Hitting the books

Jacquelyn Beauregard Dillman sleeps with her books.

Her husband isn’t far away either, but her books are always within

arm’s reach.

“I can’t live long enough to read all the books I want to read,”

she said. “They’re like babies to me.”

Dillman is involved in the right volunteer business to serve one

of her greatest passions, foremost of which is her co-chairing of the

Distinguished Speakers Lecture Series at Newport Beach Central

Library along with Walt Howald. When she isn’t working on landing a

lecturer or preparing for an upcoming one, she still finds excuses to

show up at the library -- she and a small group of women lead a free

book discussion group at 9:15 a.m. every second Wednesday of the

month.

This year’s series is in midseason, with two speakers down and two

to go, the next being Gen. Anthony Zinni’s “The American Military:

Readiness, War and Peacekeeping” on April 16 and 17.

A veteran of the academic life -- having attended 13 schools in 18 years -- Dillman helped start the Distinguished Speakers Lecture

Series seven years ago, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down.

She spent an afternoon talking about the series’ past, present and

future with Pilot Assistant City Editor Mike Swanson. She had a

canvas bag full of books by her side, or “my security blanket,” as

she called it.

Did it take a while to get the ball rolling when the series

started, or were people really into it right from the get-go?

We started off with quite a bang. In our first year, the big

speaker was George Plimpton -- he was the big headliner, and the next

year we had Andy Rooney. We’ve had some really outstanding speakers

in the sciences as well as the cultural realm, and, of course,

literature and foreign policy. This year, we’re mostly concentrating

on things that will be more applicable in an election year. The

economy was our first lecture, with Lori Wallach, and she talked

about the World Trade Organization. We didn’t have the attendance we

would have liked, because it’s a heavy subject, but people who did

come really liked it, because they’d known nothing about it. This

month we had Bruce Babbitt on the environment, and in April we’ll

have Gen. Anthony Zinni, and he’ll talk on the American military,

war, peacekeeping, and military preparedness, readiness, which

obviously is a crucial topic today. And then the last speaker is

Nancy Soderberg, a former U.N. ambassador, and she’ll talk on the

United Nations. It’s very exciting. It’s exciting to find the topics

and then see who we can get as speakers.

How do you go about selecting the speakers each season?

Generally, I look at getting the speakers from a topic viewpoint

first, and then seeing who I can find that will fit the bill. It

would be, ‘Are they available, can we afford them, and then what is

their real expertise?

How do you decide upon the theme to be used each season?

We discuss it all as a committee and try to keep our finger on the

pulse of what’s going on. The key thing is to be timely and to

engender debate. We try to make the thing lively and turn the library

into an intellectual hub, but really to bring debate among people in

the room. Sometimes we get questions that are so good we can see the

sparks flying in the room, and that’s always fun.

Which speaker over the last seven years has drawn the largest

attendance?

Oh, Tom Brokaw. Then Steven Jay Gould, people really came out for

him. My bonus is that I get to spend time with the speakers because

I’m also their date for the weekend. After the first couple years of

doing the lecture series, at [founding underwriter] Jene Witte’s

suggestion, I approached the high school and asked if they would

volunteer to bring the speaker over to mentor the students, and it

was wonderful because I got all these great people from the library

to Newport Harbor High School. At noon on Saturday, when everybody

could be at the beach, we’ve got kids sitting in the classroom. The

students come for free, I drive them over there for free, the speaker

talks for free and the teachers set it up for free, so it’s win-win

all the way around.

How do you go about convincing some of the higher-profile speakers

like Brokaw and Plimpton to participate?

Well, Brokaw actually came because a person who originally worked

on the committee, Jim Wood, was a personal friend, and also, Brokaw’s

mom lives down here. When I’m trying to get the speakers, the first

thing I do is look at the topic, and then I think about the budget

and what ballpark we can afford. I mean, obviously, I know I can’t

get Margaret Thatcher to come. I can’t afford her, so then I try to

decide who we can afford. Then I try to make personal contact.

Usually they have an agent. Sometimes, they’ll do it outside the

agency -- which they’re really not supposed to do -- but sometimes

they will. They’ll say, ‘Oh well, it’s the library, it’s nonprofit,

why not? If it’s a corporation, it might be different, but why not?’

Do you ever feel intimidated being around some of the finest minds

in their respective fields?

Not at all. You realize that all these people have foibles too,

and there’s nothing to be intimidated by. I certainly don’t feel

intimidated by people of their stature, and there’s really no reason

for anybody to be.

If you have a topic all set for the season, do you ever make an

exception because you have a speaker that serves as too good an

opportunity to miss?

Of course. If somebody drops in our lap, we change the topic,

absolutely. With Mr. Brokaw, we didn’t pick the topic, we picked him.

But I like to try to balance it out, to have a scientific lecture

every year or two. We’ve had some very interesting lectures on

virology and the transmitting of infectious diseases around the world

by various viruses, and it was two years before SARS. And then we’ve

had Sylvia Earle, who was the top-notch oceanographer. Her adventures

in the sea floor were remarkable.

Any ideas on what you’d like to do next year?

I think it’d be great if we had somebody to speak on

Constitutional law. I tried to get Justice Robert Bork for several

years, because I think that, especially now, when we have the

potential for a gay marriage amendment, it’d be really good to really

review the Constitution, look at it, and discuss the process within

it and the various elements that relate to state Constitutions as

well.

Of all the lectures you’ve heard, which have you personally

enjoyed the most?

Oh, that’s tough, because I go to all of them. Friday night’s

often sort of like a rehearsal for the speaker, then by Saturday

afternoon, after they’ve gone to the high school, where they’ve

mentored students, the speaker’s been jazzed up by interacting with

them -- their egos really get stroked when you do that -- and then

they’re fired up for the lecture. But my favorite speaker, oh gosh,

that’s like asking me about my favorite book. Steven Jay Gould was

really very good, on evolution, [former White House advisor] David

Gergen was real good -- he worked the room like a professional. He

went around and shook every hand there. I’ve never seen anybody work

the room better than David Gergen. I would say [Pulitzer

Prize-winning author] David Halberstam was probably my favorite,

though. He was probably my favorite because he actually relaxed and

enjoyed being here. When he left, he said, ‘I had such a good time,’

and I could tell he really meant it. He stayed in the library till

after 11 o’clock on Friday night. A lot of the speakers, you know,

they’re ready to go back to their hotel room, but he just had a

wonderful time and didn’t want it to end ... He was so relaxed,

sincere and interested in everyone.

Speaking of favorite books, care to name some favorites?

I love “Correlli’s Mandolin” by Louis De Bernieres, fiction about

life on the Greek island of Cephallonia during World War II. Also,

anything by Vladimir Nabokov, especially his memoir, “Speak Memory”

-- his words are so beautiful that one wants to read him aloud.

Whenever I read him, I learn new words. I’m a very well-read woman,

but I always learn new words when I read Nabokov.... But I read more

nonfiction than I do fiction.

Have you had any speakers that surprised you from a negative

standpoint, that maybe didn’t work out how you would have liked?

Well, I would have liked to have more people at our first lecture

this year. We suffered from a lack of publicity, I think, for Lori

Wallach this year. Her lecture was really a highly significant one,

and maybe it was dry as dust, I don’t know, but we didn’t get the

turnout I would have liked for that. The people who did come,

however, were stunned by what they learned about global governance

and other important World Trade Organization issues.

What did you do for a living before taking on so many volunteer

duties?

I coordinated clinical research trials using biotherapy. I worked

at UCSD and Scripps Clinic. It was exciting. It was all high-end, on

the cutting edge, experimental clinical therapy. I was one of the few

people in the nursing profession who had any knowledge of immunology,

because I’d worked in a lab at Scripps Clinic while I was in nursing

school. So I went around the country teaching immunology to people

through lecturing. I love immunology. I think it’s one of the most

fascinating sciences in the world, to really understand how your body

protects itself on all these different levels and how the cells

behave.

What’s the most important thing about the series for you?

That it provides real public dialogue, which I believe is missing

from American society today. Our news is canned and in sound bites;

talking heads on TV. I would love to have actual debates, like

Lincoln-Douglas debates, two people with opposing views and let them

create great discussion.