Published in the November 21, 2019 edition.

WAKEFIELD — Wakefield’s venerable Sweetser Lecture Series has three speakers booked for its 2020 season. All three lectures will be in The Savings Bank Theatre at Wakefield High School, 60 Farm St., Wakefield. Each lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. on its scheduled evening.

Tickets for a single lecture are $10 with a special discount price of $25 for all three. Admission for students is $5. Tickets will be available after Dec. 1, at Smith’s Drug Store, 390 Main St., Wakefield, or by mail from the Sweetser Lecture Committee, P.O. Box 1734, Wakefield, MA. Please enclose a check and a self-addressed stamped envelope.

The Lecture Series is sponsored by a generous grant from The Savings Bank of Wakefield.

Recognition will be made in the printed program of Benefactors for a contribution of $80 or more and Patrons for a contribution of $40 to $79. Benefactors and Patrons will also receive lecture tickets.

Leading off the Series will be “The White Mountains: A Year in the Life of Mt. Washington” by Dan Szczesny, prolific author, lecturer, and journalist. Szczesny began his career in Buffalo, N.Y. and has written for a wide variety of publications in the Philadelphia area and New England. He is a member of the Appalachian Mountain Clubs 4,000-footer Club and has camped and hiked in many places, including the Grand Canyon and the trail to Mt. Everest. His lecture will be on Wednesday, March 25.

Then on Tuesday, April 7, Sanjiv Chopra, M.D., best-selling author, professor of Medicine at Harvard University, and international lecturer, will offer insight into “Health, Happiness, and Living with Purpose.” Born in Poona, India, Dr. Chopra was inspired from a young age to follow in the footsteps of his father Krishan, a renowned cardiologist. Dr. Chopra’s older brother Deepak is also a physician as well as a holistic health expert. Chopra has lectured often on “Leadership for the 21st Century: The Tenets of Leadership” and has many academic positions and awards to his credit.

The final program, on Tuesday, April 14, will feature author, historian, and retired Senior Attorney for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Barbara Berenson. Berenson’s topic will be “Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement: Revolutionary Reformers.” Berenson’s work gives this state’s suffragists the attention they deserve. She has also chronicled the work of slavery abolitionists.

The Sweetser Lecture Series was started during the late nineteenth century through a bequest in the will of Cornelius Sweetser, a wealthy shoe manufacturer born and working in Wakefield. He left money for lectures to “uplift and educate” the citizens of Wakefield. According to the provisions of his will, net proceeds of the lectures are distributed to Wakefield charities.

Recent beneficiaries have been the Wakefield Food Pantry, local efforts of the Salvation Army, and Wakefield patrons of the Mystic Valley Elder Services.