I have given many talks across the state over the years. My research into the early German pioneers has led to a close familiarity with the primary source materials that deal with their lives and works. With the release of my Vietnam memoir, co-authored by my war buddy and life-long friend, Bill Clamurro, I have now received several invitations to speak on the subject of conscientious objection and the Vietnam War. Bill and I had a wonderful launch to our book on June 7, 2023, at the Bob Bullock Museum in Austin. It was nicely attended and has led to several other invitations to speak, including a radio interview with Thorne Dreyer on KOOP 91.7 (Austin) and a Zoom presentation for the University of Texas College of Liberal Arts Book Club hosted by Andy Oppenheimer.
List of Talks over the past few years, beginning with the latest:
July 29, 2023. June 22, 2023. Columbus, TX, Nesbitt Memorial Library, “Inside the Texas Revolution: The Enigmatic Memoir of Herman Ehrenberg”
July 20, 2023. Columbus, TX, Nesbitt Memorial Library, “Duty to Serve, Duty to Conscience: The Story of Two Conscientious Objector Combat medics in Vietnam.”
July 10, 2023. Zoom interview and talk with Dan Oppenheimer of UT College of Liberal Arts Book Club about Vietnam memoir, “Duty to Serve, Duty to Conscience: The Story of Two Conscientious Objector Combat medics in Vietnam.”
June 10, 2023. Radio interview with Thorner Dreyer of Rag Radio on KOOP 91.7.”Duty to Serve, Duty to Conscience: The Story of Two Conscientious Objector Combat medics in Vietnam.”
June 7, 2023. Bob Bullock Museum, Austin, TX, with Bill Clamurro, “Duty to Serve, Duty to Conscience: The Story of Two Conscientious Objector Combat medics in Vietnam.”
June 2, 2023. Fredericksburg (Cherry Springs), Guardian Society of Gillespie County Historical Society, “John Meusebach”
April 15, 2023. San Jacinto Symposium, San Jacinto Junior College, “Germans in the Texas Revolution”
April 2023. UT OLLI FORUM Group, Thomson Center, University of Texas at Austin, “Germans in DeWitt County.”
October 2022. Kleberg, von Roeder Family Reunion, Kleberg Heritage center, Kingsville, TX, C.A. Waltersdorf’s History of DeWitt County and the Kleberg, von Roeder contribution to the development of the county.”
March 2021. Texas State Historical Association Convention, Session leader and presenter: “The Adelsverein in Texas”
March 2020. Texas State Historical Association Convention, Session leader and presenter, “Germans and Comanches in Texas”
Fall 2019. UT OLLI FORUM, Thomson Center, University of Texas at Austin, “Texas Germans and Education”
Fall 2019. UT OLLI FORUM, Thomson Center, University of Texas at Austin, “The German Influence on Texas.”
Spring 2018. UT OLLI FORUM, Thomson Center, University of Texas at Austin, “Adelsverein”
June 2018. Sack-Ploeger family Reunion, Round Top, Tx. “Caspar Conrad Rordorf, Forgotten Swiss-German Artist of the Texas Frontier.”
March 22, 2018. Fredericksburg, TX, Pioneer Museum. “Adelsverein Endgame in Texas: 1847-1855.”
Houston, TX, Houston-Leipzig Sister City Partnership, “Die Lateiner am Possum Creek by W.A. Trenckmann”
December 10, 2017. Fayetteville, TX, Rural Arts Alliance. “Stafford-Townsend Feud of Colorado County.”
August 5, 2017. Houston, TX, Houston-Leipzig Sister City Partnership. “Die Lateiner am Possum Creek by W.A. Trenckmann”
May 6, 2017. Fayetteville, TX, Rural Arts Alliance, “Stafford/Townsend feud”
April 27, 2017. Fredericksburg, TX, Texas Ranger Museum, “Stafford/Townsend feud”
Talks prior to 2017
Millheim, TX, Engelking Family Reunion.
Austin, TX, UT OLLI FORUM, Thompson Convention Center, University of Texas at Austin, “Stafford/Townsend feud”
Columbus, TX, Nesbitt Memorial Library, “Stafford/Townsend feud”
Columbus, TX, UDC talk, “Stafford/Townsend feud”
Luling, TX, Caldwell County Historical and Genealogical Society, “The Stafford/Townsend Feud of Colorado County”
Round Top, TX, Sack/von Roeder Family reunion, “Von Roeder Family in Texas History”
Nacogdoches, East Texas Historical Association, “Stafford-Townsend Feud of Colorado County”
San Antonio, Society of German American Studies Convention. “Friedrich Armand Strubberg and the education of Germans about Texas”
Clifton, Texas. The Legacy of Cleng Peerson. A Conference in Connection with the 150th Anniversary of the Death of Cleng Peerson (1783-1865) “Patterns of German Immigration to Texas and migration within Texas in the late 19th Century”
Austin, Texas. German-Texan Heritage Society Convention. “Detlef Dunt’s Journey to Texas in 1833.”
Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus, TX. “Detlef Dunt’s Journey to Texas in 1833; First Book Published in Germany about Texas.”
East Texas Historical Association Spring Meeting, Moderator for session on “Women in Texas History”
Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting, Corpus Christi, Texas, “ Patterns of German Immigration in Texas in the 19th Century.”
Bob Bullock Museum, Austin, TX “Medevac in Vietnam: A personal perspective.”
Goethe Center, Dallas, TX “Adelsverein in Texas.”
Blanton Museum, University of Texas, Austin, TX “German Culture in the Texas Hill Country”
Festival Hill Symposium, Round Top, TX “German Frontier Architecture in Relationship to Primary Source Materials”
German Texan Heritage Society, Winedale, TX “Nassau Plantation Stories”
German Texan Heritage Society, Winedale, TX, “German Freidenker in Texas”
Round Top Historical Society, Round Top, TX “Nassau Plantation”
Symposium on the Vietnam Experience, University of Houston, Victoria Branch, Victoria, TX “The Evolution of Medevac during the Vietnam War”
Gillespie County Historical Association, Fredericksburg, TX, “Observations on the SPGET”
Department of Germanic Languages, University of Texas at Austin, “The Society for the Protection of German Emigrants in Texas; Fact and Fiction”
Books in the Basin, Meet the Authors, Odessa, TX, “From Thucydides to Texas”
East Texas Historical Society Annual Meeting, “Double Jeopardy: Served in WWII; Recalled in Korea”
German Free School, Austin, TX, “Friedrichsburg by Friedrich Armand Strubberg”
Comfort Heritage Foundation, 150th Commemoration of the Battle of the Nueces, Comfort, TX, “The Battle of the Nueces in Historical Context”
Texas German Society Meeting, Victoria, TX, “Nassau Plantation and Fredericksburg, TX”
German-Texan Heritage Society Convention, New Braunfels, TX, (1) “Louis Cachand Ervendberg; Pastor, Educator, Naturalist” (2) “Friedrich von Wrede, Sr: From Waterloo to Texas”
Texas German Society Meeting, Katy Texas, “Nassau Plantation and Fredericksburg, TX”
Nesbitt Memorial Library Author Series, Columbus, TX, “Friedrichsburg by Friedrich Armand Strubberg”
Gillespie County Historical Society Ist Annual Meusebach Lecture Series, Fredericksburg, TX, “Louis Cachand Ervendberg’s treatise on the Agricultural Prospects of West Texas”
West Texas Historical Association Annual Convention, San Angelo, TX, “The Delaware Indians of Texas”
Daughters of the Republic of Texas, New Braunfels, TX, “Nassau Plantation and Fredericksburg; How one Thing Leads to Another”
Weimar Book Club, Weimar, TX, “Nassau Plantation”
The Civil War in Texas: Changing Interpretations after 150 Years, Sponsored by Victoria College/University of Houston, Victoria, TX, “German Loyalties; Contrast and Reconciliation: Jacob Küchler and William von Rosenberg”
East Texas Historical Association Convention, Nacogdoches, TX, “Sam Houston: The Father of German Immigration in Texas”
“Using Texas German History in the German Classroom.” Presentation at the Texas Foreign Language Association Convention. San Antonio, TX.
“German Perceptions of Texas in the 19th Century as shaped by Friedrich Armand Strubberg and Detlev Dunt.” Southwestern Historical Association Annual Meeting in Dallas, TX. Dr. James Crisp of the University of North Carolina, moderator
“Double Jeopardy: Served in WW II; Recalled for the Korean Conflict.” Symposium on the Korean War at Victoria College organized by Dr. James Smallwood and Charles Spurlin. Hosted by Jim Lehrer of PBS.
jamesckearney.com 