In the Beginning: Washington and the Birth of American Political Parties

Richard G. Jewell J.D.

March 12, 2013 - 12:00 - 12:50 p.m.

The Rivers Club, Pittsburgh

We’re fond of calling George Washington the “Father of Our Country,” but he was a reluctant father in light of his real reticence to stand for president. Our nation’s first two elections were relatively peaceful affairs. And that’s what Washington preferred – he didn’t like the idea of political parties. So how did the parties arise even though America’s patriarch thought it to be a bad idea? Join us for the March 12, 2013, American Founders Luncheon at Pittsburgh’s Rivers Club to hear Grove City College President Richard G. Jewell, JD, discuss “In the Beginning: Washington and the Birth of American Political Parties.” We think today’s elections can be nasty, but they hardly rival the vicious election of 1800 between John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Aaron Burr or the political acrimony leading to the dueling deaths of Alexander Hamilton and his son. To register for this lively talk, please contact Mrs. Brenda Vinton at blvinton@gcc.edu or 724.450.1541. And, please bring a friend. The cost of lunch is $17.76.

Pittsburgh lawyer and businessman Richard G. Jewell is a 1967 Grove City College graduate and a 1973 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. In the fall of 2003, he left his Pittsburgh position as a director of the Chicago-based Navigant Consulting, Inc., the nation’s largest forensic accounting firm, to assume the presidency of his undergraduate alma mater, Grove City College.

Before joining Navigant, Jewell had been a partner and vice president of its predecessor, Peterson Consulting, LLC. Prior to that time, he served as executive vice president of the University of Pittsburgh Trust, the holding entity for five of the university’s applied research companies. He was also a senior administrator in applied research at the University of Pittsburgh, and served as a member of the university’s senior management council and president of Pittsburgh Applied Research Corporation, the for-profit operating company of the one-million-square-foot University of Pittsburgh Applied Research Center in Harmarville, Pa. For 10 years prior to that time, he was General Corporate Attorney for Harbison-Walker Refractories, a Division of Dresser Industries, Inc. His initial law work was in litigation for the Pittsburgh law firm of Wayman, Irvin, Trushel & McAuley.

Jewell is a U.S. Army veteran from 1969-71, serving primarily with the Army’s Third Armored Cavalry Regiment.