Bill Welch B.J., MA

September 2022
We continue to meet at the Erie Yacht Club. We are back upstairs! Meetings begin at 6:00 pm with a social hour and dinner, followed by our program/speaker.

Our Dinner Menu:
Dinner will consist of a Bayside Salad with Cranberries, Cucumbers, Feta Cheese & Pecans, Dressings, Rolls & Butter. There will be a choice of Salmon with Rosemary Orange Sauce or Sliced Roast Club Sirloin with Mushroom Madeira Sauce. Dessert will be Ye Ole Sweet Shoppe Chocolate Cake.

Our Guest Speaker:
Bill Welch B.J., MA
Bill Welch is a retired faculty member with the Mercyhurst University Department of Intelligence Studies teaching from 2006 to 2021. Prior to this Bill had a 29 year career as a reporter and city editor with the Morning News and the Erie Times-News. He received his Bachelors in Journalism from Point Park University in 1973 and Masters in Applied Intelligence from Mercyhurst.

Topic:
His talk will be on the book – Duty, Terror and Survival, The World War One Diary and Art of Doughboy Cpl. Harold W. Pierce.

For reservations; please E-Mail the Torch Club Secretary at secretary.erietorch@gmail.com.

"His talk will be on the book – Duty, Terror and Survival, The World War One Diary and Art of Doughboy Cpl. Harold W. Pierce."

Bill Welch is a retired faculty member with the Mercyhurst University Department of Intelligence Studies. His primary focus in the department has been teaching intelligence communication at the undergraduate and graduate level. He joined the Department in 2006 after receiving his master’s degree in Applied Intelligence from Mercyhurst. He retired in May 2021 but continues to teach part time.Welch received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Point Park University in 1973 and had a 29-year career in Erie as a reporter and city editor with the Morning News and the Erie Times-News. During those years he wrote stories about more than 50 local veterans of World War 1, World War 2 and the Korean War. He is editor of The Analyst’s Style Manual published by Mercyhurst Institute for Intelligence Studies.Bill's talk will focus on 18 year old Harold Pierce who enlisted in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard at the beginning of World War I and kept a diary telling his story as he takes part in four major campaigns. His descriptions put the reader in the middle of artillery barrages, attacks through machine gun fire and painful night marches in the rain. Through his insight, we see this young man deal with fear, terror, duty and camaraderie.


Please join us on September 7th, 2022 at 6:00 pm, for our pre-dinner cocktail and chat time and remember to bring your friends and acquaintances. Reservations are required.


Please remember to make your reservation at secretary.erietorch@gmail.com.