Welcome to the first issue of The Kennebunk Inn Quarterly! We hope this will prove a helpful vehicle for keeping our valued patrons informed of current and upcoming events at The Inn.

With a busy holiday season just behind us, the staff of The Inn is now focused in the winter months on improvements for the 2005 season. A host of positive changes are already in process, with more to come before summer. Here is a sampling.

The Inn’s food and beverage offerings continue to evolve under the creative leadership of Chef ~ Owners, Brian and Shanna O’Hea. In the early fall new china and flatware were purchased, and the music in the fine dining room was upgraded. Later in the fall the entire first floor of The Inn was painted bringing new vitality to all the first floor public spaces. Most recently we began the installation of new art in these freshly painted areas.

With the new look has come a new name, Academe, for our more formal dining area. Academe takes its name from the rich educational heritage of New England as well as the educational focus of The Inn’s owners and ongoing programs.

As some of our patrons are aware, Drs. David and Sue Horner (PhDs from Stanford University and Northwestern University, respectively) are part of the family ownership group which acquired The Inn in January, 2003. In 1979 David became America’s youngest college president when he was appointed to the presidency of Barrington College (RI) at age 29. From 1987 to 2004 he served as president of North Park University (Chicago.) Sue, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, has taught and published in the areas of women’s studies and religion and has lectured across the United States as well as in Europe and Australia. Chef ~ Owners, Brian O’Hea and Shanna Katherine Horner O’Hea, also draw on their own, varied academic backgrounds - art and culinary arts - in their hands-on operation of The Inn. Among their degrees, both are graduates of the Culinary Institute of America.