Speakers Bios
Bob Bachman
Bob Bachman has served as Secretary, Vice President, and President of the Montgomery History Board of Directors and currently serves as Chair of the Mary Kay Harper Center for Suburban Studies Steering Committee. He received his MA in American Studies from George Washington University where his research focused on U.S. suburbanization. Bob has presented at the Montgomery County History Conference and curated three online exhibits on the suburbanization of Montgomery County in the 1950s that can be accessed on the Montgomery History website.
Ralph Buglass
Ralph Buglass, a Montgomery County native and avid history buff, has taught at lifelong learning institutes associated with Johns Hopkins and American Universities and Montgomery College. He speaks frequently to community groups, businesses, and other organizations as well as at national conferences. In 2020, with Peerless Rockville, he co-authored Images of America: Rockville, a pictorial history of the city’s 250 years. A retired communications professional, he is a graduate of Winston Churchill High School and has a B.A. in American history from Cornell and an M.A. in journalism from American University.
Emily Correll
Emily Correll is a former reference librarian with a BA in History from Birmingham-Southern College and an MSLS and an MA in History from the University of North Carolina. She was the School Program Coordinator for the Montgomery County Historical Society from 1994-2010 and was instrumental in getting Montgomery County History Day started. She still volunteers with Montgomery History and, like her lecture subject Dora Higgins, is a member of Christ Episcopal Church in Rockville where she helps with the English Conversation Class.
Katie Dishman
Katie Dishman has been the corporate archivist at Marriott International since December 2015. Prior to moving to Maryland, she was an archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration in Chicago. She was also a corporate archivist at General Mills, Anheuser-Busch, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. She has a Master of Arts in Public History and a Master of Library and Information Science and is a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists.
Jeanne Gartner
Jeanne Gartner is a third-generation co-owner of the former Reed Brothers Dodge in Rockville. Lewis Reed, the founder of Reed Brothers Dodge, was her grandfather. She served in The United States Air Force Band in Washington, D.C. for 30 years before retiring in July 2006. She was the recipient of the 2016 Arthur M. Wagman Award for Historic Preservation Communication from Peerless Rockville for documenting the history of Reed Brothers Dodge in blog and book format. You can read more on her blog here. Jeanne co-curated the online exhibit, “Montgomery County, 1900-1930: Through the Lens of Lewis Reed“ that launched on January 7, 2020.
Sarah Hedlund
Sarah Hedlund holds a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Maryland with a specialization in archives and digital curation. She joined the staff at Montgomery History in the fall of 2016 as Archivist for the Montgomery County Archives, later adding the title of Librarian and Archivist for the Jane C. Sween Research Library and Special Collections in 2017. She has worked as a contract archivist, as as a graduate assistant archivist for the University of Maryland, and as an intern at the Archives Center in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Acting as both archivist and researcher, she has authored several articles published in the Montgomery County Story (Montgomery History’s bi-annual journal) on the three lynchings in Montgomery County and on the 75-year history of the Montgomery County Historical Society. Since 2018 she has been a frequent speaker for Montgomery History’s programs, including History Conference, History Conversations, and Speakers Bureau engagements throughout the community.
Sandra Heiler
Sandra Heiler is Treasurer of Montgomery Preservation, Inc. (MPI), and a former member of the Board of Preservation Maryland. She is a Chapter Historian for the DAR and the Daughters of 1812. Sandra served for 13 years on Montgomery County’s Historic Preservation Commission, including three years as Vice Chair and three as Chair. In 2014, she directed Brookeville’s War of 1812 Bicentennial celebration
and co-produced the movie “Capital for a Day.” She co-produces and directs movies and
slideshows for MPI’s annual Historic Preservation Awards. Sandra has a BA in Mathematics and
an MA in American Studies and Architectural History from Boston University. After a 38-year
career as a computer science researcher, she retired from Verizon Laboratories as Principal
Scientist and Director of Verizon’s IT Lab.
Clarence Hickey
Clarence Hickey is an interpretive docent with the Montgomery History’s Stonestreet Museum of 19th Century Medicine in Rockville, MD, and a re-enactor with the Speakers Bureau. He portrays historic Rockville physician Dr. Edward E. Stonestreet, who practiced medicine for 51 years (1852-1903) and was a Civil War Surgeon with the U.S. Army. Clarence’s living history portrayals, some in first person Chautauqua format, discuss the Doctor’s life and times, medical education, medical practice, and Civil War service; 19th-century medicine; and Civil War medicine and its effects on civilian medical practice. The Chautauqua format includes a first-person appearance and presentation by Dr. Stonestreet (in 19th-century attire), question and answer by the doctor in the 1800s, and question and answer by Clarence, stepping out of character. The performance draws from Clarence’s book Send For the Doctor: The Life and times of Dr. Edward E. Stonestreet, published by the Montgomery County Historical Society in 2009.
Don Housley
Don Housley retired in July 2005 after 36 years teaching U.S. history and serving the last 25 years of his teaching career as chairman of the Social Studies Department at Wheaton High School in Montgomery County, Maryland. Since retiring he has volunteered at the Office of Archaeology for Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (Montgomery County). Don also serves as president of the Mid-Potomac Chapter of the Archeological Society of Maryland.
James H. Johnston
Jim Johnston is a lawyer, writer, and lecturer in Bethesda. He has been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, White House History Magazine, Howard University Law Journal, Maryland History Magazine, and many others. He has written four books: The Recollections of Margaret Cabell Brown Loughborough, A Southern Woman’s Memories of Richmond, VA, and Washington, DC, during the Civil War (Hamilton Books, 2009); From Slave Ship to Harvard, Yarrow Mamout and the History of an African American Family (Fordham University, Press 2012); The War Story of Harold Johnston (Amazon, 2017); and, Murder, Inc.,The CIA under John F. Kennedy (University of Nebraska Press, 2020).
Patrick Lacefield
Patrick Lacefield is a Civil War reenactor who shares songs and stories from the War Between the States, wearing both blue and gray, accompanying himself on guitar. His maternal great-great-grandfather served in the Arkansas State Legislature during “independence” and his sons fought with the Arkansas cavalry. On his father’s side, Patrick’s ancestors served in the Tennessee and Kentucky infantries. He participated in the filming of the motion picture Gods & Generals, portraying a soldier from the 20th Maine Regiment. He is a native of Arkansas who grew up in Missouri. Patrick served as Montgomery County Director of Public Information and spokesman for County Executive Ike Leggett for 12 years, in addition to working as Press Secretary and Speechwriter for Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California, and as National Director of Democratic Socialists of America.
Steve LaRocque
Steve LaRocque is a retired Navy cryptologic officer, having served twenty-nine years on active duty. Living in Bethesda, where he settled in 1993 after ten Navy tours (four of them overseas), he participated in professional and community theaters for 26 years as an actor, director, and playwright. He continues performing for the Speakers Bureau in his one-man show, Byline: Ernie Pyle. Steve has written numerous scripts featuring historical figures, including Susan B. Anthony, Frances Perkins, Eleanor Roosevelt, Dorothy Day, and the foreign language interpreters at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. He is currently working on a script about Mary Katherine Goddard, of Baltimore, who produced the first printed version of the Declaration of Independence to include the names of all signers.
Henry D. “Hank” Levine
Hank Levine is a founder, and the Secretary of, the Bethesda Historical Society. A resident of Bethesda for 40 years, he has been involved in initiatives ranging from leading history walking tours of downtown Bethesda to speaking on-line and in person on the history of Bethesda, coordinating BHS’s Bethesda Heritage Trail project, and leading the Society’s efforts to preserve and restore the Bethesda Meeting House, aka “the Church that Named Bethesda.” A retired lawyer, Hank is also the President of the largest non-profit Jewish cemetery in the DMV region and a docent at the Library of Congress, where he conducts tours for visitors to our National Library.
Karen Yaffe Lottes
Karen Yaffe Lottes is a historian and museum educator. She worked for many years as Education Director for the Montgomery County Historical Society and is currently a museum consultant. She has developed site-specific and county-wide local history programs, including “In Search of Ghosts,” one of the first history-based Halloween programs in the Washington, D.C. area. In Search of Maryland Ghosts: Montgomery County is Karen’s first book, although she has published extensively on the history of Montgomery County, MD in MCHS publications as well as in local newspapers. She lives in historic Washington Grove, MD with her family and several furry companions.
Julianne Mangin
Julianne Mangin is an independent researcher, writer, family historian, and cemetery preservation advocate. She is a retired librarian who worked as a website developer at the Library of Congress from 1998 to 2011. Prior to that, she worked at the National Agricultural Library from 1984 to 1997. She holds a Masters degree in Library Science from Catholic University. Ms. Mangin gives talks on the history of the Aspin Hill Pet Cemetery; the Woman’s Commonwealth of Washington, a feminist commune in Colesville; and Will Adams, the fiddler of Ken-Gar.
Eileen McGuckian
Eileen McGuckian is an historian, author, and recognized leader in historic preservation at the local, regional, and state levels. A founder and past president of Peerless Rockville, her 2001 book, Rockville: Portrait of a City, chronicles the history of her adopted home town. Other publications include The Sesquicentennial of Rockville: Local Government at 150 Years (2010) and narratives about the Rockville Pike, County churches and cemeteries, and Rockville in the 1920s. Her experience in history and preservation spans four decades with Rockville and County historic commissions, the Maryland Historical Trust, and nonprofits such as Montgomery Preservation, Peerless Rockville, Coalition to Protect MD Burial Sites, and Higgins Cemetery Association. Eileen’s current passion focuses on historic burial sites.
Lorraine Dutcher Minor
Lorraine Dutcher Minor has been doing genealogical research for over 30 years and continues to learn as new resources and techniques emerge in the field. She is an officer in the Montgomery County Genealogical Society and volunteers at the Washington DC Family Search Center in Kensington, MD where she leads the Beginners Special Interest Group. She teaches classes and speaks locally on basic genealogical subjects to help others who are researching their families.
Robert Plumb
Robert Plumb is a resident of Montgomery County, Maryland and a long-time member of the
Historical Society and its Speakers Bureau. After a career with GE and Fannie Mae, he wrote
Your Brother in Arms: A Union Soldier’s Odyssey. Published by the University of Missouri Press
in 2011, it was released again in 2013 in softcover format. His current work, The Better Angels,
was published by Potomac Books, an imprint of The University of Nebraska Press, on March 1,
2020. A second edition, in paperback, was released in September 2022. Plumb’s writing has
appeared in The Montgomery County Story, Hallowed Ground, the magazine of the American
Battlefield Trust, and the Washington Post, and Washington Post Magazine. He holds a BA in
history from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an MA from the Newhouse School
at Syracuse University. From 2014 to 2017 and in 2019 and in 2022 he attended the Yale
University Summer Writers’ Workshop in residence. He is a member of the Montgomery
County Civil War Round Table, the Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia, and the
Society of Civil War Historians.
Judith Welles
Judith (Judy) Welles is a writer and former journalist who has authored local history books about the area in which she lives including Cabin John: Legends and Life of an Uncommon Place and Lilly Stone. She also wrote a worklife e-book for Kindle, Get a Life, Try This! Judy was media relations manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM and a speechwriter for U.S. Cabinet members. She has chaired Montgomery County’s Commission on Aging, been a Board member of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Trust for the national park, and is a speaker for Montgomery History.