Hi Everyone:
A lot has been happening since my last blog. Wow, where should I start?
First of all we have successfully filed our big grant with the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant was 135 pages long! It was a really tough grant, but when your asking for $800,000 they want to know everything about you and everything about the project including what you had for breakfast. Some very respectable people have evaluated our grant before it was sent it in and they think we have done a great job and have as good of a chance as anyone applying to win.
If you have not been to the website lately you will notice we have a number of team member that have been added. Let me introduce them to you.
First on the list is
William Grant - Executive-In-Charge:
Mr. Grant is the Executive-in-Charge of this production. William Grant
is no stranger to PBS, producing thousands of hours of broadcast
content. At WNET.ORG, Grant was in charge of the documentary production
department, which produced national broadcast programs in the areas of
natural history, science, history, business, travel, and other topics.
While at WNET he was the executive producer of Innovation and Going
Places and numerous miniseries, including America on Wheels, Savage
Skies, Savage Earth, Savage Seas, Knife to the Heart, Stephen Hawking’s
Universe, On the Trail of Mark Twain, The American President, In Search
of Ancient Ireland, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Slavery and the
Making of America, African American Lives, The Supreme Court 1, Looking
for Lincoln and the series Secrets of the Dead. He has been responsible,
as executive in charge of production, for Nature, one of public
television’s most watched continuing series, and the miniseries Savage
Planet, Secrets of the Pharaohs, Warship, Africa, 1900 House, Frontier
House, Manor House, The Secret Life of the Brain, Colonial House, Texas
Ranch House, Warplane, Ground War and the Human Spark. Previously he was
at WGBH in Boston where he was managing editor of Frontline, and then
executive editor of NOVA.
Dr. Yakov Ben-Haim, Ph.D - Engineer and Scientist:
Dr. Ben-Haim holds the Yitzhak Moda'i Chair in Technology and Economics at
the
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. He was chosen for this
project based on his books and articles on decisions under uncertainty
in many fields including engineering design and reliability, economics,
medicine, biological
conservation,
homeland security, epistemology, and more. His arguments about “how safe
is safe” and “can there be progress without pain” are good discussions
to be included in this documentary film. Prof. Ben-Haim also initiated
“info-gap theory,” which is a method for analysis, planning, decision
and design under uncertainty. He will also be assisting us with much of
the humanities content of the film.
“In the end,
there is no progress without innovation; no innovation without
discovery; no discovery without the unknown; no unknown without fear and
there is no progress without pain.” Prof. Yakov Ben-Haim.
Dr. Gladys Haddad, Ph.D. - Historian
Dr. Haddad is professor of American Studies at Case Western Reserve
University. She is also the founder and director of the Western Reserve
Studies Symposium. A historian and regionalist, her scholarship is
centered in Ohio’s Western Reserve. She has published on the history,
literature and art of the region. Her most recent book is a biography
entitled Flora Stone Mather: Daughter of Cleveland’s Euclid Avenue and
Ohio’s Western Reserve. Dr. Haddad is very familiar with the history of
Amasa Stone and his family. Flora Stone Mather was the daughter of Amasa
Stone, the main character in our documentary. Dr. Haddad is also
considered the “Dian Rehm” of the Western Reserve, and hosts a radio
program entitled
Regionally Speaking, which
airs on the Universities radio station WRUW 91.1 FM. Besides a number
of publications she is also the writer/producer of three documentaries:
Samuel Mather: Vision Leadership, Generosity; Samuel and Flora Stone Mather: Partners in Philanthropy and
Flora Stone Mather: A Legacy of Stewardship.
Dr. Mark J. Camp, Ph.D - Railroad Historian
Dr. Camp is a geology professor at the University of Toledo Dept. of
Environmental Sciences. He is a longtime historian of early Ohio
railroads and the author of several books on the subject including
Railroad Depots of Northeast Ohio, his third book in a series of six or
possibly seven books. Dr. Camp became interested in trains and the
railroad as a child when he and his father would create layouts for
trains at their home. He also has a personal collection of thousands of
slides, pictures and postcards filling 30 filing cabinets. Dr. Camp also
serves as one of the directors of the Railroad Station Historical
Society.
Dr. Timothy M. Kalil, Ph.D. - Gospel Music Historian
Dr. Kalil grew up in Ashtabula, where the bridge disaster has always
been a part of local history and lore. He became familiar with P.P.
Bliss through playing and singing the composer’s hymns. Dr. Kalil was
also a contributing author of the book
Bliss & Tragedy: The Ashtabula Railway-Bridge Accident of 1876 and the Loss of P.P. Bliss. Besides being an accomplished pianist, instructor and conductor, Dr. Kalil has taught classes at the university level on
Understanding (Western) Music, History of Jazz, American Music, Music As A World Phenomenon, Asian Music and African Music. Dr. Kalil will be helping us understand the loss of P.P. Bliss and his important contributions to gospel music.
I am very happy to welcome them all to our team!
In other news, I have been told we will have the model Ashtabula bridge in North Bloomfield by next Wednesday. I know we have said this before, but this bridge build has taken poor Damian longer then he thought. He said it was the most difficult and complex bridge he has ever built and it just took more time then he thought it would. You can check out the latest photos of the bridge here.
http://www.engineeringtragedy.com/The_Model_Bridge.html
That's all to report for now!
Len Brown over and out!
