Leaders of the Civil War Preservation Trust
Theodore Sedgwick and President O. James Lighthizer
Theodore Sedgwick
Chairman, CWPT
At the April 20, 2006 meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Civil War Preservation Trust, Theodore Sedgwick was named to succeed James S. Gilliland as the Trust's new Chairman of the organization.
Tod Sedgwick is president of Sedgwick Publishing Co., a newsletter publishing company that publishes narrow-niche publications in areas ranging from mailing industry to bird hunting. Sedgwick had previously started Io Energy LLC, which was sold to SNL Corp. of Charlottesville, Va., in 2004, and Pasha Publications, which was sold to the Financial Times of London in 1998. Io Energy and Pasha Publications specialized in the fields of energy, environment, aerospace and defense. Sedgwick is also president of Red Hills Lumber Co., a producer of heart pine flooring in Thomasville, Ga.
Tod's wife, Kate, has taught health in high school and is currently a student at the Harvard School of Public Health in Cambridge, Mass. Tod and Kate have two children -- Eliza Brunson, who lives in Nashville and has produced a granddaughter, Abby; and Caroline, who is a sophomore at Harvard majoring in French studies. The Sedgwicks live in the Georgetown neighborhood of DC.
Sedgwick is on the board of Atlantic Information Services, a publisher of health care newsletters; Inside Higher Ed, a startup electronic service for the higher education market; and Washington Business Information Services, publisher of newsletters in the pharmaceutical field. He also is chairman of the Civil War Preservation Trust, and serves on the boards of the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Wetlands America Trust (affiliated with Ducks Unlimited), College Year in Athens, and the Gennadius Library of Athens, Greece.
Sedgwick's hobbies are bird hunting, tennis, piano and collecting antiquarian books.
O. JAMES LIGHTHIZER
President, CWPT
Jim's years of public service began in 1979 when he was elected to the Maryland State Legislature. In 1982, he was elected to the first of two terms as Anne Arundel County Executive, where he successfully managed a full-service budget in excess of $800 million. During his tenure as county executive, he established a county farmland protection program preserving over 2,500 acres. He also embarked on an aggressive waterfront park acquisition effort resulting in the purchase of over 900 acres and 7 miles of waterfront in the county. In 1986, he was reelected, with 80 percent of the vote.
In 1991, Jim was appointed as Maryland's Secretary of Transportation. Jim created an unprecedented program that to date has saved more than 4,500 acres of Civil War battlefield land in Maryland and is the national model for the use of Transportation Enhancement funds for battlefield preservation. During his term as Chairman of the Governor's Greenways Committee in Maryland, Jim created Greenways throughout Maryland.
In December 1999, Jim accepted the presidency of the Civil War Preservation Trust, a new organization created by the merger of two other national battlefield preservation groups, the Civil War Trust and the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites. Jim had previously served as a member of the Civil War Trust's Board of Trustees.
When Jim took the reins at the Civil War Preservation Trust in November 1999, the fledgling organization had 22,000 members and its predecessor organizations had saved 7,000 acres in the previous 13 years. During Jim's tenure as President of the Trust, the group has saved more than 18,000 additional acres, and now boasts 70,000 members nationwide. Jim was also the architect of the rescue of the Slaughter Pen Farm on the Fredericksburg Battlefield the most expensive private battlefield preservation effort in American history.
In a January 2003 Washington Post article, Linda Wheeler wrote: "Jim Lighthizer knows about saving battlefields. As president of the Civil War Preservation Trust, he is devoted to the cause and has learned that a passion for history is not enough. When it gets down to land, it's all about money,' he said. "There is nothing else to it. Good intentions in land preservation are just that. They get you nowhere.'"
In an April 2005 National Geographic article, Adam Goodheart wrote: "If the romantic and perhaps doomed cause of saving America's Civil War battlefields can be said to have its own Robert E. Leea strategist who time and again snatched victory from the jaws of defeathe is a man named James Lighthizer. The only catch is that in person Lighthizer seems better to resemble Ulysses S. Grant, a hard-driving, cigar-chomping politico straight off the pages of a gilded age broadsheet. As president of the Civil War Preservation Trust, Lighthizer has become adept at fighting many foes on many fronts all at once."
In memoriam
CARRINGTON WILLIAMS
1919-2002
Trustee and former Chairman, Civil War Preservation
Trust passed away suddenly on August 3, 2002.
Future generations of Americans who
walk dozens of Civil War battlefields may not know
it is to him that they owe that privilege.
However, we who had the honor of working side-by-side
with him do know that without the unceasing efforts
of Carrington Williams, much of the nation's hallowed
ground would be lost.
Tireless protector of our heritage,
Eager student of history,
Friend, Gentleman, Leader.
You will be missed.
Commitment to Civic Service
Experienced Leader of Non-Profits
World War II Veteran
Formerly a partner in the law firm of McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe, Carrington's illustrious legal career spanned more than half a century.
His background of public service included ten years in the Virginia House of Delegates (1966-70, 1972-78), eight years as a Director and Planning Committee Chairman of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (1986-1994), and service in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
Carrington sat on the Board of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (Dulles Center) and he served as Chairman of the Washington Airports Task Force, as Co-Director and Trustee of the Virginia Council on Federal Taxation, and as Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Tower Club. In addition, he spent twenty-three years as a Trustee of the George Mason University Foundation (1972-1995) and he was a member of Virginia Forward.
Among the awards he received for civic responsibility were the 1996 Williams Trophy for Dedication to Aviation and the 1991 George Mason Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Carrington was also named 1982 Citizen of the Year by the Fairfax County Federation of Citizens' Associations and, in 1994, Turkey Roast Honoree by the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce.
Carrington's lifelong interest in the Civil War (he had ancestors who fought in the conflict) and his extensive experience as a leader of non-profit organizations first intersected in 1997 when he was elected Chairman of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District Commission. His varied talents and unflagging dedication made him ideally suited to be Chairman of the Civil War Preservation Trust.
CWPT's former chairman, Carrington Williams, was working on his family history when he passed away in 2002. CWPT is pleased to include this adapted excerpt from his unfinished work our our website in tribute to our first great leader. This material is published with the premission of Doreen Williams.