Peter Powell to Address Westport Rotary

The Rev. Peter Powell, who retired as President/CEO of Homes with Hope last month, will speak at the Westport Rotary Club at noon today at the Inn at Longshore.  He will provide a personal retrospective, including highlights of his 22 years in Westport as the head of Homes with Hope, formerly known as the Interfaith Housing Association.

During Powell's tenure, the organization expanded from offering shelter in an abandoned firehouse to providing shelter, supportive housing, meals, job training, and mentoring in nine different buildings in Westport.  Its budget grew from $90,000 in 1988 to $2.4 million in 2009.

Powell, who graduated in 1970 from North Carolina State University with a degree in Chemical Engineering, worked for the next three years for Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati making Duncan Hines cake mix.  In September 1973, he matriculated at the Virginia Theolgical Seminary, from which he earned his Masters in Divinity in 1976.  The same year, he was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood and entered Princeton Theological Seminary, graduating three years later with a Masters in Theology.  During his years at Princeton, Powell served as an instructor in Old Testament and Hebrew.  In 1997, after completing his thesis on Homeless in the Suburbs, he received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Tennessee's University of the South.  

Though retired from Homes with Hope, Powell and his wife Barbara will continue to live in Westport, where he is a priest associate with Christ & Holy Trinity Church.  He is also a priest associate with St. Mary the Virgin on Times Square in New York City.  The Powells have five daughters, three sons-in-laws and three grandchildren.

Guests are always welcome at Rotary meetings.   There is a fee of $20 per person for lunch.  For  more information about Rotary, contact Rotary Membership Chair Dave Matlow at 203.227.3090, or visit the club's Web site at www.westportrotary.org, or attend a meeting any Tuesday at noon at the Inn at Longshore.