Sandhills

David Nordloh
2024-11-20 18:00 - 21:00 UTC | Country Club of North Carolina
Mark Twain Historian

Sandhills Shakespeare Competition
2025-02-08 14:30 - 16:30 UTC | Village Chapel

(Event Canceled due to weather) Dinner with Dr. Robert Watson -"The Nazi Titanic: The Unknown, Bizarre Story of the End of WWII"
2025-02-19 18:00 - 21:00 UTC | Country Club of North Carolina
Robert Watson is the Distinguished Professor of American History at Lynn University in Boca Rotan, Florida. He is an award-winning author, professor, historian, and analyst for numerous media outlets. He has published over forty books on history and politics, five works of fiction, and hundreds of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, and reference essays.
Watson has been the editor or a board member for several scholarly journals, has served on the boards of local non-profit organizations as well as the Harry Truman Foundation, the Calvin Coolidge Foundation, and George McGovern Library and Center for Public Service, co-convened a half-dozen national conferences on the American presidency, and was the co-founder of the annual Truman Legacy Symposium which is held at the Harry S. Truman Little White House and sponsored by the Truman Presidential Library. As an analyst, he has been interviewed thousands of times by media outlets including CNN, MSNBC, USA Today, The New York Times, NPR, and the BBC, and has appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, C-SPAN, Book TV, The Washington Journal, Voice of America, and the debut program for American History TV.

Middle School Debate Competition
2025-03-11 08:30 - 15:00 UTC, 2026-03-10 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Sandhills Community College

Dinner with Mitch Capel - "Stories of the Heart/Love & Laughter"
2025-03-19 18:00 - 21:00 UTC | Country Club of North Carolina
Mitch Capel, who often performs as “Gran’daddy Junebug,” is a seasoned storyteller, recording artist, published author, and poet. Capel first began writing and performing skits at the age of 12, and has delighted audiences throughout the U.S. with his warmth, wit, and compelling storytelling style since 1985. Considered the “national interpreter” of the poet laureate Paul Laurence Dunbar’s work, Capel has been featured at venues across the country, including the DuSable Black History Museum, The Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama.
Capel’s hobbies include collecting the works of Paul Laurence Dunbar, writing, landscaping, and collecting art. He is also an avid golfer because he says it was a pre-requisite growing up in the Pinehurst/Southern Pines area…“I love the challenge, the beauty, the tranquility and the camaraderie that golf offers. Besides, golf is a lot like storytelling in that it teaches us valuable life lessons.” He attended A&T State University in Greensboro, NC and Howard University in Washington, DC studying speech and theater but, more importantly, he is “a full time honors student at the University of Life”

Dinner with Steven Friedman - "From Shakespeare and Shaw to more (Broadway)"
2025-04-16 18:00 - 21:00 UTC | Country Club of North Carolina
Steven M. Friedman is a classically trained tenor who brings wit, style, and backstage stories of musicals and screen, as an internationally acclaimed Broadway and Screen historian. He brings the passion of performing from credits in Camelot, Damn Yankees, and Sweeney Todd (to name a few).
In his talks, Steve Friedman explores a theme, reminds you of when you saw your first Broadway show, and performs a few songs in a fully professional lyrical tenor voice. Friedman also provides a visual component, with photos of the composers, performers and other Broadway and Screen luminaries. He is an internationally recognized historian of Broadway and Screen musicals. An adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, he is a native of Washington, DC.

Garden Party
2025-06-08 14:00 - 16:00 UTC | Country Club of North Carolina
Business Meeting and recognition social for all our program winners

Churchill's D-Day
2025-06-10 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)
All ESU members and Friends of ESU are invited to a free online conversation with leading historians to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII. This special event features renowned experts who will share unique insights and reflections on one of history’s most consequential global conflicts and its enduring impact.

The distinguished panelists are General the Lord Dannatt, Member of the House of Lords and former Chief of the General Staff, and Allen Packwood OBE, Director of the Churchill Archives Center at Cambridge University, Cambridge, England.

Following the success of their collaborative work, Churchill’s D-Day: The Inside Story, the panelists will explore the final chapters of the war, its aftermath, and the contemporary relevance of this pivotal moment in world history marking eight decades since the war’s conclusion.

While this online program is not part of our ESU Happy Hour programs, we occasionally find extraordinary online programs of interest to ESU members and guests. This program is hosted by the National Churchill Leadership Center and moderated by acclaimed author and historian Katherine Grace Katz. This will be a thought-provoking discussion you won’t want to miss.

Evelyn Wrench Lecture - Dr. Catherine Loomis - "Teenage Shakespeare"
2025-09-17 16:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Country Club of North Carolina
Teenagers forced to read Romeo and Juliet may believe they have a good idea of what teenage life was like in Shakespeare’s time—mean parents, hopeless romance, sword fighting, and dancing. But what was life really like for Shakespeare and his peers as they grew up? As a teen, Shakespeare may have gone to grammar school, may have worked as an apprentice, and may have appeared in plays, but he certainly suffered the loss of a sibling, a family financial crisis, and the negotiation of an irregular marriage.
This talk looks at the lives of teenagers in Shakespeare’s time, at Shakespeare’s own teenage years, and at the use Shakespeare makes of teenagers in his plays.
Dr. Catherine Loomis has taught at the University of New Orleans and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and currently teaches at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She is the author of The Death of Elizabeth I: Remembering and Reconstructing the Virgin Queen (2010) and the editor of William Shakespeare: A Documentary Volume (2005) and Shaping Shakespeare for Performance: The Bear Stage (2015) as well as essays on Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth, and theater history. She has lectured on Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth at the Folger Institute in Washington, DC, and at several universities. She is currently working on a collection of early modern poems and prose works in which male authors adopt a female narrative voice.

Dinner with Dr. Robert Watson - “The Nazi Titanic: The Unknown, Bizarre Story of the End of WWII”
2025-10-22 18:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Country Club of North Carolina

Dinner with Dr. Andy Liu - Maintaining Brain Health and Updates on Alzheimer's Disease
2025-11-19 18:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Country Club of North Carolina
With a background in biochemistry and advanced clinical training, Dr. Liu focuses his research on discovering better ways to detect and track diseases like AD. This will be the focus of his talk. He will also discuss how people concerned with changes in brain health can be proactive with lifestyle changes. His overarching goal is to identify biomarkers—measurable signs in the body that can help doctors diagnose and monitor brain conditions earlier and more accurately. Earlier detection can give patients and families more time to plan, seek treatment, and maintain quality of life. Through his clinical care, teaching, and research at Duke, Dr. Liu is committed to improving the lives of patients and families affected by neurological disorders. He believes that by combining science, compassion, and community engagement, meaningful progress is possible.

Sunday afternoon at the Movies
2026-01-18 13:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Country Club of North Carolina

Member Luncheon and Shakespeare Competition
2026-02-08 12:30 - 15:30 (America/New_York) | Country Club of North Carolina

Member Luncheon with Audrey Moriarty
2026-03-15 12:30 - 15:30 (America/New_York) | Country Club of North Carolina

Dinner with Sandra Dales
2026-04-15 18:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Country Club of North Carolina

Garden Party
2026-05-17 14:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Country Club of North Carolina
