Where:  Santa Fe Hilton, 100 Sandoval Street
Cost:  $25 for Members, $32 for Non-Members/Guests

A Tour of Blair House

The President’s Guest House

Presenter:  Benedicte Valentiner, Former General Manager of Blair House

From Benedicte Valentiner:
Blair House has been the Nation’s B & B since 1942, where Chiefs of State and Heads of Government are housed during their official visits to our country.  Although Blair House is closed to the public, I shall guide the audience on a virtual tour of the complex and share my anecdotes and experiences during my thirteen years and four months as its General Manager, when I hosted two hundred visits of the world’s movers and shakers.

Some Information about the Benedicte Valentiner:
A Danish-born American citizen since 1969, Benedicte was schooled in Denmark and Sweden, graduated from the Copenhagen Business School and trained in hotel business in Switzerland and Scotland, continuing in D.C. at the Shoreham Hotel.  She assisted her ex-husband in banding birds of prey for the Iranian government in the seventies and then served as assistant to the minority whip for the NM House of Representatives.  Later, as a member of Senator Pete Domenici’s Washington, D.C. staff, she got an up-close look at the meaning of citizenship.  She became General Manager of Blair House in April 1988 until her retirement in August 2001.  Benedicte worked for four U.S. Presidents and six Secretaries of State, the subject of her book in progress.  Until recently, Valentiner was Protocol Consultant to the Leland Stanford Mansion Foundation in Sacramento, California.

Through CIR’s Student Outreach Program, interested students and teachers will attend our events for free.  You can help this program by including a donation with your registration fee.

* If you sign up as a non-member, then promptly join CIR, $7.00 will be subtracted from your membership dues.

Please Reserve by Friday, November 7.