January 1, 2012

Three students from Cushing Academy (CA), a leading New England preparatory school founded in 1865, attended the 28th International Churchill Conference, which examined the leadership and legacy of Sir Winston Churchill.

Churchill Centre benefactor Kristen Kelly Fisher sponsored John Kelly ’13, Grady MacPhee ’13 and Nick Merrill ’13 for the trip to London, traveling along with faculty member Alec Coyle, Chairman of the History and Social Sciences Department of Cushing Academy.
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“The focus of this year’s conference was the ‘Special Relationship,'” said Coyle. “While the diplomatic, intelligence, defense and cultural ties across the Atlantic were naturally a point of focus, Churchill’s personal relationship with the US was also discussed. The state of the alliance between the US and UK are always a subject of worry on both sides of the Atlantic, but the participants pointed out that it is fundamentally sound and healthy.

“The conference was a great opportunity for the students and me to immerse ourselves in both a high-level academic and policy-making discussion of Churchill’s legacy today and an examination of the man. The students met and networked with many persons of renown and we were able to meet some of the great historians and thinkers in the fields of Churchill’s life and legacy as well as twentieth and twenty-first century political, diplomatic and military history.”

In addition to the conference, the group had the opportunity to partake in a whirlwind of sightseeing, visiting such sites as Westminster Abbey, Cabinet War Rooms, Windsor Castle, Blenheim Palace, 10 Downing Street, Tower Bridge, and the British Museum.

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Read what several of the students and their instructor had to say about the experience at the conference.


“The Churchill Conference provided us with an experience and insight we wouldn’t have had in the classroom. I learned things I wouldn’t have expected, such as Winston Churchill, the person, and specifically his sense of humor. It was so interesting to participate in this conference where everyone had a common interest in this part of history.”

“I loved meeting students from England and talking with them not only about the conference but about what it’s like in their schools. The trip to Windsor Castle was great โ€“ it was just so different from anything we’d have here in our country.”
“I’ve always been interested in history; I’m currently taking Ancient History and U.S. History.”

John Kelly
CA Junior (Class of 2013)
Harwich, Massachusetts

“At the conference, I learned that a good leader needs to have the charisma to motivate people to trust in them. The charisma that Winston Churchill had inspired the people of England during their biggest time of need, World War II, and made them believe that their nation would prevail as winners of World War II. Churchill gave the people of England hope during the war and without hope they would have surely lost.”

Nick Merrill
CA Junior (Class of 2013)
Fitchburg, Massachusetts

“I became keen on Churchill during my childhood as my interest in history deepened. To me, he was a combination of enviable virtues. He was intellectually and morally courageous, eloquent, and, occasionally belatedly, reflective and humble. He has also proven to be one of the most enjoyable persons to study, largely because of his essentially human qualities that perhaps make him more accessible than the titans with whom he bestrode the world and with whom he grappled for our destiny.

“Like many, I suppose, my initial interests focused on Churchill’s role as one of the sole voices in the 1930s warning the world of extremist threats, particularly a broken Germany being rearmed by the Nazis, and as the embodiment of resistance to totalitarian aggression from May 1940 onwards. As I grew older and became a more discerning student of history, I discovered his many other contributions to the Twentieth Century. Fundamentally, I saw and see him as one of the great defenders of civilization during its darkest age. For all his flaws he has remained, in my estimation, one of the great heroes of the English-speaking world and beyond.”

Alec Coyle
Chairman, Department of History and Social Sciences
Cushing Academy

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