Speaker Series

 

The 2025/2026 schedule is available here!

CWH YouTube Channel has previous programs available


 

Monthly Speaker Series 2025-25

Third Tuesday of the month   **   Free & open to the public!
RecPlex West Theater (Rec West)
965 Miamisburg Centerville  Rd.

 Reception 6:30 p.m.        Program 7:00 p.m.

Enjoy refreshments and historical education. 

Donations welcome and appreciated.

**NOTE -- Enter on the south side of the building using the east doors that are closest to the theater. Park between the Subaru dealership and the building for the shortest walk. You may also enter through the Joyce Young Center entrance and you will be directed to the theater.

September 16, 2025 Watch the presentation on YouTube
Kevin Rusnak

McCook Field: Dayton’s WWI Flying Field  

Dayton’s Wright Brothers invented and flew the first successful airplane in 1903 and sold the world’s first military version to the US Army in 1909, yet America entered World War I in 1917 without a single combat-ready plane, woefully behind all of Europe. To fix that problem, the Army Air Service hurriedly built the Engineering Division at McCook Field, a little and little-known base just across from downtown Dayton. McCook Field became the “Silicon Valley” for aviation technology, inventing, developing, or funding the development of nearly every aspect of the modern airplane. Their decisions on which airplanes to buy for the Army after the war helped build the companies that are the mainstays of the modern American aviation industry – and sank the ones that are now footnotes in history. In this presentation you’ll hear how McCook Field came to be, why it ended up in Dayton, how pervasive its influence was, and what happened to it in the end.

Kevin M. Rusnak has been the Chief Historian of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center History Offic at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base since January 2021. Mr. Rusnak graduated with a degree in History from the University of Dayton in 1995, then entered the History of Technology graduate program at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Mr. Rusnak has written extensively on the history of aviation and aerospace technology from the Wright Brothers to the space program to current and emerging Air Force systems, specializing in Dayton’s critical role in this field.  

October 21, 2025 Watch the presentation on YouTube

Andrew Walsh 
Dayton Triangles: The Football Team

Today, Dayton is a great sports town for college basketball, minor league baseball, and more, but having a team in one of the major professional leagues does not seem a realistic possibility. But Dayton will always have a special place in the history of the NFL, as it holds the distinction of hosting the very first league game back in 1920. In this presentation, Andrew Walsh will share the history of the Dayton Triangles, from its founding and connections to the University of Dayton (then St. Mary's College) and prominent Dayton industrialists, to the team's later years and what happened to the historic old stadium.

Andrew Walsh is an author, researcher, and librarian at Sinclair Community College. Andrew’s book Lost Dayton, Ohio, was published by The History Press in 2018. He writes about Dayton history and urban development on his website DaytonVistas.com, records videos on YouTube and social media, and gives presentations and walking tours locally.

 

November 18, 2025

Angie Hoschouer Berghuis
Legends, Symbols & Traditions of the Holiday Season

 

This presentation will explore the legends, symbols, and traditions of the holiday season and objects we see every day. Some stories may bring you joy and laughter, while others may bring peace and solace. 

 

Angie Hoschouer Berghuis is a historian, public speaker, and community volunteer. She serves on the executive committee for the Grafton Hill Neighborhood Association, is the Grafton Hill neighborhood liaison for Preservation Dayton, Inc., the marketing and media chair for Preservation Dayton, and is a founding and lifetime member of the Randolph Twp. Historical Society. She is also a member of the Heritage Committee at First Baptist Church of Dayton where she wrote a booklet for the church’s 200th anniversary.

 

January 20, 2026

Andrew Lloyd

Revolutionary War Soldiers in the Miami Valley

Their families originated from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and more. They fought in a cause that took them from New England to Virginia, the Southern Campaign of General Greene, and the battlefields that brought forth the United States of America. Veterans of Valley Forge, Brandywine, and Yorktown lie at rest in Montgomery County, a county named after General Montgomery of the Continental Army, and adjacent to Greene County, named after Continental General Nathaniel Greene. This talk looks at those veterans, their links to Montgomery County, Oakwood, and Centerville, and their roles in the war that changed the continent. It aims to provide context for the incredible sacrifices and achievements of those individuals and highlight anecdotes from their journey to Ohio. 

Andrew Lloyd retired from the Royal Air Force (34 yrs.) and held the position of Exchange Officer in the U.S. Air Force Sustainment Center. Colonel Lloyd now resides in Oakwood, OH. He has led many officer development tutorials on the battlefields of the Revolutionary War and Civil War, and helped found “Unsung Oakwood Heroes,” which promotes local residents whose impact affected positive world change.  

February 17, 2026 (Watch presentation on YouTube)
Ann Hagedorn

Sleeper Agent: The Atomic Spy in America Who Got Away

George Koval, an Iowa-born charmer who loved Walt Whitman, baseball, and science, studied at Columbia and City College of New York in the 1940s, but in truth he was a Soviet-trained intelligence officer. Gaining full U.S. security clearance at top-secret Manhattan Project sites, Koval, posing as a U.S. Army corporal, funneled vital nuclear secrets to Moscow through a Bronx-based handler, enabling the Soviets to build their atom bomb years ahead of U.S. expectations. His espionage went undetected until after he returned to the Soviet Union, where his achievements were known only to senior intelligence officials. His remarkable double life remained obscure until revealed in Sleeper Agent, an Edgar Award Finalist in 2022 praised by The Wall Street Journal as “a historical page-turner of the highest order.”

Ann Hagedorn is a former staff writer for the Wall Street Journal and an award-winning author of six previous narrative nonfiction books, including Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad and Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919, and is currently working on her seventh book. As an adjunct professor, she taught writing at Columbia, Northwestern, Xavier, and Miami Universities. After living in NYC for two decades, she now writes her books in a small town on the Ohio River that she discovered while researching Beyond the River.

 

March 17, 2026

Tom Gaudion

Roots: Cars Born in Dayton

Dayton’s involvement in the auto industry is far deeper than Edward Deeds, Charles Kettering, and the Barn Gang. Fifty-three different companies tried to make designing and building cars their business in the Miami Valley. Of course, parts manufacturing is still a vital part of the area’s economy, and some of those companies have very interesting stories. Explore the manufacturers who called Dayton home and some of the local people who were involved.

Tom Gaudion received a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue in 1974. That was when signs were going up near the Boeing plants in Seattle saying, “Would the last engineer in Seattle, please turn out the lights”. So, he took a nice safe job back in Dayton with Frigidaire’s automotive air conditioning group. He was laid off six months later, and ended up spending the rest of his career in aerospace. However, Tom never lost his curiosity about cars and Dayton’s involvement in their production.

 

April 21, 2026

Ryan Riffle

History of Fairborn after the 1913 Dayton Flood

 

May 19, 2026

Lucinda Davies

Hidden in Plain Sight: The WAVES Who Helped Win the War (and Why Dayton Matters) 

 

 

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September 17, 2024 Watch the presentation on YouTube
Angie Hoschouer Berghuis
 Patterson, Kettering, Cox and Wright Brothers: The drive & passions of Dayton's most eccentric men


October 15, 2024  Watch this presentation on YouTube
Sara Kaushal 
Dayton Ghosts & Legends

November 19, 2024 Watch the presentation on YouTube
Ken Serey
What’s the Story: Soldiers War Memories!

 
 January 21, 2025 Watch the presentation on YouTube

Andrew Lloyd

Joe Desch – WWII Codebreaker – Oakwood’s Unsung Hero
February 18, 2025    Watch the presentation on YouTube
Mike Williams
The Rise & Fall of George Remus, America’s First Millionaire Bootlegger
March 18, 2025  Watch the presentation on YouTube
Jim Charters
1913 Dayton Flood

 

April 15, 2025

Don Aukerman
Discovering the Industrial Town of Woodbourne

 

May 20, 2025 Watch the presentation on YouTube

Hylda Strange
Ohio's Awesome Women

 


Previous Presentations available on YouTube:

 Enjoy videos of our 2020/2021 speakers on YouTube