Biographer atCelebration of Success
The subject for Doris Kearns Goodwin’s talk at Celebration of Success was U.S. presidents past and present. But before the Pulitzer Prize-winning author shared anecdotes and responded to questions from the audience, she took a minute to say how impressed she was with students attending the sponsoring University of Colorado Denver Business School.
Goodwin had visited the campus in the hours preceding this fundraising dinner held at the Grand Hyatt Denver and declared that she had enjoyed “one of the more interesting conversations I’ve ever had with a group of students.”
Their “level of purpose,” Goodwin said, distinguished them from other college students she has met over the years.
“They’ve come through adversity. They’ve been working. They’ve had difficult times in their lives and they discovered that moment where passion for their work and their passion for a subject is united with the opportunity to express that.”
CUDenver is Colorado’s only public urban research university, and one-third of its 15,000 students are ethnic minorities. Its students come from every state in the union and 70 foreign countries.
Celebration of Success was chaired by two CU Denver alums, Kelly Brough, president/ CEO of theMetro Denver Chamber of Commerce, and Patty Imhoff, as well as and Imhoff’s husband, Mike, the managing partner of Stifel Nicolaus & Co., and CU Denver’s chancellor, Dorothy Horrell.
Rohan Christie-David, dean of the CU Denver Business School, wasmaster of ceremonies and DaVita’s chief executive, Kent Thiry, introduced the speaker and served as moderator for the question-and-answer session that followed Goodwin’s remarks.
The first Celebration of Success was held in 1996, and including the $400,000 raised this year has generated $3.3 million for student scholarships and faculty fellowships.
Goodwin, affectionately known as America’s “historianin-chief,” has written about Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Her interest in presidential history began when she served as a White House Fellow during the Johnson administration.
“What I worry about right now is I’m not sure any of us are seeing other people’s points of view in the same way,” she said. “Unless we can figure out how to understand other people’s points of view, we’re not going to be able to get along as a democracy.”
When Thiry asked what her advice would be to the room filled with 600 young people, she responded by saying that, “Somehow, they have to not lose their belief in what the ideal of the country was, and that problems created by man can be solved by man.
“When you look at our history, it’s always the groups from below that change what’s above— the anti-slavery, women’s, gay rights and environmental movements. Don’t lose faith in this country. We’ve been through tough times before and we can get through these.”
Gov. John Hickenlooper, who had taken classes in entrepreneurship at CU Denver’s Business School prior to opening his Wynkoop Brewing Company, was among those attending Celebration of Success. Also on hand for the festivities was CU president Bruce Benson and his wife, Marcy; CU Denver provost Roderick Nairn; Don Elliman, the chancellor at CU AnschutzMedical Campus; CU regents John “Jack” Kroll and Irene Griego; Jack Finlaw, president/CEO of the University of Colorado Foundation; Bob Deibel, president of OfficeScapes; Daniels Fund president Linda Childears and her husband, Don, the president of the Colorado Bankers Association.