Dr. Earl Quinn Peeper, Board Certified Physician of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the New Orleans Touro Infirmary, Fellow of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, His Britannic Majesty’s Honorary Consul to New Orleans (appointed under her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II), and Chairman of the U.S. National Board of The English-Speaking Union is being nominated to receive the prestigious Founder’s Award of The English-Speaking Union. Dr. Peeper will be the first recipient to have risen through the ranks of the Branch system from when he joined the New Orleans Chapter as a member in 1994. In New Orleans, he quickly rose to Board member and then President in 2002, significantly enhancing the Branch’s international, national, educational and cultural exchange programs with Great Britain. The Founder’s Award celebrates prominent individuals who exemplify the interests of the organization’s founder, Sir Evelyn Wrench, to foster US-British Relations, cultivate international understanding and goodwill and promote the mastery and use of the English language. This defines Dr. Peeper’s service with The English-Speaking Union and the values by which he lives his life.
Introduction to The English-Speaking Union
Dr. Peeper began his 30 plus-year history with The English-Speaking Union as a medical student at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and resident at New York Hospital / Cornell Medical Center (1985-1993). On occasion, he would attend an event or have tea at the ESU Upper East Side townhouse. Living in New York was an adjustment from graduate school at Oxford University, England (1982-1985), but when he was at the ESU headquarters he felt like he was transported back to the UK.
Joining then Leading the New Orleans Branch
Not long after arriving in New Orleans to start an obstetrics and gynecology practice in 1994, Dr. Peeper joined the New Orleans branch of the ESU. The president, Walker Ronaldson, had reactivated the branch after its many years of being dormant since its creation in the early part of the twentieth century.
Dr. Peeper became a Board member in 1996, and under the mentorship of Walker Ronaldson, took on increasing responsibilities for the Branch. Together, along with a stalwart group of New Orleans Branch members, they attended the ESU Annual General Meetings around the country. At the Annual General Meeting hosted by the ESU New Haven Branch, Dr. Peeper attended a session on the Shakespeare Competition. He was so inspired by the program, that he founded the first Shakespeare Competition in New Orleans in 1999. He engaged local universities and professors of English and Drama from the start and affiliated the competition with the Tulane Shakespeare Festival where it was held for many years. Dr. Peeper serves as the Associate Clinical Professor at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Tulane School of Medicine (2002-Present) and Louisiana State University (2006-Present) enabling him to build relationships with the ESU and academia.
A lover of English historic homes and gardens, Dr. Peeper organized the first New Orleans ESU Patron Tour in 2000 to London, Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Buckinghamshire. This was an outstanding success. The ESU New Orleans Patron tours of England and Scotland became an eagerly anticipated and well-attended fixture of the annual calendar of the New Orleans Branch, along with the Shakespeare Competition, lecture series including the Sir Evelyn Wrench lecture, Christmas tea, and the Queen’s Birthday Jazz Brunch.
Healing After Hurricane Katrina and Covid
Hurricane Katrina made 2005 particularly challenging for the New Orleans Branch. ESU members were displaced all over the country but a fair number were in and near Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. Peeper sought help from the ESU Memphis Branch, which graciously welcomed New Orleanians for several events; this camaraderie was healing in the aftermath of the disastrous hurricane and flooding. Once New Orleans was open for resettling, Dr. Peeper organized several initiatives that helped bring the community together. He started an English-in-Action program in New Orleans East, an area severely impacted by Katrina and populated by Vietnamese immigrants. He also strengthened the New Orleans Branch with a fundraising weekend symposium on British Historic Homes and Gardens featuring Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill and Lady Shaw Stewart of Ardgowan. The New Orleans convention business and economy suffered after Katrina, and Dr. Peeper appealed to the ESU National Headquarters to come to the city for an Annual General Meeting. This took place in 2008, just three years after the devastating hurricane, and was a resounding success. As this was the tercentenary of Samuel Johnson whom Dr. Peeper has long admired and read, the theme of biography was selected and a posse of biographers came to the city for lectures and panels.
Covid – zoom Princess Anne virtual gala, recordings – Rhapsody in Blue, Duke Ellington’s Queens Suite with jazz orchestras.
Promoting International Relations
Dr. Peeper is committed to promoting international understanding and goodwill. He represented The English-Speaking Union of the United States as a delegate to the English Speaking Union International Council Meeting in Tokyo to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Keen to engage with the ESU International Counsel global community, he attended meetings in Genoa, Istanbul, Edinburgh, and several meetings in London, Paris, and New York. Dr. Peeper has served as a trustee of the National Trust of Scotland US since 2015.
Serving National ESU
Dr. Peeper’s service with the National ESU Board of Directors began in 2008 as a member-at-large. He has served on numerous committees and has been chairman of the
nominating and development committees. As head of the development committee, he initiated many new programs and projects. This included long-time member Alice Irby founding the ESU Legacy Society which enables members to provide for ESU in their estate planning. In 2012 an opportunity arose for ESU to organize a program for immigrants. Dr. Peeper and Michael Harold responded to the challenge by Andrew Romay to begin the program with initial philanthropic support from members of the ESU. As a result of Dr. Peeper’s and Mr. Harold’s generous gift, Andrew established the Andrew Romay New Immigrant Center which has since committed and helped secure over $1.6 million. It has changed the landscape of immigrant educational and professional services provided by the ESU.
In 2014, Dr. Peeper was elected President of National ESU and shortly thereafter began the board-giving campaign which raised close to $1 million for National ESU. For the centenary of the ESU US, Dr. Peeper once again appealed to National ESU to come to New Orleans where he organized a gala, Rach and Bach, at the Orpheum with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. Of note, Dr. Peeper is a classical pianist who has performed as a soloist with symphony orchestras around the world, and many times at charitable events. His volunteerism extends to The William Faulkner Society, The Jane Austin Society of North America/Louisiana, The Most Venerable Order of St. John of Jerusalem, the Royal Society of Arts, and St. Paul’s Cathedral Trust in America.
Chairman of The English-Speaking Union of the United States
In 2021, Dr. Peeper was elected Chairman of the ESU US. In this role, he oversaw a number of memorable and successful celebrations of the ESU including the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the Princess Anne Gala in 2022, and the 40th Anniversary of the National Shakespeare Competition
in 2023. Dr. Peeper’s position as His Britannic Majesty’s Honorary Consul to New Orleans enabled him to secure the newly renovated British Embassy in Washington, DC to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Luard Morse Scholarship. The Embassy reception and outreach of the accomplished Luard Morse Scholars raised more than $69,000, an annual record for the Scholarships. After 30 years of commitment to the ESU, he is also honored to be listed as one of its current top 3 individual benefactors.
Under Dr. Peeper’s Leadership, The National Patron Tour program was reinstated in 2023 with the successful Queen Mary 2 crossing and tour of England in 2023, Shakespeare’s Queen Onboard. A tour is planned for 2024, Shakespeare and Palladio in Veneto and in 2025 based on Admiral Nelson’s Sicily and Malta. In 2025, Dr. Peeper will preside over the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the ESU’s historic National Headquarters in New York City. The current 100-year-old Carriage house is the third home of the ESU in New York City and personifies the welcoming community of individuals that engaged Dr. Peeper as a young student years ago.