New Deal legacy under discussion

The National New Deal Preservation Association is bringing together adult relatives of President Franklin Roosevelt and four of his high-level FDR administrators to weigh in on the work programs of the New Deal era from 1933 to 1943. The gathering, a symposium called “Securing Our New Deal Legacy: The Grandchildren Speak,” takes place at 9 a.m. June 24 at La Fonda. It’s open to the public and registration is $20. Participants include: Nina Gibson, Roosevelt’s granddaughter and an advocate for abused children, people living in poverty and those facing serious medical conditions; David Douglas, grandson of FDR Secretary of Agriculture and one-term vice president Henry A. Wallace, who heads a program that focuses on Congressional funding for foreign aid in poverty-stricken areas; Dave Giffen, a musician who also works on homeless issues in New York and whose great-grandfather was Harry Lloyd Hopkins, major architect of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), secretary of commerce and chief FDR diplomatic advisor; Tomlin Perkins Coggeshall, grandson of Frances Perkins, labor secretary under FDR, who works in information technology; and Thomas J. Walker, who runs Dillsboro Inn in North Carolina and is grandson of Frank Comerford Walker, head of FDR’s executive council, postmaster general and creator of the FDR Presidential Library in Hyde Park, N.Y.

They will be sharing their families’ New Deal histories, and how their experiences affected their lives and career paths.

After the panel discussion, the NNDPA will hold a noon luncheon to honor five New Mexicans: Rupert Lopez, a centenarian who worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps; 100-year-old former Taos Pueblo Governor Tony Reyna; former state Rep. J. Paul Taylor; Nancy Meem Wirth; and Jerry Rogers. Registration for the awards luncheon is $40 and, for both events, $55.