Wilton Library’s 122nd annual meeting June 11 features guest speaker Carlos Eire

  Wilton Library Association holds its 122^nd annual Friends of the Library meeting on Sunday, June 11 beginning at 4:30.

The business meeting includes the election of new officers and trustees, honors retiring members of the board of trustees, and recognizes Wilton Library’s outstanding volunteer and staff persons of the year.

The proposed slate of officers being voted on for the 2017 – 2018 fiscal year is as follows: 

Michele Klink, president; Rob Sanders, vice president; Patty Connor, secretary and Kimberley Healy, treasurer.  Glenn Hemmerle, the association’s president for the past year will be retiring from the board and Bob Kelso, will be stepping down from his treasurer’s duties but remain on the board. Other retiring members are Claude Amadeo, Ileana Barns-Slavin, and Thom Healy.

The guest speaker following the general meeting is Carlos Eire, T. L. Riggs Professor of History & Religious Studies, Yale University and past president of the Society for Reformation Research.  

Eire, who received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1979, specializes in the social, intellectual, religious, and cultural history of late medieval and early modern Europe, with a strong focus on both the Protestant and Catholic Reformations; the history of popular piety; and the history of the supernatural, and the history of death. He is the author of several scholarly books, including the recently published, Reformations: The Early Modern World 1450-1650.  He will address the expansive history of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations and the momentous changes they set in motion with particular attention to issues that persist as concerns in the present day. The book won the R.R.Hawkins Prize for Best Book of the Year from the American Publishers Association, as well as the award for Best Book in the Humanities.   He also is author of two memoirs, Waiting for Snow in Havana about the Cuban revolution for which he received the National Book Award, and Learning to Die in Miami exploring the exile experience.  

Elaine Tai-Lauria, executive director of the library noted about the speaker, “He addresses a very dynamic period of history which had tremendous influences on western civilization. We’re looking forward to this discussion of Reformations; it will be a truly engaging, intellectual conversation about the topic.”

The annual meeting is open to the public. There will be an informal reception that follows the meeting and the speaker.  People are asked to RSVP to 203-762-6321 or visit www.wiltonlibrary.org and click on the annual meeting icon on the homepage. Wilton Library is located at 137 Old Ridgefield Road in the heart of Wilton Center.