Frederic B. Hill was a reporter, correspondent and editorial writer for The Baltimore Sun, including tours as Bureau Chief in London and Paris, covering Europe, southern Africa and parts of the Middle East. His award-winning articles on corruption in Baltimore county and the state of Maryland led to major reforms and convictions of high-level government officials. He was Foreign Affairs Director for Sen. Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. (R., MD) in 1985 and 1986, and assisted and advised the senator on a number of path-breaking legislative achievements, including the U.S. sanctions against South Africa’s apartheid regime and several arms control measures.
He then established the State Department’s first Office of Special Programs. The office conducted policy planning exercises (wargames) and senior-level conferences and discussions on security, political, economic and global issues for the Department of State and key national security agencies from 1986 to 2006.
A native of Maine and graduate of Bowdoin College, he is the author of “Ships, Swindlers and Scalded Hogs, the Rise and Fall of the Crooker Shipyard in Bath, Maine” (Down East Books, 2016) and co-editor of “The Life of Kings; The Baltimore Sun and the Golden Age of the American Newspaper “(Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). Mr. Hill wrote the preface of the collection and his chapter detailed his investigative articles which led, indirectly, to the resignation of Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew.
Another book, on an adventurous Maine seaman, A Flick of Sunshine, written with his son, Alexander J. Hill, is scheduled to be published in August, 2022 (Lyons Press). He contributes op-ed articles on national security issues for a number of national and regional newspapers, including the Dallas Morning News, The Baltimore Sun, the Bangor (Me.) Daily News and Portland Press Herald.
He is a member and former president of Maine’s First Ship, an organization building a reconstruction of the first vessel built by English settlers in North America, at Popham Beach, Maine, in 1607-08, and co-director of a leading doubles squash tournament, the Maine/Maryland at Meadow Mill (M4) Doubles Championships. He also served on the board of directors of the Camden Conference, Maine’s leading forum on foreign affairs.
He resides in Arrowsic, Maine and Baltimore.
Tel: 410-456-9281
Gerry Brewster, the son of war hero and United States Senator Daniel B. Brewster, is currently on a book tour for the new biography, Self-Destruction: The rise, fall, and redemption of U.S. Senator Daniel B. Brewster by John W. Frece.
After graduating from Gilman and Princeton, Gerry earned his law degree at the University of Baltimore, clerked for the Baltimore County Circuit Court, and served as an assistant State’s Attorney. Gerry also served on the staff of United States Senator Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. and subsequently was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates and as a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
In 1994, Gerry won the Democratic nomination for Maryland’s 2nd Congressional district but lost the general election, then becoming a Baltimore County public school teacher, where he taught Olympian Michael Phelps ninth grade government and traveled to the Olympics and the World Championships with the Phelps family.
As the tallest licensed jockey in America, Gerry rode four times in the world’s oldest and toughest timber race, the Maryland Hunt Cup, winning the race as an owner in 2017.
Gerry was a member of the Maryland Aviation Commission under Governors O’Malley and Hogan, the Baltimore County Tourism Commission, and was on the Board of Directors of Franklin Square Hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation, the Maryland Center for History and Culture, the Gilman School (where he was president of the Alumni Association), and, for the past 38 years, the Maryland State Fair and Agricultural Society, serving as Chairman for the past 6 years until his retirement at the end of 2023.
Interview Questions:
Q1: Fred, can you tell us a bit about your background, especially as a journalist and author who ended up working in Washington, DC?
Q2: Your latest book is entitled Mathias of Maryland: Remembering a Lincoln Republican in the Senate. Mac Mathias represented Maryland in both the U.S. House and Senate. Could you tell us why you picked Mathias for your book and how this book differs from traditional biographies?
Q3: Four current and former Members of Congress contributed, as did Joe Biden. What was their involvement?
Q4: In the 1960s, Senator Mathias was a very active and early supporter of Civil Rights and helped with the passage of historic civil rights legislation. Could you tell us more about that?
Q5: Senator Mathias was an early opponent of the Vietnam War and ultimately took the lead on the creation of the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. Why do you think Senator Mathias took the lead on both?
Q6: Although a Republican, Senator Mathias was very popular with Democrats. What was his relationship with President Nixon, and did he support the Watergate investigation?
Q7: Mathias was an early leader in the “Save the Chesapeake Bay” movement. What did he do, and has his environmental legacy endured?
Q8: At a time in our nation’s history when laws were being passed that dramatically increased the number of incarcerated Americans, Senator Mathias viewed things differently. How so?
Q9: You mention that you served as Senator Mathias’s Chief Foreign Affairs Advisor. Senator Mathias was well respected internationally for his leadership in seeking Middle East peace, the end of apartheid in South Africa, and the containment of nuclear weapons. How did Senator Mathias view foreign policy, and what were his guiding principles?
Q10: Senator Mathias’s legacy is one of bipartisan cooperation. What would he think of Congress today?
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