THE GAZETTE
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AROUND THE COUNTY
Olney Theatre recalls influential leader n
Former executive director known as ‘Uncle Bill’ BY
SYLVIA CARIGNAN STAFF WRITER
The Olney Theatre Center for the Arts is remembering visionary William H. Graham Sr., who died Oct. 15 at age 87. Graham, who lived in Silver Spring, had served the theater, its patrons, its staff and performers since 1956. He was the theater’s executive director from 1956 to 1968, then joined the Olney Theatre Corp.’s board of directors as chairman. He also taught speech and drama at Catholic University of America in Washington and LaSalle University in Pennsylvania, and led the National Players, a classical touring company. Alan Wade, a fellow member of the theater’s board, said he knew Graham since 1968, when Wade auditioned for the National Players. Graham, whom Wade knows as “Uncle Bill,” took the young actor out to lunch after his audition.
Graham was then in his early 30s, teaching acting classes at Catholic University. “He had movie star good looks and a commanding voice and presence,” he said. John Going, associate artistic director at the Olney Theatre, also was a student of Graham’s who later became a colleague. “When I was in school, everyone clamored to get in his class,” Going said. The Olney Theatre honored Graham in 2011 for his 50 years of leadership, compassion and boundless love of the arts. The theater’s managing director, Amy Marshall, said Graham was “instrumental” in transforming the theater from a summer performance venue to a year-round center for the arts. Jim Petosa, a former director at the theater who works at Boston University, said the Olney Theatre “was born out of the growth that was happening in the [Olney] community.” At the time, around the 1980s, Montgomery County’s population was about 600,000. The “rustic” Ol-
Residents weigh in on school start n First of four forums held Monday at Paint Branch High BY
ALINE BARROS STAFF WRITER
More than 150 people attended the first community forum about changes to school start and end times held Monday at Paint Branch High School in Silver Spring. Parents, students and teachers were given the opportunity to share their opinions about Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr’s recommendations to move the start time for the school system’s high schools back 50 minutes, from 7:25 a.m. to 8:15 a.m.; move the middle school first bell from 7:55 a.m. to 7:45 a.m., and keep elementary school start times the same, but extend the day by 30 minutes. Speakers mentioned the effect on parents who rely on older children to take care of their siblings; loss of family time for very young children; parents of high school children who will have to stay home for an extra hour, and safety issues with more adolescents driving during afternoon rush hour. “By pushing back the start time you push back everything in the day. Not just school, but after-school activities, family time, and bed time,” Suzanne Paholski said, adding that her children go to sleep at 10:30 p.m. and get up at 6:30 a.m. “I don’t have problems getting them up in the morning.” Gabriel Coxson, 14, who goes to Sherwood High School in Sandy Spring, said that starting school later will not help students, especially high school students. “The only benefit is going to be for people who actually go home, and actually get right to homework, and go to sleep. ... I am not one of those people.” But not everyone was completely against the proposal. Dorothy Gardner, a Montgomery County Public School ESOL teacher and parent, said she asked her students to speak with their parents about bell times and came representing them. “I did have one class where parents were really for the time change because it is dark [in the morning], and it is really early,” Gardner said. Gardner’s older high school class spoke about a completely different issue. “They have to pick up their brothers and sisters,” the teacher said. The next community forum is scheduled for Dec. 16 at Richard Montgomery High School, 250 Richard Montgomery Drive, Rockville. abarros@gazette.net
HEATHER LATIRI
William H. Graham Sr. acted in “Sabrina Fair,” a 1956 play performed at the Olney Theatre for the Arts.
ney setting provided local residents with an alternative to the metropolitan theaters in Washington, Petosa said. Under Graham’s leadership, the venue grew and soon saw the same number of patrons in November as it did in July. Marshall said Graham meant more to the theater than the job titles he held. “He was an actor on stage, he was a teacher for our national touring program, he was our executive director, he was on our board of directors, and he was completely
dedicated in every shape and form,” she said. Graham worked tirelessly to ensure the financial and artistic health of the Olney Theatre Center for the Arts. Even as his health was failing, Going said, Graham made an effort to attend dress rehearsals and offer feedback on performances. “He had so much to share,” he said. Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) honored Graham with a lifetime achievement award in 2011. Marshall said being at the theater without Graham has been a difficult adjustment to make. “It’s very, very hard,” she said. “He was loved by everybody.” Contributions in memory of Graham may be made to the William H. Graham Scholarship Fund at Catholic University, 620 Michigan Ave. N.E., Washington, DC 20064, or the Olney Theatre for the Arts, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, MD 20832. scarignan@gazette.net
Lisa Alexander, Audubon Naturalist Society executive director, at the Woodend Sanctuary in Chevy Chase.
BY AGNES BLUM STAFF WRITER
Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, Lisa Alexander would follow her mother into nearby bogs to hunt for pitcher plants. It was there in those peatlands, hunting the carnivorous Sarracenia purpurea at her mother’s side, that she developed a love of nature that has guided her career. “My mom was my first naturalist,” Alexander said. “Everything was a nature hike with my mom.” Throughout her career, Alexander has honored her mother’s tradition of teaching about nature, culminating on Oct. 21 in her appointment as executive director of the Audubon Naturalist Society, one of the area’s leading environmental educational nonprofits. Founded in 1897, the Audubon Naturalist Society in Chevy Chase is a membershipbased nonprofit that provides environmental education for all ages and advocates on behalf of clean water, rural lands and smart transportation in the Washington, D.C., area. In September, Neal Fitzpatrick, who had served as executive director since 1991, retired, and Alexander beat out about 40 other candidates for the job. In her new position, Alexander will oversee 53 employees and more than 575
Sherwood Pom day camp is Nov. 9 The award-winning 2013-14 Sherwood High School Pom Squad will host a fundraising Pom Day Camp on Nov. 9 for all girls from kindergarten through high school. The camp will be in the school gym from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., with a public performance from 11:30 a.m. until noon. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. in the gym. The cost is $25 in advance or $30 for walk-ins. Fees include poms, snacks, a photo souvenir, and instruction in skills and a dance routine. Camp T-shirts, hair ribbons and souvenirs will be available for sale. All proceeds support Sherwood Athletics and the MedStar Montgomery Capital Campaign for Oncology. To register, send a check for $25 made out to Sherwood High School, with the following information: child’s name, address, school, age, grade, home and cellphone numbers, email address and parent’s signature for permission to Jeanne D. Laeng, Pom Sponsor, Sherwood High School, 300 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Sandy Spring, MD 20860. For further information or questions, contact Laeng at jdanz5050@aol.com.
Coat drive for homeless is underway The Montgomery County Department of Recreation and Interfaith Works are collecting gently worn coats of all sizes through Friday to support the county’s and Gaithersburg’s Homeless Resource Day. The goal is to collect more than 500 winter coats, especially in adult sizes from XL to 3XL. Here are some nearby drop-off locations: • Olney Indoor Swim Center, 16605 Georgia Ave. • Bauer Drive Community Recreation Center, 14625 Bauer Drive, Rockville. • Upper County Community Recreation Center, 8201 Emory Grove Road, Gaithersburg. • Wheaton Community Recreation Center, 11711 Georgia Ave. For information, call 240-777-6875.
Complete report at www.gazette.net The following is a summary of incidents in the Olney area to which Montgomery County police responded recently. The words “arrested” and “charged” do not imply guilt. This information was provided by the county.
Audubon’s new director digs in Alexander follows natural path to lead society
InBrief
POLICE BLOTTER
DAN GROSS/ THE GAZETTE
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Wednesday, October 30, 2013 o
volunteers. Alexander brought to Audubon her passion for connecting young people to nature, co-workers say, launching in 2005 the Green Kids program, a grant-funded outreach program that partners with local public schools to foster environmental literacy. Alexander became the director of Environmental Education and then deputy director of the society in 2011. “Lisa has such a huge vision,” said Diane Lill, who now runs the Green Kids program, which has raised more than $1 million to support environmental science at local schools. “She’s a wonderful leader, very easy to talk to. She’s our biggest cheerleader.” For Alexander, 51, the new job is akin to coming home. When she graduated from Cornell University, where she studied forest ecology, she got a job at Audubon teaching children and reviewing children’s science books. She lived on the third floor of Audubon’s Woodend Mansion, an example of Georgian Revival architecture built in the 1920s by John Russell Pope, architect of the Jefferson Memorial and National Gallery of Art, for Captain Chester Wells and his wife Marion Leigh. The mansion, on the National Register of Historic Places and the Montgomery County Master Plan for Historic Preservation, houses the nonprofit’s offices and also is the setting for many weddings and parties. Without a car, she got
to know the 40 acres of the Woodend Sanctuary well. The property is one of the few remaining old estates in Chevy Chase and dates back to 1699. The Wells Family donated the Woodend Mansion and property to the Audubon Naturalist Society in 1968. Kathryn Mitchell, the development director, said she was ecstatic to learn Alexander had been chosen to the leadership post. “I see Lisa’s leadership as by example. She doesn’t ask for others to give unless she has done so herself,” Mitchell said. That doesn’t just go for financial contributions either, she said. “Unless she has physically put boots on the ground or in the creek, she won’t ask you to do it yourself.” This past weekend, Alexander was part of a team restoring a meadow by planting 1,000 native plants. And when she’s not digging at work, she’s likely to be found fussing around in her own garden at her Chevy Chase home, where she lives with her husband and son. Another son is in college. During her tenure as director, Alexander hopes to help spread the word about Woodend, which she calls a jewel inside the beltway. “We have so much going on here,” Alexander said in her office at Woodend. “We have a lot of stories to tell. We tend to hide our light under a bushel.” ablum@gazette.net
Armed robbery • On Oct. 11 at 7:38 a.m. in the 3700 block of Carey Street, Silver Spring. The subject threatened the victim with a weapon and took property. Strong-arm robbery • On Oct. 13 at 12:20 a.m. in the parking lot of Exxon, 11310 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring. The subjects assaulted the victim and took property. • On Oct. 14 at 11:37 p.m. in the 2100 block of Bel Pre Road, Silver Spring. The subject assaulted the victim and took property. Commercial burglary • On Oct. 12 at 4:56 p.m. in the 1700 block of University Boulevard West, Silver Spring. No forced entry, took nothing.
FIRE LOG For the week of Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013, through Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013, the Sandy Spring Volunteer Fire Department responded to the following incidents:
From Station 4 (Sandy Spring Station): • On Monday, Oct. 21, at 4:59 p.m., units responded for a property damage collision in the 400 block of Firestone Drive. • On Thursday, Oct. 24, at 8:51 a.m., units responded for a vehicle collision at the intersection of Layhill Road and Norbeck Road. Two patients were taken to a nearby hospital. • On Thursday, Oct. 24, units responded for a brush fire in the 600 block of Olney-Sandy Spring Road. • On Friday, Oct. 25, at 10:32 p.m., units responded to the 3300 block of Olney-Sandy Spring Road for an electrical short. • On Saturday, Oct. 26, at 10:27 a.m., units responded to the intersection of Spencerville Road and Veitch Lane for a property damage collision. From Station 40 (Olney Station): • On Monday, Oct. 21, at 6:13 p.m., units responded to the 4800 block of Walbridge Street to assist the Kensington Volunteer Fire Department with a building fire. • On Friday, Oct. 25, at 9:57 a.m., units responded for a property damage collision at Georgia Avenue and Spartan Road. • On Friday, Oct. 25, at 10:32 p.m., units responded to the 3300 block of Olney-Sandy Spring Road for an electrical short. • On Saturday, Oct. 26, at 12:17 p.m., units responded to the 18900 block of Rolling Acres Way for smoke coming from a sewer. • On Saturday, Oct. 26, at 1:35 p.m., units responded to the 5400 block of Manorfield Road to assist the Kensington Volunteer Fire Department with a building fire. In addition to the above-mentioned responses, units from Sandy Spring Volunteer Fire Department responded to 64 medical emergencies.