Huron County is welcoming the first ever Academic in Residence weekend at the Frank Murphy Memorial Museum in Harbor Beach on Friday and Saturday, July 19-20.Supported in part by a generous grant from the Huron County Community Foundation and organized by the Friends of the Frank Murphy Museum, the weekend’s events open with a Meet-and-Greet the Academic from 3-5 pm on Friday, July 19 on the grounds of the Museum during the weekly Farmer’s Market. Linda Sheryl Greene, the featured presenter, and Greg Zipes, author of “Justice and Faith: The Frank Murphy Story,” will both be greeting Museum visitors Friday afternoon and sharing their expertise about Frank Murphy and the Supreme Court.
There are three sessions on Saturday, July 20 — two in the morning, followed by one in the afternoon. Sessions are planned for 45 minutes to an hour in length. The Keynote dialogue featuring Professor Greene, the MSU Foundation Professor of Law at the MSU
College of Law, and biographer Zipes kicks off the morning at 10 am at the Harbor Beach Hospital Conference Center. Professor Greene is an expert on the history of Justice Thurgood Marshall. From her experience spending several days in Harbor Beach, and her study of Justice Marshall, she will be identifying links between Frank Murphy and Marshall as supreme court justices.
The Keynote will be followed by a Roundtable at 11:30 am focusing on the Frank Murphy Museum. Sheila Eddy, president of the Friends organization and others will share their experiences in creating programming for the Museum, serving as docents, and maintaining the legacy of the Murphy years. The 2 pm afternoon session, another roundtable format, will focus on the legal side of Frank Murphy’s life and will feature Judge Gerald Prill and other attorneys from Huron County whose work is influenced by court decisions of years ago and the present.
The general public is cordially invited to all events. Historians, history buffs, students and interested citizens from all over Michigan are expected to attend as well as high school and college instructors. Area residents interested in local history are encouraged to attend.
All Saturday events take place at the Harbor Beach Hospital Conference Center, one block from the Museum. For more information, see the Museum’s Facebook page at Frank Murphy Museum where there will be daily posts about the event.
For more information, contact Lori Murawske, museum docent, at(989) 712-0909.
