PBK Alpha Association Events

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Past Events

Apr 6, 2019 The Alpha Association’s annual banquet was April 6, 2019, at the Denver Athletic Club. Dr. Tom Noel, Professor of History at the University of Colorado–Denver, spoke on “Color-Oddities: Strangest Things about the Highest State,” a light-hearted overview of Colorado history from Mesa Verde to the “Mustang” at DIA.
Oct 18, 2018 Alpha Association members toured the Denver Art Museum’s exhibit, “Rembrandt: Painter as Printmaker” with a docent, followed by dinner afterwards.
Sep 22, 2018 The annual meeting was held Sept. 22, 2018, at the Mount Vernon Canyon Club. Greg Carpenter, Artistic and General Director of Opera Colorado, spoke about  “Behind the Curtain: An Insider’s Look at What It Takes to Produce Opera in Denver.”
Aug 3, 2018 Alpha Association members and their guests toured the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center.
May 10, 2018 Frederick M. Lawrence, Secretary and CEO of Phi Beta Kappa, Washington, D.C., and Former President, Brandeis University spoke at the University of Denver on “Speaking about Free Speech: It’s Complicated — Navigating the countervailing demands of free expression and civility, especially on college and university campuses.”
Apr 14, 2018 The 2018 annual banquet was held at the Denver Athletic Club. Dr. Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, gave a fascinating talk about “The Animal’s Agenda: Freedom, Compassion, Coexistence, and Hope in the ‘Rage of Inhumanity.”’ The science of animal well-being, compassionate conservation, and personal rewilding offer viable solutions for coming to the rescue of other animals. “The time has come —- indeed, it is long overdue —- to use what we know about the fascinating and diverse inner lives of other animals on their behalf.”
Oct 21, 2017 Annual meeting at the Denver Athletic Club, with a talk by Associate Professor Eric Frew of the Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Dr. Frew spoke about the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to study severe weather, including tornadoes.
Sep 9, 2017 As part of the national society’s Key Connections event, 22 people toured Dinosaur Ridge in Morrison to view 150-million-year-old dinosaur bones encased in sandstone and 100-million-year-old dinosaur tracks from Late Jurassic floodplains and stream channels.
Jun 30, 2017 Alpha Association members and their guests enjoyed a private tour of the Alexander Calder exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens. American artist Alexander Calder (1898-1976) is considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century and is known for his bold, energetic sculptures. The DBG exhibit — Calder: Monumental — featured iconic works of bolted steel plate that rise in sweeping curves, or that punctuate space with geometric lines, to reveal the artist’s exploration of forms, volumes, and voids. Using shapes that resonate with the natural world, Calder’s large, lively abstractions interact in interesting ways with the surrounding landscape.After the tour members and guests shared a picnic dinner.
Apr 8, 2017 Annual Banquet. Alpha Association’s annual banquet was held on Saturday, April 8, 2017 at the famed Briarwood Inn at 1630 8th Street in Golden. Our after dinner speaker was Dr. Elizabeth Campbell (Karlsgodt), an associate professor in the History Department at the University of Denver. She spoke about the legacy of Nazi looting of Jewish art collections during World War II. She included topics from her first book which examined French cultural policy toward the looting during the German occupation, and information from her current book project which focuses on the Allied recovery of art that had been looted from Jewish collections by the Nazis or sold under duress during the Occupation, comparing restitution practices in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Nov 12, 2016 Annual meeting at University Club of Denver. After election of officers for the coming year and lunch, Professor Robert S. Anderson, a geomorphologist from the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at University of Colorado, Boulder, spoke about the evolution of the Colorado Front Range and the impact of the September 2013 floods.
Aug 4, 2016 Tour of Denver Crime Lab. Alpha Association members and guests toured the new state-of-the-art Denver Crime Lab located at 1371 Cherokee St., Denver. The guided tour included a short film and question and answer period. The tour was followed by lunch at nearby Dozens Restaurant.
Jun 10, 2016 Alpha Association members and guests took a ride on the newly opened A line commuter rail train from Union Station to Denver International Airport, followed by lunch at the Vine and Grill Restaurant in the Westin Hotel at DIA.
Mar 5, 2016 Annual Banquet. Alpha Association’s 2016 annual banquet was held on Saturday, March 5, 2016, at the Park Hill Golf Club, 4141 East 35th Avenue, in Denver. Our after dinner speaker was Christine Edwards Stewart, a Lockheed Martin Systems Engineer, Mars Reconaissance Orbiter Operations, and NASA JPL Solar System Ambassador. Her topic was Finding Water on Mars with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Team.
Nov 7, 2015 PBK Alpha Association members and their guests had a private tour of the contemporary art collection at the new ART Hotel in downtown Denver. The tour was led by Jette Braun, who worked with Dianne Vanderlip (former curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Denver Art Museum) to select and install the art pieces in the hotel.
Oct 10, 2015 Annual Meeting. The annual meeting was held at Mount Vernon Country Club in Golden. The speaker was Dr. Elizabeth Fenn, History Department Chair at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She spoke about her new book, Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People, which won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for History.
Jul 30, 2015 Visit to Rocky Mountain National Park in commemoration of its 100th anniversary.
May 30, 2015 The Sherpa House Restaurant and Cultural Center in Golden was the setting for lunch and an open discussion attended by seven PBK Alpha Association members. After lunch, several of the group visited various Golden attractions.
Mar 28, 2015 Annual Banquet. The 2015 banquet was held on Saturday, March 28, at the Park Hill Golf Club, 4141 East 35th Avenue, in Denver. Our after dinner speaker was Thomas E. Hames, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the 10th Mountain Division Foundation. His topic was Skiing Off to War: a history of Camp Hale and the 10th Mountain Division.
Jan 29, 2015 Tour of the Anschutz Collection at the American Museum of Western Art in Downtown Denver. This collection is considered to be one of the most important Western art collections in the country, with paintings depicting the art of the American West from the early 19th century to the present. Alpha members and their guests viewed this collection on a private tour with the curator of the museum. 25 people attended.
Oct 25, 2014 Annual Meeting. The annual meeting was held at Denver’s Park Hill Golf Club. The speaker was Dr. Jerry Peterson, Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who spoke about “What Happened at Fukushima, and What Did We Learn?” in the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Jul 9, 2014 Tour of Dale Chihuly’s Glass Artworks. Alpha members and their guests had special docent-led tours of Dale Chihuly’s stunning blown glass artwork at Denver Botanic Gardens. As Chihuly described his goal for such displays, “I want my work to appear like it came from nature, so that if someone found it on a beach or in the forest, they might think it belonged there.” Twenty people attended.
May 10, 2014 Discussion Luncheon. A luncheon at Mount Vernon Country Club, featuring a discussion on “Hot Topics in Astronomy” led by Dr. Robert Stencel, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Denver and the director of the Chamberlin Observatory near the DU campus and the Meyers-Womble Observatory atop Mt. Evans.
Mar 8, 2014 Annual Banquet. The Alpha Association’s 2014 annual banquet was held on Saturday, March 8 at the Park Hill Golf Club, 4141 East 35th Avenue, in Denver. After dinner Ken and Ruth Wright discussed paleohydrological research at Machu Picchu, how they became involved in this research and the extraordinary capabilities of Pre-Columbian Native Americans in the field of civil engineering.
Jan 16, 2014 Tour of “The Living West” Exhibit at History Colorado Center. A afternoon tour of the new History Colorado Center’s current exhibit, “The Living West”. The exhibit had three sections: life in the heyday of Mesa Verde, the 1930’s Dust Bowl, and a display of contemporary life and problems in the Rocky Mountains today.
Sep 21, 2013 Annual Meeting. The Alpha Association’s 2013 annual meeting was held after lunch at the Mount Vernon Country Club in Golden. Following the meeting Dr. Peter Warren gave a talk on his work with a Namibian cheetah conservation group, using his photographs as illustrations.