June Program: The Greatest Trial in America
Monday, June 15, 2026
Doors Open at 6:30 pm
Enjoy complimentary refreshments and browse our partner table.
Program 7:00-8:30 pm
Southridge Recreation Center
4800 McArthur Ranch Road, Highlands Ranch
$5 Donation Suggested at Door for non-HRHS members
Consider applying the Donation to Membership! Click HERE for more info.
The Roots of Free Speech
The trial of a printer, John Peter Zenger, formed the basis for the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.
Travel back with Professor Stephen Collins to 1735 in New York and the single most significant trial in American history.
ABOUT OUR PRESENTER AND ACTOR: STEPHEN COLLINS
Stephen, a life member of the HRHS, is a professor at Pikes Peak State College with a BS in Engineering Physics, an MA and PhD in Communication, and a master’s degree in divinity. His areas of specialty include American history, particularly the history of American public address and free speech issues from colonial times through to the present. He also specializes in the history of rhetorical theory, particularly within Tudor England.
Stephen teaches courses which focus on public speaking and American history. He is also a public speaking consultant and feels a personal mission to improve the quality of public speaking throughout our world.
Stephen is an avid actor, singer, and dancer who has performed nearly fifty plays and musicals within Highlands Ranch over the last twenty years with the Wesley Players. He has played the King in “The King and I,” Thenar Dier in “Les Misérables,” Ben the Gardener in “The Secret Garden,” and Ouiser in “Steel Magnolias.”
Stephen is also an avid student of theology and earlier Biblical texts. He and his wife, Cathy, have run a puppet ministry for thirty years and like to teach ballroom dance. Stephen volunteers annually at the Highlands Ranch Pioneer Days (now called Western Day) for the Highlands Ranch Historical Society. He volunteers at local elementary schools, teaching poetry and puppetry to children. When he eventually leaves this world, he wants his epitaph to read: “Had rockstar status with five-year olds.”