Meet Our Board
Dedicated men and women from around the nation make up the Board of Trustees of the Civil War Preservation Trust. Each Trustee is sincerely committed to the preservation of America's Civil War battlefields.
Theodore Sedgwick – Chairman of the Board – President, Sedgwick Publishing Co.; President, Red Hills Lumber Co.; board member, Wetlands America Trust (Ducks Unlimited's conservation affiliate), Winous Point Marsh Conservancy, Folger Shakespeare Library. Graduate of Harvard College.
Henry E. Simpson – Vice Chairman of the Board – Graduate, Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia Law School; attorney, Adams and Reese/Lange Simpson, LLP.
John L. Nau, III – Vice Chairman of the Board – Graduate, University of Virginia; President and CEO, Silver Eagle Distributors, Inc.; Chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation; Chairman, Texas Historical Commission; Board of Directors, Greater Houston Partnership; National Trustee, Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Mary Munsell Abroe – A graduate of St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana (B.A.) and Loyola University Chicago (Ph.D. in American history), Dr. Abroe teaches modern European and American history at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois. Among the boards/commissions to which she belongs are the board of directors of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation, and the Advisory Board of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. She also is a past president of the Civil War Round Table of Chicago.
Harrison "Mac" Bains Jr. - MBA Graduate, University of California, Berkeley and BA graduate of the University of Redlands. He is the retired Vice President, Tax and Treasury of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. Was the Senior Vice President of Chase Manhattan Bank and before that, Senior Vice President and Treasurer of RJR Nabisco.
E. Warner Bass – Graduate, University of North Carolina and Vanderbilt Law School; attorney with Bass, Berry & Sims PLC, Nashville, Tennessee; Chairman, City of Forest Hills Planning Commission; Board of Directors, The Land Trust for Tennessee (previously Chairman); Tennessee Chapter of the Nature Conservancy; Friends of Warner Parks (previously Chairman); Tennessee Performing Arts Foundation (previously Chairman).
Edwin C. Bearss – Historian Emeritus of the National Park Service; Director's Special Assistant for Military Sites and former Chief Historian at the National Park Service; winner of history and preservation awards including the T. Harry Williams Award, the Bruce Catton Award, the Alvin Calman Award, the Bell I. Wiley Award, the Harry S. Truman Award for Meritorious Service in the field of Civil War History, and the CWPT Edwin C. Bearss Lifetime Achievement Award.
Kirk J. Bradley – Treasurer – BBA University of Georgia Terry College of Business; MBA, Duke University Fuqua School of Business; Chairman, President & C.E.O. of Lee-Moore Oil Company in Sanford, NC; Board of Directors, Triangle Land Conservancy; Board of Directors, Heart Center Board at Duke University Medical Center.
Frank Bracken – Former Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior. Currently with Ball Associates, Indianapolis. Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Ball State University, Director of the Ball State University Foundation, Chairman of the George and Frances Ball Foundation. Graduate of University of Michigan and Harvard School of Business.
Paul W. Bryant, Jr. – President of Greene Group, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a privately held holding company; trustee, The University of Alabama System; director, Alabama Heritage Foundation; trustee, Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia.
Childs Frick Burden – Director of Security Storage Company of Washington, director of Middleburg Financial Corporation, and partner with the Secor Group. Committed to volunteer service for historic preservation, he is currently the director of the following associations: Mont Zion Church Preservation Association, John Singleton Mosby Heritage Area Association, Loudoun Historical Society, Oatlands; A National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Frick Art and Historical Center in Pittsburgh. Mr. Burden received his BA from the University of Virginia and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). He resides in Middleburg, Virginia.
Carlton Crenshaw – Former Executive Vice President, Finance and CFO at Anteon International Corporation. During his service in the United States Marine Corps, he was the recipient of several medals including the Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. He is a member of the Marine Corps Association Board of Advisors and Chairman of the Audit Committee, a founder of the Marine Corps Heritage Museum, and a graduate of the New York University Graduate School of Business.
Beverly M. DuBose, III – Graduate of Washington and Lee University; President, The DuBose Companies – a real estate development and construction firm; Board of the Gettysburg National Museum Foundation, Tredegar National Civil War Center Foundation; Past Chair of the Board of the Atlanta Historical Society; Board of Trustees, Washington and Lee University. Assembled with his father what is regarded as the largest private collection of Civil War memorabilia now the basis for the exhibit "Turning Point" at the Atlanta History Center.
Claude P. Foster – Claude Foster is a United States Air Force veteran having served two years in Vietnam. For 27 years, he was employed by Electronic Data Systems (EDS), a Dallas-based computer services corporation, rising in the ranks to Division Vice President. Mr. Foster professes a lifelong strong personal interest in military history, spanning World War I, World War II, the French Revolution and particularly the Napoleonic Wars, but it was Ken Burns' Civil War series on PBS that sparked his interest in the Civil War. Upon retirement, Mr. Foster and his wife relocated from Dallas, Texas to Charlottesville, Virginia, a move motivated by his passion for the Civil War and battlefield preservation.
James S. Gilliland - Graduate of Vanderbilt University, Vanderbilt Law School; service, United States Navy; law practice at Gankler, Brown law firm, Memphis, and then General Counsel, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Present non-profit boards: Environmental Law Institute, Institute of Human Origins. Past non-profit board chairmanships: LeMoyne-Owen College; Memphis Arts Council; Liberty Bowl Association.
Michael Grainger – Graduate, University of Montevallo in Alabama. Michael Grainger retired in 2004 from the position of President and Chief Operating Officer of Ingram Micro Inc., the world's largest technology distributor. Prior to that, he was the company's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Earlier in his career, he held executive financial positions with two companies and served as a Certified Public Accountant with Price Waterhouse.
John D. Haynes – Graduate, University of Mississippi Law School; President, Farmers and Merchants Bank; Attorney, Haynes & Haynes, Attorneys at Law; Publisher, The Baldwyn News; Former member of the Mississippi House of Representatives; Executive Director, Brices Crossroads National Battlefield Commission, Inc. and Brices Crossroads Visitors Center.
O. James Lighthizer – President, Civil War Preservation Trust; former partner, Miles and Stockbridge; former Secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation, Anne Arundel County Executive, and member of the Maryland Legislature.
Jeffrey P. McClanathan – Jeff McClanathan is a partner with Gregory, Sharer and Stuart, CPAs, St. Petersburg, Florida. He serves on the following: Strategic Planning Committee of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; Chairman and Board of Trustees President for the HTR Foundation; Board of Trustees, Canterbury School of Florida; Board of Trustees, All Children's Hospital.
J. Alex McMillan – HIPP Professor of Business Administration, The Citadel; President, The McMillan Company; former Member of Congress; former CEO, Harris Teeter Supermarkets and CFO, Ruddick Corp.; graduate University of North Carolina and Darden School, University of Virginia. Boards: Tredegar National Civil War Center, Richmond, and The Concord Coalition, Washington.
Anne Miller – Graduate, Pennsylvania State University and Salisbury State University; Member of Salisbury University Foundation and Peninsula Regional Medical Center Foundation; Trustee of the Hallowell Foundation.
Libby O'Connell – Senior Vice President Corporate Outreach, Chief Historian, The History Channel; Graduate of Tufts University (BA) and the University of Virginia (MA, Ph.D. in American History); developed and oversees Save Our History, The History Channel's campaign for historic preservation and history education. Member, Mt. Vernon Scholars Committee; Board of Advisors, National Council for History Education.
Cricket Bauer Pohanka – Independent exhibit curator, researcher, writer, producer. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. BS degree, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. MS degree, University of Maryland, College Park. Former curator/registrar at the University of Maryland Costume Collection, the DAR Museum, and Gadsby's Tavern Museum in Alexandria, VA. Officer, Chantilly Battlefield Association. Member, 5th NY Duryee's Zouaves.
Jody Powell – Chairman and CEO of Powell Tate/Weber Shandwick, a public affairs firm in Washington, DC; graduate of Georgia State University; press secretary to Governor Jimmy Carter; press secretary to President Jimmy Carter; syndicated columnist (LA Times); news analyst (ABC News); author, The Other Side of the Story.
B. Charlene Price – Ms. Price is a Trustee of the Newark Museum in Newark, New Jersey, and is on the Visitors Board of Trustees of the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. Bunny is also a member of the DAR and the North New Jersey Civil War Roundtable, as well as various other local historical societies near her home in Far Hills, NJ.
J. Dennis Sexton – Former president and CEO, All Children's Health System, St. Petersburg, Florida; Past President, National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions; Chairman, Child Health Corporation of America; Trustee, HTR Foundation.
Jeff Shaara - Graduate, Florida State University. Bestselling author of several books. His books Gods and Generals and To the Last Man were awarded the American Library Association's prestigious "William Young Boyd Award" for excellence in military fiction.
Guy Miller Struve – A .B. Yale College 1963 (summa cum laude); LL.B. Harvard University 1966 (magna cum laude); Attorney Specializing in Litigation, Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York, New York; Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (Member, Lay Review Committee).
William W. Vodra – Secretary – Graduate of the College of Wooster (Ohio) and Columbia University School of Law; law practice as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in D.C., Assistant Chief Counsel for the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Associate Chief Counsel for Drugs to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Now Senior Partner, Arnold & Porter LLP.
L. Dudley Walker – Graduate, North Carolina State University, Textile Engineering; former chairman and CEO, Bassett-Walker, Inc.; former chairman, VF Knitwear; former director, VF Corporation and Crestar Financial Corporation; trustee, Virginia Historical Society; trustee, Carlisle School.
W. Denman Zirkle – Graduate, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Retired Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Reserve. Most recently chief executive officer of Carret and Company, a New York-based advisory firm sold in 2004. Previously affiliated with Lynch & Mayer, Inc. as senior vice president of marketing and Franklin Templeton Investments as executive vice president. Trustee of Randolph-Macon Woman's College.
Ron Cogswell – Assistant Secretary – COO of CWPT, following 23 years of service at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Originally from Chicago, Mr. Cogswell received a BA in political science from Grinnell College in Iowa, and a MA in public administration from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. Mr. Cogswell served in the U.S. Navy from 1969-1972.
CWPT's Advisory Board
CWPT also has an advisory board of nationally known scholars, preservationists, and elected leaders who are willing to lend their good names to our cause:
Daniel J. Beattie
Gabor Boritt
Dale Bumpers
William "Jack" C. Davis
Dennis E. Frye
Ernest B. Furgurson
Gary W. Gallagher
Richard Gilder
Slade Gorton
A. Wilson Greene
Winston Groom
J. Roderick Heller, III
Gary Joiner
Daniel P. Jordan
Frances Kennedy
Robert K. Krick
Trent Lott
Richard M. McMurry
James M. McPherson
Richard Moe
Roger Mudd
Carol Reardon
Gordon Rhea
James "Bud" I. Robertson, Jr.
Jefferson B. Sessions
J.E.B. Stuart, IV
Wiley Sword
Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr.
Don Troiani
Thomas W. Richards
Charles Valier
Jeffry D. Wert
Roger F. Wicker
Jay Winik
Terrence J. Winschel
R. Michael Yost