Hi, everyone. Good evening and welcome to the Cleveland Park library. This may sound okay. Welcome to the Cleveland Park library and welcome to our bookstore. Bookstore, excuse me, featuring tom baker. Im so happy to be here, all of you. My name is diana spyro, and i am the president of the Fordham University Alumni Chapter of washington, dc. Tom, of course, is one of our most prominent alumni here in the dc area, and were so happy to hear him about his new memoir. Id like to share a bit of toms background first before he begins and offers some opening remarks. Thomas j. Baker is an International Law enforcement consultant. He served over 33 years as a fbi special agent and a variety of Leadership Missions dealing with terrorist and criminal challenges. He has experience with Police Management and training issues, having served as a management instructor at the fbi academy in quantico, virginia. He has been published in professional journals both nationally and, internationally, on asp
Again so thank very much. The first time i met tim smith was 455th anniversary in the Vicksburg Campaign, and i went for the American Battlefield trust along with chris white out to do a series of videos. And so i meet tim on Champion Hill on the anniversary of the battle, which, as a civil war nerd, i was totally out about. Right. But its not that its even worse than that because i packed a whole suitcase of tim smith books for him to sign. So im like, tim smith, so glad to meet you. Sign my books. Yeah. Total fanboy going on at the moment and tim was super gracious and very kind about it and since then we have grown to become friends and he is truly the epitome me of the gentleman and the scholar. But hes the southern gentleman and the scholar. So everything he says is not only kind and polite, but with a really quaint drawl, which is wonderful and he is so gracious with his time. Hes been deeply, deeply invested in his series about the Vicksburg Campaign. If you havent had the oppor
The first time i met tim smith was 455th anniversary in the Vicksburg Campaign, and i went for the American Battlefield trust along with chris white out to do a series of videos. And so i meet tim on Champion Hill on the anniversary of the battle, which, as a civil war nerd, i was totally out about. Right. But its not that its even worse than that because i packed a whole suitcase of tim smith books for him to sign. So im like, tim smith, so glad to meet you. Sign my books. Yeah. Total fanboy going on at the moment and tim was super gracious and very kind about it and since then we have grown to become friends and he is truly the epitome me of the gentleman and the scholar. But hes the southern gentleman and the scholar. So everything he says is not only kind and polite, but with a really quaint drawl, which is wonderful and he is so gracious with his time. Hes been deeply, deeply invested in his series about the Vicksburg Campaign. If you havent had the opportunity to read those books
Letter is is the these are the letters he sent me. We still have Grand Central terminal. We came close to not having it. Fortunately it was saved. I will answer any questions you might have. Book and metthis with my colleagues at Grand Central publishing we came up with the title, Grand Central how a train station transformed america. I went home and said did it . That is an ambitious agenda to live up to. I realized that it easily did that. Wasmore i researched, this a transformative place. Stop and think if you go anywhere in the world and say this place is like Grand Central station, Everybody Knows what you are talking about, a metaphor for frenzy, it allpeople recognize over. Grand central has been the side homecomings,ands, send offs, the target of nazi saboteurs. Passengers have included president s, kids left for summer camp, and soldiers who went to war. Everyone has a favorite Grand Central moment. Ben she were chronicled the suburban commuter, who said it is as inviting as a
I hope you will go see that exhibition. Andrew dolkart is the curator for that exhibition, and he has a very long history with new york city landmarks and architectural history. I think this has gone off now, has it . All right. Andrew is a good friend of longstanding, we like to say, rather than old friend, but we do go way that. This is one more lecture at the Skyscraper Museum, which has been going on in a relationship now for probably nearly the 17 years since the museum was started. Andrew is always there when you call on him to talk about new york city history or speak about yet another of his new books and new publications. He is an exemplary historian and someone who has a long and deep history with new york city landmarks, having worked in his youth at the commission on the , having been a consultant to them, having written many a designation thert, having authored first guidebook to new york city years now and in the since he has been at columbia, heading the historic theerva