Herschbach and Trey Sunderland with Elizabeth Marincola, President of Science Search.
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Duke Ellington School of the Arts 2007 Legacy winner Cerstin Johnson (right) with her mother.
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Among other subjects discussed were corporate America, which Turner declared should, "play by the rules and not cheat." He also voiced his concern over land conservation, and stressed the importance of education for women, because, "...in the countries where women are educated, the birthrate is much smaller than it is in countries where they don't educate and give opportunities for employment to women and girls."
Turner sees the greatest problems facing the world today as global warming, the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the United States, and the threat of nuclear arms proliferation. "Make war on global warming and not on other people," he urged.
"I always used to say that I wasn't really losing, I was learning to win." Turner continued at the next day's intimate Round Table discussion with the Legacy winners and the foundation's Junto. Turner's words of advice to the legacy winners included "It's better to lose by being honest than it is to win by being dishonest," "He profits most who serves the best," and "The same principles apply to philanthropy that apply to business."
When asked if emphasizing education for women wasn't imposing cultural values on
some societies, he was emphatic about his reply, "...if your culture says that women should be treated like slaves, as some of the cultures in the world do, bull... They should not be treated like slaves. There are some things you have to fight for."
Turner again emphasized the importance of peace in the world today and the necessity of redirecting the military budget to combat global warming. He also received a spontaneous ovation from everyone at the Round Table after reciting lengthy passages on honor, courage, and humility from Macaulay and Shakespeare – all from memory!
Brian Goldstein and Theresa McCulla.
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Longy School of Music contingent - from left: Timothy Dusenbury 2007 Legacy winner, Karen Zorn, President, Robert Shay, Dean and Mahan Esfahani, 2006 Legacy winner.
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Latest News from Our Legacy Winners
Greg Brockman (07) is composing a guidebook for the Chemistry Olympiad and
working for the Art of Problem Solving, an online math problem solving company and will also attend the Canada/USA Mathcamp. He then leaves for Russia where he will spend one semester as a high school student and the second as a college student.
Tim Dusenbury (07) will be tutoring music theory and writing music-related prose
besides completing a variety of commissions, one of which will be for 2006 Legacy winner Mahan Esfahani.
Cerstin Johnson (07) will be attending the High School Summer Institute at Columbia College, Ohio taking classes in fiction, acting and interior design.
Melissa Carubia (05) has written a children's opera based on Daniel in the Lion's Den which was premiered in April at the Church of the Redeemer in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
Brandon Terry (04) has completed his first year of the doctoral program at Yale in Political and African-American Studies, and has been awarded a three -year Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. Brandon finished his MSc in Political Theory at Corpus Christi College, Oxford as the 2005-2006 Michael von Clem fellow.
David Bauer (05) will be spending the summer at Oxford University at the Wellcome Trust Center for Human Genetics working on a new approach to gene sequencing. He hopes to travel to France, Spain, Italy and Hungary before returning to his studies at CCNY in the fall.
Brian Goldstein (03) and Theresa McCulla were married in Richmond, VA on June 30. Congratulations! They will be leaving DC for Boston, where Brian he will pursue a Ph.D. in architecture at Harvard.
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Latest News from Our Laureates
2006 Laureate Jules' Feiffer's new book, A Room with a Zoo is about Julie's
adventures with animals. Each pet creates some new adventure, or disaster. Children will identify with Julie's passions and anxieties about her animals. Adults will relate to what Julie's parents experience each time a new pet is added to her zoo. Illustrated liberally by the author's hilarious and emotive drawings, the story of the Feiffer family could be the account of any family who has ever tried to find the right pet to love. --- Reviewed by
Sarah A. Wood
On October 7, 2006, reported the New York Times, 2005 Laureate Sandra Day
O'Connor, the former Supreme Court justice would later be joining a federal appeals court panel in Manhattan to hear arguments in five cases.
2002 Laureate Yo-Yo Ma's recent CD Appassionato contains work recorded between 1978 and 2006 and include 4 never-before-released tracks. In an editorial review on Amazon.com, Robert Levine writes:
Any new compilation CD starring Yo-Yo Ma is certain to please. This master of the cello takes the listener through so many types of music that the ear and mind never tire. The present selection is billed as a sort of "musical autobiography," and, indeed, it gives us a tour of Ma's musical life. The Silk Road Project is represented by
Zhao's "Swallow Song," with its eerie, fascinating soundscape (specially re-recorded for this CD). We also accompany Ma on his excursions into the world of the baroque cello with Vivaldi or of the Finnish folk song (by Mamiya, a first recording). There are Gershwin's languid Second Prelude, with its intimations of the song "Summertime," and an all-new recording of a nine-minute heart-breaker by Astor Piazzolla ("Soledad"). Ma also gives us more familiar Brahms, Franck, and Saint-Saens. The compilation's mellow 65 minutes offer relaxing, beautiful music, all exquisitely played. Ma is joined by the best: Emanuel Ax, Kathryn Stott, John Williams (who plays piano on his own "Going to School" from Memoirs of a Geisha), Isaac Stern, and Claudio Abbado. This is a veritable Who's Who of superb musicians.
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