2004 Spring Event

Some 50 Cornellians attended the May 23 Spring Event May 23 at the fabulous and historic Ventfort Hall to hear our guest speaker Edith Lederer ‘63, award-winning foreign correspondent who covered wars for 25 years in Vietnam, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and the Mideast for the Associated Press.

Edie Lederer is currently AP’s Chief UN Correspondent. Since joining the Associated Press in 1966, she has reported on wars around the globe, while making history herself as the first woman assigned full time to the AP staff during the Vietnam War. She was also the first woman to head an AP foreign bureau in 1975.

A graduate of Cornell and Stanford University, Edie is one of nine authors of War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters Who Covered Vietnam (Random House, 2002).

Attendees had a chance to view the hall and to speak with Edie informally at the opening wine & cheese reception that preceded her formal remarks.

Toby Levine, President of the Club, introduces our guest speaker.




A 1936 Rolls Royce, restored by the father of a Cornell alum, is an appropriate prop for the historic Ventfort Hall.

ABOUT VENTFORT HALL
(from the Ventfort Hall Website):
Ventfort Hall is an imposing Elizabethan-style mansion built in 1893 for Sarah Morgan, the sister of J. P. Morgan. Designed by the architects Rotch & Tilden, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been declared an official project of "Save America’s Treasures," a Millennium program of Hillary Rodham Clinton and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 1998, Ventfort Hall was the site for the filming of the movie "The Cider House Rules," with the staircase, exterior and great hall used as the orphanage in the film.

Ventfort Hall was one of approximately 75 so-called cottages built in Lenox in the last century when the village became a popular Gilded Age resort. Located on spacious grounds in the heart of the village, it is partially restored and open to the public. Through lectures, exhibits, theatrical performances and other events, the Museum of the Gilded Age interprets the great changes that occurred in American life, industry, and society during the 19th century, a fascinating period of American history.