Sunday, April 06, 2008

Hundreds of thousands of moviegoers knew Dith Pran by the Oscar-winning portrayal of him on the big screen in the 1984 drama, "The Killing Fields."

Blair Academy history teacher Martin Miller got a more intimate look at the Cambodian hero who endured starvation and torture over his four years of toiling in a prison camp.

Dith stayed overnight at Miller's home two decades ago after speaking at the Blair Academy "Society of Skeptics" lecture series that Miller coordinates each Tuesday night for the prep school in Blairstown.

By then, Dith was a photojournalist with the New York Times. But at night, it became clear to Miller that Dith hadn't completely left behind his beatings and the deaths of dozens of relatives.

"He wouldn't sleep," Miller recalled. "He said the nightmares were just too much."

By the time Dith spoke two years ago during a return engagement at Blair, Miller saw a man more at peace.

"The nightmares had abated a bit, and he seemed like a more contented person," Miller said. "We saw the difference between the sort of ravaged man of 20 years ago, compared to what I saw two years ago."

Running the Society of Skeptics series, which recently turned 30 years old, Miller has given Blair students a front row seat to history.

He has watched as folk-rock legend Art Garfunkel asked questions of Blair students and told them about his walk across America -- but refused to sing or talk about Paul Simon.

He has been entertained by the sports anecdotes of Monday Night Football host Tony Kornheiser and broadcasting giant Marty Glickman.

He has been mesmerized by Irish actor Chris O'Neill, who during rehearsal on Miller's porch smoked cigarette after cigarette and knocked back Guinnesses -- before reciting strings of poems and a short story for the Blair audience in at least 10 different accents.

When Miller fretted over whether O'Neill would project for the audience without a microphone, the actor assured him, "Marty, my lad, I'm a pro. I will fill up that room with my voice." And he did.

He hosted Rutgers University athletic director Robert Mulcahy while America was still buzzing about an offensive comment regarding the Rutgers women's basketball team that led to the firing of radio host Don Imus.

Dith, Glickman and O'Neill have since passed away -- Dith just last Sunday in a New Brunswick hospital from pancreatic cancer, at age 65.

"I'm glad that they've touched the school and my life and my family's life in some way," Miller said.

Three decades after the Society of Skeptics formed as a sometimes acrimonious group of students debating and discussing in a small classroom -- living up to its nickname -- Miller has had a chance to reflect on the successful program that has for the last 23 years been a public lecture series during the school year.

The group was formed by former Blair history teacher Elliott Trommald, with Miller later bringing in speakers that have included musicians and actors, professors and media professionals and authors and political figures.

On Tuesday at 7 p.m., the guest is Greece-born, no-holds-barred journalist Taki Theodoracopulos, a 1955 Blair graduate who with Pat Buchanan founded the American Conservative magazine.

Miller, also the boys cross country coach at Blair, could be the subject of his own lecture: a Bronx-native former handball hustler, son of a fifth-grade-educated bricklayer who built New York City landmarks, scholarship-earner who went on to become the first member of his family to attend college.

The 62-year-old married father of three sons already is working on next school year's series, expected to include a professor who will speak on Islamic fundamentalism, the head of a Cambodian orphanage foundation, a Hollywood filmmaker, a speaker about the '60s and a financial analyst to talk about the sub-prime mortgage collapse.

Still, there's always one more guest to book, and Miller knows he is only as good as the last lecture.

"It's a lot of work, it's a lot of responsibility," he said. "But I wouldn't have it any other way. It's all worked out."

Mike Frassinelli may be reached at mfrassinelli@starledger.com or (908) 475-1218.

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