23rd Annual Dinner

AUTHOR TO SPEAK AT LAND

TRUST ANNUAL MEETING MAY 7^th

The 23^rd annual dinner meeting of the Prospect Land Trust will be held at the Prospect Firehouse on Sunday, May 7^th , and will feature the author of a new book, My Prospects: Growing Up and Growing Old in a Small Connecticut Town, the Rev. Boardman W. Kathan. Joining him in an interview format will be Lisa SanSoucie, a Land Trust member.

The program will be preceded by a “meet and greet” at 5 p.m., a catered dinner at 6, and a short business meeting. The cost of the dinner is $25 and those who sign up will have a pre-sale opportunity to buy the book at a discount of $13, including the cost of mailing. Books not purchased as part of the pre-sale will be available at the regular retail price of $20. Proceeds from the book are going to the E. Irene Boardman Foundation and will be used as a scholarship award for a woman going back to school later in life. 

Boardman “Barney” Kathan was involved in some of the dramatic changes in the town, church, library and school district, and was a leader in some of the largest and most successful celebrations in the history of Prospect.

Among other things, he was a chairman of the Region 16 Board of Education, secretary of the town’s Bicentennial Committee, a member of the library board and building committee, historian of the Prospect Congregational Church, and a founder of the Prospect Land Trust.

According to Joseph L. Gomez, another local author, “My Prospects is a well written autobiography about one man’s journey through life from a small farm in a small town to his career in the ministry and beyond. Of particular interest to the serious scholar interested in Prospect’s history is Kathan’s account of the extended travails before Region 16 became a fact.”

Kathan graduated from Prospect Community School and Crosby High School in Waterbury, and has earned degrees from Wesleyan University and Yale. He did graduate study at UConn, New York University, and Hartford Seminary, and won a Fulbright Scholarship for a year’s study in the Netherlands. He has served churches in Connecticut, Illinois and Minnesota, and worked on the staff of state and national organizations.

Reservations for the dinner and orders for the book should be sent by the end of April. Please include with your check for $25 per person your name, phone number and number of people attending. Also include number of per-sale books wanted at a cost of $13 each. Make checks payable to the Prospect Land Trust. Mail to: Prospect Land Trust, P.O. Box 7375, Prospect, CT 06712.