2018 Conversations at Oatlands Speakers (June - September)
J. A. Preston (Former Air Traffic Controller Becomes Hollywood Star)
J. A. Preston is a Washington DC native who now lives in Hollywood. He was an Air Traffic Controller at the FAA facility in Leesburg in the 1960’s. Somehow (he’ll tell us how) he got to Hollywood and had great success. He was the judge who had a memorable scene with Jack Nicolson in “A Few Good Men.”. He played Ozzie Cleveland on “Hill Street Blues”, was a regular on “Dallas” and appeared in over 20 movies. A fascinating life!
P. D. Jephson (Princess Diana)
Patrick was selected as Equerry to the Princess of Wales (Diana) in 1987. He later became her first – and only – private secretary. No one knows more about Diana’s struggles than Patrick, her closest aide and advisor for 8 years which included the time of her greatest fame and deepest personal crisis. I’ve never seen more excitement about a potential speaker than I’ve seen by the few people I’ve told about this speaker. Diana has been dead for over 20 years, but she remains a figure of great interest.
Rick Nealis (Marine Corps Marathon)
Rick has been the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) Race Director since 1993. The MCM is one of the world’s most famous marathons, always registering their maximum number of runners (in the 30,000 range) within days. Rick will have stories to share! The MCM, which took place just six weeks after 9/11, was one of the first major running events to take place after the terror attack. Just five days after the Pentagon was released as an official crime scene, 14,341 runners ran within 40 yards of Airline Flight 77 impact site.
In 1994 Oprah Winfrey finished the MCM. This started a trend of female runners approaching 40 and wanting to lose weight running in the MCM.
We may not be runners, but we all have friends and family members who are. They will want to hear Rick and will be very grateful that you invited them to hear him.
Shon Hopwood (from Bank Robber to Law School Professor)
You’ve read about Shon in the “New York Times”, the “Washington Post” and the “New Yorker”. You saw him on “60 Minutes”. His saga:
• robbed 5 banks in small towns in Nebraska;
• served 11 years in federal prison;
• became a jailhouse lawyer;
• wrote a complex petition to the Supreme Court, a high wire act of jailhouse lawyering that never met with success - Shon succeeded in 2 cases;
• Graduated from law school;
• Now a professor at Georgetown University Law Center.
Another amazing life story!
Tim O’Rourke (cyber security and social media)
Had four great speakers. Needed one more. Took grandchildren to the Easter Egg Hunt at Lincoln Elementary School and saw Tim. He mentioned that he is Vice President for Product Marketing and Strategy for ZeroFox in Baltimore. They provide cyber security advice to social media companies. BINGO!
With Tim’s help we might be able to avoid getting hacked and sound more intelligent with our children and grandchildren. That alone is worth the Conversations annual fee.
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