Newsroom Category
October 22, 2014
Everett Raymond Kinstler, Henry Lee
To Speak 11/15 at HCC Hall of Fame Gala
Musician Jerry Vigorito To Be Inducted
Tickets Available Until Nov. 7
BRIDGEPORT – Tickets are still available for Housatonic Community College’s Nov. 15 Hall of Fame Gala, which will feature speakers from the world of art and science.
Presidential portrait artist Everett Raymond Kinstler and world-renowned forensic scientist Henry C. Lee and will be the guest speakers at the event. HCC alumnus and musician Jerry Vigorito will be inducted into the Hall.
Tickets, which are $250 apiece, will be available until Nov. 7. For more information, contact Emily Hyde at 203-332-5038 or .
Kinstler has painted portraits of seven presidents and numerous government officials and celebrities. His work includes portraits of Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, as well as two first ladies, Lady Bird Johnson and Betty Ford. His portraits of Presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford are the official White House portraits.
Kinstler’s 1,500-plus portrait subjects include personalities Tony Bennett, Carol Burnett, James Cagney, Katharine Hepburn, Mary Tyler Moore, Paul Newman, Peter O’Toole, Gregory Peck, Christopher Plummer, and John Wayne. Others who have posed for him include government officials such as Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Harry Blackmun; U.S. Senators Bob Dole and Daniel Patrick Moynihan; four U.S. Secretaries of State; ten state governors; business leaders including John D. Rockefeller lll and Donald Trump; writers Arthur Miller, Ayn Rand, Tennessee Williams, and Tom Wolfe; and astronauts Alan Shepard and Scott Carpenter.
In addition, he has painted more than sixty U.S. Cabinet officers, more than any artist in the country’s history. In 2005, PBS aired a documentary on his career.
Lee, who has appeared as a guest on numerous talk shows and hosted his own show on Court TV, has been a prominent player in many of the most challenging cases of the last 40 years. He has worked with law enforcement agencies to help solve more than 6,000 cases.
Lee’s testimony figured prominently in the O. J. Simpson trial, and in the conviction of Woodchipper murderer Richard Crafts. Lee has assisted local and state police in their investigations of other famous crimes, such as the murder of JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colorado, the 1993 suicide of White House Counsel Vincent Foster, the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart in Salt Lake City, the murder of Laci Peterson in Modesto, CA, and the reinvestigation of the John F. Kennedy assassination.
He served as Commissioner of Public Safety for the State of Connecticut for over two years and as the state’s Chief Criminalist from 1979 to 2000.
Vigorito is the co-founder of Band Together, a group of musicians that holds performances to raise funds for families in need of a helping hand. As the band’s website says, the goal of these performances is “to make and enjoy music,” to use the band’s talent and influence to help people in need, to develop a network of supporters for concerts and programs, and “to get one step closer to Heaven.”
Band Together events helped raise over $1.3 million for local charities and families. It has worked with the late Paul Newman and Meryl Streep to raise millions to protect Connecticut farmland. Awards include Citations of Honor from the US Congress, the Connecticut State General Assembly and former CT Governor M. Jodi Rell for commitment to helping Connecticut families.
The band has been the subject of articles in the New York Times, and Venu magazine, http://issuu.com/venumagazine/docs/venu_4,m, p. 34..
Proceeds from the Gala will be used to support the Housatonic Community College Foundation’s scholarship fund, which disburses some $150,000 annually to deserving HCC students.
The Gala will begin at 6 p.m. in the Events Center in Beacon Hall on the HCC campus The college is located at 900 Lafayette Blvd. in Downtown Bridgeport, less than 150 yards off I-95 and Rte.8, a block from the Harbor Yard sports complex. Free parking is available in the Housatonic garage.