Right is of no sex, Truth is of no color, God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren.
Frederick Douglass, The North Star

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The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Domestic Life”

 A CULTURE OF CONVERSATION


“What is the end sought?
All for a little conversation, high, clear, and spiritual!”

The wisdom we seek is a conversation. Our living conversation of Nature and Craft, Thought and Spirit, Society and Solitude, has reached millions of people in over a hundred nations. All rests on a foundation of friends who voluntarily give their time, counsel, resources, and example to the vision of a practical idealism renewed at its roots. We believe in the inviolable sanctity and essential equality of all individual human souls.

FOUNDING CIRCLE

“The beginning is half of all.”

Dr. Phyllis Cole

Dr. James Engell

Mr. John Gillis

Mr. Miguel Gómez-Ibáñez

Dr. Robert Gross

Rev. Ulrich Haas

Mr. Allen Harding

Dr. Ronald Kraft

Ms. Melinda Levin

Mr. Michael Lorence

Dr. Gregory Nagy

Mr. Christopher Nelson

Mr. Jack O’Neill

Dr. Nikita Pokrovsky

Br. Michael Quinn

Dr. David Shi

Mr. Sean Skelley

Dr. John Stauffer

Br. George Van Grieken

Dr. Robert Wilburn

Mr. Clint Wilson

 
 
 
 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mr. Miguel Gómez-Ibáñez
President Emeritus
North Bennet Street School

Dr. Ronald Kraft
President (Ret.)
Napa Valley College

Ms. Melinda Levin
Director Emeritus of Documentary Studies
University of North Texas

Mr. Michael Lorence
Founder and President
The Innermost House Foundation

Mr. Christopher Nelson
President Emeritus
St. John's College

Mr. Sean Skelley
Past President
Best Buy International

DIRECTORS IN MEMORIAM

Mr. John Gillis
Founding Chairman of the Board
The Innermost House Foundation

Mr. Clint Wilson
President & Principal
TRIBECA Properties

OFFICERS

Mr. Bryce Engelbrecht
Treasurer

Ms. Melinda Levin
Secretary

Mr. Michael Lorence
President



 

ADVISORY COUNCIL

 
 

Rev. Dr. Barry Andrews
Minister Emeritus and Author
UU Shelter Rock, Manhasset, New York

Mr. William Barker
Thomas Jefferson Scholar-Interpreter
Monticello

Dr. Phyllis Cole
Professor Emerita of English
Pennsylvania State University

Dr. Thomas Constantinesco
Professor of English
University of Paris

Ms. Lisa Coscino
Founder
PARTNERS Visual & Performing Arts

Dr. Bradley Creed
President
Campbell University

Dr. Olga Davidson
Chairman & Executive Editor
Ilex Foundation

Ms. Karen Duffy
Professor of American History
St. Louis Christian College

Ms. Kirsten Dirksen
Founder, Principal and Producer
Fair Companies Videos

Dr. James Engell
Professor of English & Comp. Literature
Harvard University

Ms. Joanna Clyde Findlay
Art Psychotherapist
Professor of Psychology

Mr. Michael Frederick
Executive Director
Thoreau Society

Dr. Wilder Fulford
Founder and Managing Director
The Fulford Group

Mr. John Gillis, Chairman
Co-Founder and Principal
Vision Systems

Mr. Kody Grant
Tribal Liason
University of Virginia

Mr. Kent Griswold
Founder and Principal
Tiny House Blog Publications

Dr. Robert Gross
Professor Emeritus of American History
University of Connecticut

Rev. Ulrich Haas
Zen Priest and Urasenke Tea Master
Rinzai Temple Gen Rin Zen Kutsu

Mr. Allen Harding
Director & Patron
Thoreau Society

Dr. Gregg Henriques
Professor of Graduate Psychology
James Madison University

Dr. Peter Henriques
Professor Emeritus of History
George Mason University

Rev. James Ingram, Jr.
Nation Builder and Faith Minister
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Dr. Jeffrey Klee
Senior Architectural Historian
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Mr. Edmond Krafchow
Chairman and Principal
Mason-McDuffie Real Estate

Ms. Diana Lorence
Creator of Innermost House
Innermost House Foundation

Dr. James Mathew
Chair of Cardiology (Ret.)
Cook County Hospital, Chicago

Ms. Laura Mays
President and Program Director
The Krenov School, Mendocino College

Dr. Gregory Nagy
Director & Professor of Greek Literature
Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies

Dr. Glenn Aparicio Parry
Founder and President
Circle for Original Thinking

Dr. Marianne Patinelli-Dubay
Director of Environmental Philosophy
SUNY College of Environmental Science

Dr. Nikita Pokrovsky
Chair of General Sociology
HSE National University, Moscow

Dr. Michael Puett
Professor of Chinese History
Harvard University

Mr. Shax Riegler
Executive Editor
Architectural Digest Magazine

Dr. Michael Rutherford
Head of Molecular Genetic Pathology
Eastern Ontario Laboratory Assoc.

Rev. Dr. James Sherblom
Senior Minister (Ret.)
First Parish, Brookline, MA

Dr. David E. Shi
President Emeritus
Furman University

Mr. Daniel Springer
Chief Executive Officer
DocuSign

Dr. John Stauffer
Professor of African American Studies
Harvard University

Mr. Robert Stephens
Founder & Principal
Geek Squad

Dr. William Swagerty
Professor of History and Director
John Muir Center, Univ. of the Pacific

Ms. Yuiko Tokugawa
Urasenke Tea Master
Kyoto, Japan

Dr. Roger Thompson
Professor and Program Chair
Ralph Waldo Emerson Society

Br. George Van Grieken
President Emeritus
St. Joseph's International School

Dr. William White
Visiting Scholar in American History
Christopher Newport University

Dr. Robert C. Wilburn
President & Chief Executive Officer
Gettysburg Foundation

Ms. Terry Tempest Williams
Author and Writer-in-Residence
Harvard University Divinity School 

Mr. Garland Wood
Master of Historic Carpentry
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Mr. Robert Yagid
Editor in Chief
Fine Homebuilding Magazine

Dr. J. William Youngs
Professor and Chair (Ret.) of History
Eastern Washington University


SPECIAL CONSULTANTS


Mr. Jordan Finch
Owner and Designer/Builder
Finch Woodworks

Mr. Todd McFadden
Founder and President
Higher Ed Diversity Consulting

Ms. Tara Myers
Communications Consultant
Innermost House Foundation

Mr. Edwin Pease
Architect and Visiting Professor
College of William & Mary

Dr. Phillip Pirages
Founder and Principal
Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books

Mr. John Smith
Principal Forester
JCS Forestry Services

Mr. David Stemann
Architect and Principal
Stemann Pease Architecture

Fr. John Swickard
Parish Priest and Spiritual Advisor (Ret.)
Williamsburg, Virginia

Ms. Annie Teske
Director of Curriculum Development (Ret.)
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

Mr. Clifford & Mrs. Joy Williams
Land Preservationists
Lightwood Forest Preserve


IN MEMORIAM

Dedicated to those beloved and generous friends
without whom
There would be no Innermost House Foundation

 

Dr. William Theodore de Bary
Director, Center for the Humanities
Columbia University

Dr. Charles Fracchia
Founder and Chair
San Francisco Historical Society

Mr. William Garry
Editor in Chief
Bon Appetit Magazine

Mr. John Gillis
Co-Founder and Principal
Vision Systems

Mr. Pasi Hamalainen
Director, Investment Committee
PIMCO Investment Management

Mr. Jack O’Neill
Founder and Principal
O’Neill Surf & Sea Odyssey

Mr. Charles Powell
Director and First Vice President
Academy of Motion Picture A&S

Br. Michael Quinn
President Emeritus
St. Mary’s College

Dr. Robert Richardson
Professor and American Biographer
Thoreau, Emerson, and James

Mr. Clint Wilson
President & Principal
TRIBECA Properties