Press Release
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“Blame it on Sputnik,” is what Shirley Glade says when she sums up the direction her life’s work has taken. When the Russians were the first to launch an earth-orbiting satellite on October 4, 1957, the United States became absorbed with the need to catch up in math, science, and languages. Shirley’s study of the Russian language led to a career studying Russian religious and folk art, 10 visits to the Soviet Union/Russia, and numerous publications and presentations in US and international settings.
The program will take place at 6:40 p.m. on Monday, June 9, in the Assembly Room at Timbercrest Senior Living Community, 2201 East Street.
Glade, who lives and grew up in North Manchester, will trace what she calls “a chain of serendipities” in her life. Her program will focus on the people she met, their specialties such as icon preservation, and historical Russian architecture and restorations. Along the way, she’ll tell how she and her husband Henry were denied visas in the 1970’s since they were considered to be possible spies who aided political dissidents—experiences that are relevant today as US-Russian relations have heated up again over events in the Ukraine.
Glade is a graduate of Manchester University, who also studied Russian, Soviet Foreign Policy, and Russian Intellectual History at Yale, the University of Michigan, and the University of Illinois. She pursued studies in Art History at the University of Wisconsin and Notre Dame. She has presented papers in Moscow, Washington D. C. and Cambridge, England. Many of us know her as the organizer of the Friends of the Library book sales twice a year in North Manchester.
The public is also invited to come to the Assembly Room at 6 p.m. for a meal prior to the program. For those who wish to attend the dinner, reservations must be made no later than noon on Friday, June 6. The cost of the meal is $8.50, $3.50 for those on the Timbercrest meal plan. Reservations may be made by calling Evelyn at 260-982-6777, Mary at 260-982-1813 or the Center for History at 260-982-0672. There is no cost for the program, which is free to the public. All are welcome.