Stephen Girard: A Philadelphia Legacy (and one fierce dude)
20 December 2011 | Share:
A couple weeks ago, at the premier of “Stephen Girard: A Philadelphia Legacy,” Girard experts and Girard College officials and alumni spoke at length about the inspirational life of merchant and banker who gave his fortune to start a school for orphans. It was perhaps more love than the old man has received in quite some time. Then the film was shown, thank God. Here, at last was the man as we imagined him: irascible, dispassionate, unsentimental, and deeply conflicted.
Our film intersperses expert analysis with scenes that imagine Girard hard at work on his will—the document that creates Girard College—with his lawyer William Duane. Girard is old but mentally sharp. He rejects Duane’s fawning, which seems to bore him. All he really wants to do is look ahead. Even a year later, as we catch him at the end of the film, days from his death. “Come on!” he growls, “let’s get on with it.”
To watch the film, click HERE.