The makers of the film 10 Years & 9 Days have teamed up with the Texas A&M University Chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students to host the 2009 Conference on the Cultural Heritage of Texas Aggie Bonfire.
2009 marks both the 10th Anniversary of the Bonfire Tragedy as well as the 100th Anniversary of the Bonfire Tradition. Truly a momentous year for Aggieland, TAMU AIAS and the filmmakers of 10 Years & 9 Days want to insure a wonderful event for appropriate reflection, insight and community.
| Schedule of Events: November 19-20, 2009 |
Nov 19th
6 PM |
Aggie Bonfire and
the Built Environment Speaker
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Geren Auditorium
Langford Building B
TAMU |
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Bob Shemwell
FAIA, LEED AP of
Overland Partners
Bob is a leading practitioner of sustainable design whose poetic work connects people to the land, their heritage and each other. He brings a systemic, environmental approach to the creation of beautiful public places of national importance. Graduating as the top senior at Texas A&M University, Bob is a talented designer who uses pubic process to discover compelling ideas that become the basis of his design work.
Beginning with his work on the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center more than fifteen years ago, Bob set out innovative criteria for the creation of architecture - culture, history and ecology are the foundations of great places; and beautiful, meaningful buildings are the most sustainable. His work captures the essence of "place" his work on some of the nation's most cherished places of cultural and natural heritage, such as Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona and Independence Mall in Philadelphia.
His commitment to sustainable practice, as demonstrated through these projects, has catapulted Bob to national prominence in the Green Building movement. He advocates that good design and sustainability go hand-in-hand and spoken on this topic as dozens of regional, national and international conferences. As program chair for four years, he has overseen and nurtured the explosive growth of the GREENBUILD International Conference and Exposition including the conference in Denver, Colorado which drew almost 20,000 attendees.
Bob earned his bachelor's degree in Environmental Design in 1982 from Texas A&M University, graduating with high honors. He received the Edward J. Romience Award as one of the top seniors in scholarship and for his work in design. In 1987, he completed his Master of Architecture degree as the University of Texas at Austin, studying and working under renowned architect Charles W. Moore, FAIA and graduating with a 4.0 grade point average.
Bob is married to Jennifer Shemwell and they have three children.
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Nov 20th
12 PM |
Panel on the
Cultural Heritage
of Aggie Bonfire |
Geren Auditorium
Langford Building B
TAMU |
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Professor Donald Sweeney (Moderator)
Dr. Sweeney holds B. A. (English), Master of Architecture, and Doctor of Environmental Design degrees from Texas A&M University, where he currently serves as an Associate Professor in Health Systems Planning in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and as an Associate Professor in the School of Rural Public Health in the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center.
Dr. Sweeney's professional and research interests revolve around all aspects of health systems policy, planning and management. He has served on numerous boards and committees at local, state, and national levels dealing with various health systems issues. He has consulted with communities, public agencies, major corporations, and health/human service organizations on issues dealing with organizational learning, transformational leadership, corporate transformation, visioning, and strategic planning. His current research and consulting interests is participating in the international healthier communities movement trying to find ways to promote the creation of healthier communities. In that regard, he served as the first Chair of Healthy Texas Communities, a statewide forum for individuals, organizations, agencies, and communities interested in building healthier communities.
Dr. K. M. Lucchese
K. M. Lucchese has been for years a lecturer in the TAMU Department of Geography, a writer on subjects geographical and classical, and has lived in the College Hills neighborhood since 1983, thus experiencing all the stages of bonfire from close range. One of the students in her Fall 1999 GEOG 202 class was killed in the bonfire collapse at only 17 years of age, the age of her daughter at the time.
Morgan Moliver
Executive Committee, TAMU SGA Replant
Robert Riggs
The journalism community has recognized Robert Riggs as one of the nation’s premier television reporters. He has received the highest awards of broadcast journalism including the coveted George Foster Peabody Award for Investigative Reporting and three Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Journalism Awards. Both honors are respectively considered the broadcast TV equivalent of the Oscar and the Pulitzer. During a reporting career of 27 years, Robert Riggs established a reputation for fairness, accuracy, and credibility in his reporting for the CBS Television Station Group and WFAA-TV (ABC) in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas.
Robert was named Outstanding Alumnus from the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University in 2001 and is a member of the Class of 1971.
Dr. Jonathan Smith
Dr. Jonathan M. Smith is a Professor of Cultural Geography at Texas A&M University. He wrote the initial faculty response to the Bonfire Commission Report (2000), and co-chaired the sub-committee of the Bonfire Task Force charged to investigate cultural bias. After further research into this history and social psychology of the Aggie Bonfire, he published “The Texas Aggie Bonfire: A Conservative Reading of Regional Narratives, Traditional Practices, and a Paradoxical Place” in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers (20007). In his view, Bonfire was for many years an admirable tradition expressing the solidarity of the student body, but the tradition degenerated as the student body grew and diversified. Were Bonfire revived, students would likely have little involvement other than as spectators, so that most that was good in Bonfire would be lost.
Jeremy Stark
Senior Redpot, Student Bonfire
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Nov 20th
7 PM |
Aggie Bonfire Cultural Speaker |
Geren Auditorium
Langford Building B
TAMU |
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Frank W. Cox III '65
After receiving a degree in Personnel Management from Texas A&M in 1965, Frank served as a Captain of in the USAF during the Vietnam War. Upon leaving the Air Force, Frank returned to his hometown of New Boston, Texas where he served for 31 years as a civilian in the Department of Defense. Frank is the founder of his management consulting firm, SOURCE of SUCCESS, which specializes in “Leadership, Team Building & Problem Solving”.
During his days at Texas A&M, Frank was 1st Sergeant of Squadron 2, a member of Corps Staff and the Ross Volunteers. He was Junior Yell Leader and Head Yell Leader his Senior year. He is the author of the book “I BLEED MAROON” and the poem “AGGIELAND—WHY I LOVE HER SO”. Frank was the “ON-CAMPUS MUSTER” speaker at A&M in 1992.
Frank has been married to his lovely wife Cheryl for 38 years. She is Aggie through and through. Cheryl works in the MSC with Student Programs on the A&M Campus. She was selected by the Aggie Students as a Namesake for “Fish Camp” 2004. She is also sponsor for 2 Christian Girls Organizations. They are the proud parents of two Aggie graduates--John Blair, Corps member Class of 1995, and Cristy Cay, number “1” Aggie Class of 1998. Cristy is married to Dr. Matt Mayfield, number “1” Aggie son-in-law, Class of 1997. They have twin daughters class of 2028 and a son class of 2030. Frank & Cheryl reside in Aggieland.
They all BLEED MAROON.
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This event is free and open to the general public.
Space is limited, so please RSVP if you wish to attend. |
We are raising funds to put the event on by selling copies of the film 10 Years & 9 Days, the soundtrack to the film, and t-shirts from the original premiere. As well, the TAMU AIAS is taking general donations to put on the event.
Click here to purchase a copy of the film or learn how to make a donation to the conference.
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