Black Tie Kick-Off Gala at Farmington – 8 October 2024

Our annual Gala Dinner kicked off the season at Farmington Country Club with speaker Andrew Stauffer, Professor and Chair of the UVa. English Department, and author of his new biography Byron: A Life in Ten Letters.  It has been praised as “the best short introduction to Byron available” (Jane Stabler), “Compelling, charming, and pleasingly scandal-packed” (Emily Brand), and “A delightful read” (Robert James Byron, 13th Baron Byron).

President Phil reports “First Lady Marilyn and I had the best time at this year’s Kick-Off Gala. The men looked dashing, well, close enough. The ladies looked happy to be in gowns, and the men were happy to see them dolled up. The Head Table was star-studded with The First Lady, Branch Angel Lady Blanka Rosenstiel, our speaker, Professor Andrew Stauffer and his fiancée, Megan O’Donnell, Vanessa Bijak, Jami and Zeb Bogdanich, and Georgia and Dr. David Clapham.”

The evening brought three new members to their first ESU event, Mary Jae Abbit Shuska, Constance Paradiso, and Gail Barber. Welcome! Professor Dick and Mary Howard brought their grandson and two of the grandson’s fellow UVa. History Majors. Great to have some youth with us for the evening.

Forth coming events were announced: Sunday November 10, “Have some Madeira, my ‘Dear’a;” Monday Nov. 18th, 5:30, Branch-supported Rotunda, UVa. Student Oratory Contest; Dec. 8th; A Dickens of a Christmas at the Kelly’s; Jan. 8th, ESU National Happy Hour, 4:00, “Churchill’s Citadel,” coming from Chartwell’s Curator in England online, and, Saturday. Jan. 25th, “Robert Burns Night,” Glenmore Country Club. 

A moment of silence was asked for the victims of Hurricane Helene, and for the memory of Silver Screen and stage legend, Dame Maggie Smith. Dr. Clapham led us in a rousing toast to His Majesty, King Charles III. Branch President led the assembled in the singing of the National Anthem.

Clearly, the members were excited for the evening and seeing each other, in many cases, after so many months since the June Garden Party.  But, let us hear about the evening headliner first.

Our speaker, Andrew Stauffer is Professor and Chair of the English Department at the University of Virginia and the President of the Byron Society of America. His subject was taken from his newest book, Byron A Life in Ten Letters (Cambridge, 2024). We were lucky he could take his mind off his fiancée to give, what was by all accounts, a sterling introduction in, as it were, the author’s own words. In a phrase, Lord George Byron was, “Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.”  He was, as we learned, a fascinating man, an enigma in many ways, phlegmatic, brilliant, mercurial, and disturbed, who died, perhaps as some sort of redemption, in the cause of Greek Independence in 1824. Southern Greece would become independent of the Ottoman Empire in 1831.