Local Legends is the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society's annual signature event. Through a unique "fireside chat" format, with intimate interviews before live audiences, the event is is the perfect setting to celebrate our community's superstars. This one-on-one conversation encourages the sharing of little-known stories and behind-the-scenes anecdotes, insights not readily available in standard biographies.

Local Legends debuted in 2010 with a standing-room-only program honoring astronaut James Lovell that transported the audience to worlds afar. In 2011 our event honoring architect Adrian Smith took the packed auditorium to new heights. This past year, over 300 guests were taken behind-the-scenes at Millennium Park and Crab Tree Farm with cultural visionary and business leader John H. Bryan. As the Historical Society's chief fundraiser, Local Legends supports our programs and exhibits, as well as the preservation of the museum archives and our one-of-a-kind collection.

Roll Call of Legends

2012 | John H. Bryan

From Millennium Park to Orchestra Hall to the Farnsworth House, John H. Bryan's dedication to culture and preservation is revealed throughout Chicago's landscape. As the former CEO of Sara Lee, Mr. Bryan's business acumen has propelled him to the world stage through the World Economic Forum and NATO. His prestigious Amercian and English Arts and Crafts collection, housed locally at Crab Tree Farm, attracts admirers from far and wide. Over 300 discovered the story of this modern-day Renaissance man at our Local Legends event on Saturday, October 27, 2012.

Photo gallery of the 2012 Local Legends Event

2011 | Adrian Smith

Architect Adrian Smith is one of the world's foremost experts on supertall towers. His extraordinary body of work includes the Burj Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates, the world's current tallest structure, and the world's first net-zero-energy skyscraper, the Pearl River Tower in China. In 2011, plans were announced for the Kingdom Tower, a building twice as tall as the Willis Tower. The Kingdom Tower will be built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Locally, Mr. Smith designed the Trump Tower and created the master plan for Millennium Park. His firm, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, is based in Chicago.

Photo gallery of the 2011 Local Legends Event

2010 | Jim Lovell

As the commander of Apollo 13, Captain Jim Lovell led his crew through the life-or-death struggle to return to Earth. He was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1962. Before retiring in 1973, he flew a total of four missions during the golden age of space exploration, logging over 700 hours in space. Captain Lovell has received some of the nation's most distinguished awards, including the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Lake Forest residents since 1981, Captain Lovell and family opened the restaurant Lovell's of Lake Forest in 1999. In 2010, the Captain James A. Jovell Federal Health Care Center opened in North Chicago.

Photo gallery of the 2010 Local Legends Event

Our Interviewer | Bill Kurtis

Bill Kurtis's generous participation in our Local Legends event for the past two years has generated wonderful, captivating interviews. Over the course of his distinguished career in journalism, Mr. Kurtis has hosted and produced acclaimed documentaries, anchored network and major market news broadcasts, and presided over a multimedia production company. He is a published author and the recipient of numerous broadcasting honors including Emmys and the Thurgood Marshall Award. He hosts Cold Case Files and is back anchoring the WBBM-TV six o'clock news broadcast.