Fresh Forums Keep Audience Growing With High School Classes Attending, Site May Shift

FOR THE RECORD: 1-31-97 CORRECTION: The Popcorn Forum, begun 27 years ago at North Idaho College, was the idea of instructor Tony Stewart. Its current focus on conversations with famous people was inspired by Judy Whatley. The forum’s inception was described inaccurately in a Thursday article.

Like a lot of good ideas, the Popcorn Forum at North Idaho College sprang from a dinner table conversation.

“You know what we ought to have?” Judy Whatley said to her friend Tony Stewart nearly three decades ago. “We ought to have a program at which students can have conversations with famous people.”

Stewart, an NIC political science instructor, ran with the idea. He’s still running - to keep up with its tremendous popularity. Last year’s forum drew 7,300 people over five days.

On Wednesday, Stewart recalled Whatley’s idea as he announced the 27th annual Popcorn Forum. It will be held April 11-17.

“I’m assuming we’ll have to turn people away this year,” said NIC President Robert Bennett. “I’m really excited about it.”

But Stewart is more than willing to move the events from NIC’s 1,300-seat auditorium to the 3,000-seat gymnasium, should the need arise. That may have to be the case. In addition to college students and community members, high school juniors and seniors from six school districts will be attending this year.

The program theme will be “Journey Through Time: The Historical Human Quest for the Good Life.” For the first forum, Stewart went to the Associated Students of North Idaho College and asked for $40 to buy popcorn.

This year, ASNIC will contribute $6,500. Other support includes $5,000 from the school’s Convocation Series, $3,150 from the Idaho Humanities Council; and $2,000 from the NIC Foundation.

There will be morning performances and lectures, followed by panel discussions in the afternoon and evening.

Each panel will include students and residents portraying famous people. Three actors were present at Wednesday’s announcement. They were Denise Clark as labor activist Mother Jones; Derinda Moerer as the World War II archetype Rosie the Riveter; and Mona Klinger as Josephine Butler, who championed the cause of women who could find no work but prostitution in 19th-century London.

For the first time this year, each morning program will open with 15 minutes of live, mood-setting music. As always, the events will be free.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Topics and speakers April 7, “Understanding and Interacting with Nature”: Clay Jenkinson, an educator and one of the country’s best-known historical character actors, will appear as American geologist and explorer John Wesley Powell. April 8, “Freedom and Justice”: Clay Jenkinson will portray President Thomas Jefferson. April 9, “Equality”: Speaker will be Bill Wassmuth, director of the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment. Wassmuth, whose Coeur d’Alene home was bombed by members of the Aryan Nations in 1986, is a leader in the anti-bigotry movement. April 10, “Economic Security”: Hensley (Ted) Williams will speak. He is an attorney and expert in labor and human relations. April 10, “Development and Survival of Family”: The speaker will be Diane Medved, a clinical psychologist and author. Her latest book, written with former Vice President Dan Quayle, is “The American Family: Discovering the Values that Make Us Strong.” April 11, “Spirituality & Religious/ Philosophical Meaning to Life”: Author and philosopher George Frein will appear as American historian Henry Brooks Adams.