On April 25-26, hosted its annual Churchill Fellows Weekend and marked the successful progress of the current phase of preservation of America's National Churchill Museum (ANCM), including the masonry conservation of the magnificent Christopher Wren church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury. ANCM is the home to a world-class collection, which is widely regarded as the finest of its kind in North America.
Select talks in St. Mary Aldermanbury are archived on our YouTube channel.
The Association of Churchill Fellows is an honorary society recognizing leaders in industry, commerce, statecraft, and in the arts and sciences. It is among the key organizations that support America's National Churchill Museum, the only museum in North America that commemorates the life and times of former British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill and his legacy of leadership.
We welcome the following class of 2025 to the Association of Churchill Fellows: The Rt. Hon. Sir Conor Burns, Sen. Josh Hawley, Julia Holofcener, Bob Kelly, Judith Mueller, Kent Mueller, David Richardson (posthumous), Rep. Louis Riggs, and John Schaperkotter.
Born in Belfast in 1972 Sir Conor Burns attended St Columba's College in St Albans a school run by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, United States Province. He graduated with a degree in Modern History and Politics from the University of Southampton.
A previous Councillor in the City of Southampton, he was elected as the Member of Parliament for Bournemouth West in 2010. He served on the Culture, Media and Sport Select and the Education Committees. He was a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Departments of Business and Energy, Northern Ireland, Treasury and the Foreign Office to Boris Johnson. He was appointed Minister for Trade Policy by Mr. Johnson. He also served as Minister of State for Northern Ireland.
Most recently. Sir Conor was the Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to the United States for Trade and Investment. He served under UK Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch, who asked him to lead the state-level MOU program to bolster UK-US trade.
He was appointed to the Privy Council by Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth in 2019. In 2023 Conor was appointed Knight Batchelor and knighted at an investiture by Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle.
His home is in Bournemouth, and he works from London and Dallas, Texas.
Raised in rural Missouri, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) previously served as Missouri’s Attorney General. A native of Lexington, Missouri, in rural Lafayette County, Senator Hawley graduated from Rockhurst High School in Kansas City. After graduating from Stanford University in 2002 and Yale Law School in 2006, he moved back home to mid-Missouri with his wife, Erin, where they started a family. They are the proud parents of three young children: Elijah, Blaise, and Abigail.
Senator Hawley is recognized as one of the nation’s leading constitutional lawyers. He has litigated at the Supreme Court of the United States, the federal courts of appeals, and in state court, fighting for the people’s liberties.
Senator Hawley serves on the Senate Committees on the Judiciary; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; and Small Business and Entrepreneurship. In June 2024, Senator Hawley introduced the ANCM National Landmark Bill in the U.S. Senate. The bill, co-authored by Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt, was reintroduced in February 2025.
Julia Holofcener has developed and produced events both in the United States and England through her public relations and event production firms. In 2021, Holofcener was a recipient of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain’s Olwen Wymark Theatre Encouragement Award.
Her tribute to Lord Laurence Olivier was a transatlantic celebration involving hundreds of actors and their unions on both sides of the Atlantic. Lord Olivier unveiled Lawrence Holofcener’s Faces of Olivier in 1985 at the Chichester Festival Theatre. In 1992, she produced, with the British-American Chamber of Commerce, a major Anglo-American business conference in London focusing on The Grand Alliance: Business Leadership in the New World Order. The conference introduced Allies, life-sized sculptures of Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt on a bench in conversation. It was unveiled in 1995 by HRH Princess Margaret and American Ambassador Admiral William Crowe on London’s New Bond Street, where it now rests.
Island Partners Ltd, her UK-based company, produced each August the internationally recognized Isle of Wight Garlic Festival, and until 2003, the biennially held Isle of Wight International Oboe Competition with Artistic Director Lady Barbirolli OBE. In 1995, her company created the first website for the Isle of Wight, still a major source for information about the Island. Holofcener is the widow of Lawrence Holofcener, who passed away in March 2017. A 20th Century Renaissance Man, he was a lyricist, actor, and playwright on Broadway, as well as a poet, painter and sculptor. His best-known sculpture is Allies on Bond Street in London.
Bob Kelly is on the Board of Directors of S&P Global. He was chair and CEO of The Bank of New York Mellon until 2011. Prior to that, he was chair, chief executive officer and president of Mellon Bank Corporation, chief financial officer of Wachovia Corporation, and vice-chair of Toronto-Dominion Bank. Bob served on the board of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation, was the chair of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and chair of the board of directors of Santander Asset Management.
Bob previously served as chancellor of Saint Mary’s University in Canada, was a former member of the Financial Services Forum, Federal Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Board, Financial Services Roundtable, Trilateral Commission, Institute of International Finance, member of the board of trustees of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. He holds a B. Comm. from Saint Mary’s University and an MBA from the Bayes Business School, City University, London. He is a CPA and Fellow Chartered Accountant. Bob has been awarded honorary doctorates from City University and Saint Mary’s University. He serves on the board of directors of the International Churchill Society-US.
Few have been more devoted to Westminster College than Kent and Judith Mueller of Paradise Valley, Arizona.
The Muellers’ generous philanthropy initially made possible the Mueller Leadership Hall and Mueller Student Center on the campus of Westminster College, where Kent proudly earned his bachelor’s degree in 1962. In 2018, the Muellers generously donated funds to construct a state-of-the-art athletic stadium at the College. This facility, named the Kent and Judith Mueller Stadium and Vicki Mueller Memorial Plaza, features modern amenities, including field lighting, a press box, and seating for 1,500 spectators. The stadium was officially dedicated during Westminster’s Homecoming Weekend in October 2023, with the ceremony also honoring their daughter, Vicki Lauden Mueller, who tragically passed away in 2020.
After graduating from Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis, David attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He served on active military duty with the Missouri Air National Guard, and was a registered professional engineer. After the Air Force, David joined Shure Richardson, Inc., a prominent mechanical contractor which designed and installed high-quality commercial and industrial piping, sheet metal work, and heating and air conditioning systems. Shure Richardson served many of the largest firms in the St. Louis area, and David served as president for many years. During that time, he also served in leadership positions in several industry associations on both the local and national level, including a term as chair of the St. Louis Council of Construction Employers. He also served as president of the Hanley Industrial Court Association and held leadership positions in several private clubs. Accepting the award in his honor is David’s wife, Suzanne, past Senior Churchill Fellow.
Representative Louis Riggs (R-Hannibal), serves Marion and Ralls counties (District 5) in the Missouri House of Representatives. He was elected to his first two-year term in November 2018.
In addition to his legislative duties, Louis served as an educator at Hannibal-LaGrange University for more than 14 years and now teaches at Culver-Stockton College. He is also an attorney and Eagle Scout. He serves as a member of the board of directors of Missouri Rural Development Partners and is a past chair of the board of directors of the Missouri Humanities Council, a past president of Missouri Community Betterment, and a past president of Hannibal Nutrition Center and Hannibal Free Clinic. He is a past president and co-founder of the Northeast Missouri Conservative Club and serves as a member of the City of Hannibal-Mark Twain Home Board. Louis has also been named to the University of Missouri Extension Leaders Honor Roll for his service to the Marion County Extension Council.
A graduate of Hannibal High School, Louis obtained a bachelor’s degree in English from Westminster College and a juris doctorate from the University of Missouri – Columbia School of Law. Born and raised in Hannibal, Louis resides there today with his family.
John Schaperkotter is a Saint Louis attorney and partner with BCLP, formerly Brian Cave. His practice involves all phases of estate and trust planning, including federal estate tax practice, estate administration, and personal planning. He is the former chair of the firm’s Private Client Group and recruiting committee. John also advises a number of charitable organizations and is actively involved in charitable tax planning.
John graduated from the University of Missouri and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He is also a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif. A native of Columbia, Missouri, he observed the reconstruction of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, as a high school student.
On a personal note, John is proud of the fact that his uncle served in the Missouri State Highway Patrol and escorted Winston Churchill and President Harry S Truman to Westminster College on March 5, 1946.
“Leave the past to history especially as I propose to write that history myself.”
