December 2, 2025

Dear NICE Members:

It is a pleasure to write to you as the new President of the Norton Institute for Continuing Education.

It’s been a busy fall and it is our goal to build on our momentum and to expand our reach and our offerings. We now have a tax-exempt number, which, as Ann Sears said in her final email to you last May, will make it possible for us to apply for local and regional grants. It also makes it possible for us to ask you to consider, in the spirit of Giving Tuesday, giving a tax-deductible contribution to the endowed fund that has been established in commemoration of all the work that Ann Sears has done over the years: The Evergreen Fund for NICE. The fund is to serve both as security against unexpected events (think of Covid) and as a support for special events that would make more prominent NICE’s contribution to our community of lifelong learners. 

We are just about at the halfway point in my first year. We have successfully presented already this fall two courses (Irish Literature and Revolution; Learning and Memory) and four lectures (“Medieval Cathedrals,” “Line Work,” and two on Revolution-Era families in Taunton); two further courses (British Monarchy; The American Voice in Music) and two lectures (an oil painting lecture and demonstration; a historical topic TBA) are scheduled for the spring. Art, history, literature, politics: we are now making plans for more lectures for the coming months. Please visit our new website (nicecourses.org) for information about NICE, its history and mission, and its upcoming offerings; the site will become fuller over time.

If you are interested in making a tax-deductible donation to the Evergreen Fund to help encourage a robust future for NICE, please send your contribution to NICE, PO Box 894, Norton, MA 02766, by check made payable to NICE with the notation “Evergreen Fund.” If we each give a little we can all do a lot. Please do what you can for this remarkable organization that brings so much fellowship, pleasure, and intellectual stimulation to so many!

With all best wishes,

Joel Relihan, President

Norton Institute for Continuing Education