President Mac Jefferson started by surmising that this is our best meeting of the year. In many ways I think we have to agree. This is the time when so many of our spouses, children, and grandchildren come. What could be better than that? We had a great meal at the Carroll Knicely Center on Western's South Campus and WKU's Men's Accapella group the Red Shirts sang Christmas songs mixed with a lot of good humor. Finally Santa came and had a personal session with the kid's in attendance.
REMINDER: There will be no meeting the next two weeks (Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve) then we'll be back at Carroll Knicely for the January 7 meeting and on January 14 back at the Country Club.
Vickie Elrod had the great honor of presenting new member Bruce Wilkinson his membership papers. Welcome to the club Bruce. We hope you share your leadership skills with our club as you have the rest of the community.
Greg Coleman works for the new Minor League team coming to Bowling Green this April. He is a man well suited for his job. Greg is enthusiastic without being over the top and is very knowledgeable and experienced in Minor League venues. He paints a great picture of a fun night for the whole family. Greg says the field is already completed and the stands, etc. are well underway. Our team the Bowling Green Hot Rods are scheduled to play their first game here April 17. We are a One A farm team for the Tampa Bay Rays. You may have heard of them. I'm thinking this is going to be a good thing for Bowling Green and surrounding communities.
From Chongqing Technical and Business University, Sichuan Province, China November2, 2008 Margaret Curtis
We the foreign experts…
I was summoned to the Foreign Advisors Office a while back, and was presented with a small red book, not unlike a passport. It bears the gold insignia of the People’s Republic of China and it is imprinted with the words “Foreign Experts Certificate” in gold lettering. My photo and name are inside, so I guess that’s what I must be – a Foreign Expert. I seem to have achieved this status by virtue of the fact that I speak English. It is gratifying to receive such a high honor when one has exerted so little effort.
I remember that first stifling hot week being directed to a small photographic studio on campus. I sat on a metal stool and was photographed several times. My wan smile and damp hair attest to the 100F temperature. The picture was processed through some government office and now here it is, embossed in gold. The document is set to expire on January 31, 2009, the date my CTBU contract ends, so I guess after that time I will no longer hold this exalted status. In the meantime, that’s who I am – a foreign expert.
I’m not the only foreign expert, I hasten to add. Living in the apartment below me is Tony, an oriental person raised in Singapore but long since settled in Perth, Australia, where he worked as an aircraft engineer for Quantas, and where he raised his family. Then there is Hugh from California. He is also oriental ethnically, and speaks very good Mandarin. He is here to perfect the Chongqin dialect, after which he is headed towards a splendid career with the UN. He is very good looking, tall and thin and becoming thinner. At twenty five years, he is the youngest among us. He lives at the top of the mountain in the Foreign Experts Building. Three young Dutchmen live up there also. They seem like a jolly trio, but unfortunately our paths rarely cross. Gordon is an African American, a big cheerful guy. He has been here a year or two, so he has a life.
If you can believe it, we are the outer rim of the Peace Corps operation. Peace Corps workers regard this as the crème de la crème of a placement because they get to live in apartments, and drinking water is provided. The two Peace Corps people here are well qualified and do a great job. They are not paid by the university. The U.S. Government pays their travel expenses and living allowance. They have a two year contract and are known as “the volunteers”.
I forgot about Bill Hong. His ethnicity is Chinese but he was born and raised in San Francisco and doesn’t speak Mandarin. The Chinese people look on him with disbelief. He is a computer whiz, and in real life solves computer problems by phone for huge amounts of money. And then there is Triona, an Irish woman who has returned for her fifth year at CTBU. I call her Mother Theresa of Chongqing. It was she that brought me pumpkin soup and a cheese sandwich (on very dry bread) when I was down and out with Mao’s revenge….She quietly distributes her meager earnings to poor students that otherwise could not afford food or textbooks.
From Chongqing Technical and Business University, Sichuan Province, China,
October 26, 2008Margaret Curtis
What’s in a name?
Quite a lot, apparently.It is mid-semester and I am reviewing endless lists.Each student has a 10 digit number that seems to bear his or her academic DNA.This is followed by a Chinese name, written in Chinese characters, and then written again in pin yin which is English letters. Finally each student has an English name, chosen, after much thought, because the student likes the sound, the supposed meaning, or the association of ideas.
If these names appeared in some kind or order it would be helpful, but as many English classes are comprised of students from a variety of areas, the groupings are not what they call “natural classes”. So the numbers are all over the place, and confusing to say the least.Alphabetical order cannot really be applied, there being no Chinese alphabet, so one handles an amorphous mass of information that struggles to find a niche in the teacher’s mind.
As the “foreign expert” it is my job to advise the student as to whether the name is suitable, whether it will “ring true” in the western world, whether it is dignified and pleasing. Occasionally, as a result of such input, a student will decide to change the name. I then have another challenge – to remember what the first English name was, and now what the new English name is, so that appropriate credit can be assigned to the student’s work.
Dupont says he is a great admirer of that company. Kiddy refuses to change to Kitty. Lychee likes the fruit, so why not the name? Angelling, Icy, and Margin, have no particular rationale in mind, but insist on keeping their names. Formula has changed to Bell, which doesn’t seem much of an improvement to me. Moon is now Thomas. Superman has changed to Duncan. Sunny and Smile are happy people, they say, so they want happy names. Water eventually changed to something, but I don’t recall what. Sofen told me today that he is now Daniel, and Hilary has changed to William, thank goodness.
One young lady announced that she had finally found the perfect name and from now on wants to be called Pota. Why? Well, she had just come from a Chemistry class in which they were introduced to the chemical element potassium. She admires it so much, she says, she wants to be named after it. Hamlet, Romeo, and Juliet, are favorites. Nomad still sounds a little odd to me. Michael says he is to be called Michael Jordan, but he really wants to be Michael Jackson. Fish argued that the fish is a symbol of plenty and prosperity in China, and that it is an honor to bear this name. She relented in the end, and is now Faye.
What a treat today to hear Ray Keller speak. His son Travis is one of our own. Ray says he joined Rotary in Jonesboro, Arkansas the year Travis was born and hasn't looked back. He gave a rousing testimony to the significance of Rotary in the World. It was a great boost for all of us and I think members new to Rotary will have gotten a better sense of how important Rotary is to the world at large. Ray is District Governor this year for his corner of Arkansas and we thank him for taking time out from a busy business and Rotary schedule to come speak to us. By the way Travis and I both lettered in basketball at Florida College a Church of Christ affiliated school in Tampa. I doubt Travis' team could better the record of our team the year I played. We lost every game! I know what you're thinking.
Terry and his wife Jo visited us today from the Frankfort Club. Terry presented a power point presentation outlining the work and objectives of Rotary. He talked about what modern society might be like without Rotary. He mentioned a shocking statistic that 30,000 children die EACH DAY from largely preventable disease. The International Rotary President D.K. Lee from South Korea wants Rotarians around the globe to focus on the welfare of children. We are very close to eliminating Polio and with the help of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation may actually bring that goal to fruition soon. Terry served as an Assistant District Governor with our own Bob Kleier some years ago. Bob tells me that the year of being District Governor requires a great deal of travelling and although he does have an expense allowance the Governor is still out quite a bit of money from his own pocket. Thank you Terry for making such a commitment and thank you for a job well done.
Lauren Torger seen here talked about her trip this summer to Kenya. She accompanied our own Cheryl Kirby-Stokes. Each year Cheryl brings home baskets constructed by native women and the monies are returned to the communities. Lauren helped the ladies to decide what kinds of baskets would sell best in the U.S. market. I think Lauren said that the average family income in that area was $7 a month. Obviously Lauren had a life changing experience in a remote and underdevelop part of the world. The young man that made this trip last summer with Cheryl joined the Peace Corp after graduating from WKU and wants to return to Africa to help. (An article about him is archived on this web site.) The Students in the Free Enterprise program gave their competition presentation and talked about the many programs they are involved with both locally and internationally. I was impressed by the work they are doing with the local alternative high school where troubled teens are sent to continue their education. Great program.
Dr. Scott brought with him a fellow WKU faculty member, Jordana Greenberg. At his request she played some classic (not necessarily Classical) fiddle pieces. They were superb and after playing my favorite, Ashokan Farewell, she played an encore. What a great program and great pick me up for the middle of the week. Thank you Travis Keller for inviting Dr. Bill and thank you Dr. Bill for inviting Jordana. While we're handing out the kudos, thank you Jordana for your performance.
Dr. William Scott talked to us today about this year's programming for the BG Western Symphony Orchestra. This is their 100th Year and they have invited former conductors and musicians back. Dr. Scott reviewed the sceduled six performances and it sounds exciting. You can learn more by checking out their website at www.bgwso.org
Program Chair Travis Keller shown sitting here brought us a great program today. He introduced us to "Championship Coach and Leadership Expert" Micheal Burt, a 32 year old speaker from Murfressboro. Michael was a state champion high school girls basketball coach before retiring to become a public speaker and success coach. He reviewed the three books he has authored "Changing Lives Through Coaching", "The Inspirational Leader", and his most recent "This Ain't No Practice Life". He talked about the need to lead people and manage things. I think we were all enthused by Micheal insights and anecdotes. You may reach him at 615,849.2099 or email at coachburt@comcast.net. He gave us the opportunity not only to buy his books and DVD but also sign up for a weekly pick me up that he emails regularly. Several of us took him up on that. You can check out his website at www.michealburt.com
Joan sent me to the website of the Bowling Green Western Symphony Orchestra - bgwso.org. I got her bio there and I'm reproducing it here.
"Joan Sadler Wulff has lived in Bowling Green since 2002 and joined the the BGWSO in June of 2006. Joan has prior experience with two other symphony orchestras before becoming the the Executive Director for the BGWSO. She was the Audience Development Manager for The Philadelphia Orchestra marketing department and the Development Assistant for the Cedar Rapids (IA) Symphony.
Joan also has experience in banking, sales administration & management, direct mail and telesales. She has lived in 4 other states but grew up in Iowa and graduated from Northeast Missouri State with a BS in Business Administration. Joan has been a member of the Lil' Angel's Attic Committee since 2004 and is currently a co-chair. She is an active member of Broadway United Methodist Church.
Travis Keller is September's Program Chair. His Dad Ray is District Governor this year in the Northeast section of Arkansas. Ray is from the huge metropolis of Wiener, population 755. It's a little to the southwest of Jonesboro. Travis's guest today is a friend of the family, Phil Cavender from Murfreesboro, TN. Phil is President of the Cavendar Financial Group in the Boro. Phil started by talking about Ray and what a dynamic speaker he is. It sounds like we need to get him here to speak some day. He made several poignant points about investing and financial planning. One point that struck me was his illustration of a million, a billion, and a trillion. He said that you can retire a debt of 1 million dollars by paying a dollar a second for 12 days. It would take 31 years to pay off a billion dollars at the same rate and 31,000 years to pay off a trillion dollars. (assuming no interest accruing of course) WOW! He talked more about making your money work for you in the environment in which it will be invested. Good program Phil and thank you Travis for inviting him.
Cheryl Kirby-Stokes came up with the idea of Petal the Polio Pig. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $100 million for the world fight against polio but it is a matching grant and over the next two years Rotary has to raise a matching amount. Cheryl's idea was for our members to put into the pig our pocket change each week so that over the next two years we can raise a substantial amount. Cheryl reports that so far we are off to a good start.
The Hopkinsville Rotary club President, Jim Dunn (R), was here today along with Past President Ted Jatczak (L) to discuss their 58 year old Rotary Auction. This year's auction raised over $300,000 and they discussed the club's commitment to help local students continue their education past high school. To date they have loaned nearly 9 million dollars to local students as well as given scholarships. They are now working with the Technical and Community College in Hopkinsville to give virtually all local students the opportunity to further their education past high school. The President of the Community College, Dr. Jim Selbe, was here to explain their participation. Program Chairman Walter Hawkins had been a member of the Hopkinsville Club and is trying to get our club to pursue something similar. The Trigg County Club in Cadiz is doing an auction and this year their 24 member club raised $160,000. The numbers are just too compelling to ignore. Thanks Walter for bringing these guys over and thank you Ted and Jim for taking the time to talk to our club.
On our July 2, 2008 meeting Judge Steve Wilson swore in our new officers. Here we see Left to Right: Mac Jefferson, President, Joe Taylor, past treasurer, Kevin Mays President Elect and Director of Club Service, Alan Vilines, Secretary, Ron Wilson, Director of Vocational Service, Patty Alford, Sergeant of Arms, and Kevin Counts, treasurer. Not present were Sally Ray, Director of Community Service and Jim Allen Director of International Service. A great slate of new officers and we're looking forward to a great year!
We are going to miss seeing Joe Taylor at the head table. After a little over eleven years Joe has decided to let someone else take over the job of club treasurer. Joe has done a fabulous job and outgoing President Alex Downing gave Joe a gift in recognition of his service. The treasurer's work goes unnoticed if done well and Joe's tenure has gone well. Our club is on sound financial ground thanks in large part to Joe's leadership and guidance. Thank you Joe for a job well done from all of us.
Janet Smith spoke about the Golden Proportion at our June 25th meeting. Janet knows a good deal about the ratio of 618:382. She did her Doctoral Dissertation on it. It is a ratio that recurs in nature, art, music, and countless other places. It is sometimes represented by the Greek Letter Phi and has been known for a very long period of time. Janet says that Euclid talked about it in 300 B.C. but it was known well before that. She had a Power Point presentation and showed several examples of it in art, nature, and music. She said some composers seemed to have a predilection for it. She cited Debussey as one of her favorites and one that seemed to compose in a way that incorporated it. The beautiful design of the chambered Nautilus is a good example of it in nature. One of the comments that struck me was Janet's comment that they have found that breaks in a teaching session (such as a piano lesson that Janet does professionally) or in the intermission of a concert seem to go better if the break comes about 2/3's of the way in rather than at the center. Great job Janet and thanks for all the effort you put into such an excellent presentation.
General Dan Cherry (USAF Retired) talked to us Wednesday June 4 about the beginnings of the Air Heritage Museum he and a group of fellow Rotarians have been working on here in Bowling Green. They started four years ago by locating his old Phantom Jet in Ohio. The small town that owned it was prepared to see it leave. With local support the jet was brought back to B.G. and made to look beautiful taking on its war time camouflage paint scheme. The museum is building a beautiful outdoor display of military aircraft at the Basil Griffin Park on Three Spirngs Road. Phantom 550 is parked there now. The museum will be a tribute to several aviation pioneers and heroes from this area. In connection with the museum and through many convaluted steps Dan was invited to return Vietnam to meet on National Television the North Vietnamese pilot he had shot down in the war. The biggest show on Vietnam TV is similar to our old This is Your Life program here. The producer is U.S. educated and was able to find the 62 year old pilot Dan shot down 38 years ago. Dan had a Power Point presentation that documented their meeting. He said he had many misgivings about the whole deal but spoke with Vietnam Veteran groups here and the U.S. Embassy before making the decision to go. It was the biggest thing in Vietnam the week he was there. The show is the number one show on TV. I don't have a photo of the reunion but will try to get one and put it on our blog. The reunion was terrific and Dan found the man to be a true gentleman. We were all enthralled to hear about the emotional reunion. We heard about Dan's gift of Maker's Mark, the pilot's invitation for Dan and his entourage to come to his house in Hanoi for dinner, Dan's being there for the grandson's first birthday celebration, and the guided tour of Hanoi by the pilot including the Hanoi Hilton. The museum hopes to bring the pilot to Bowling Green and members of our club were begging Dan to be certain to bring him to Rotary for all of us to meet him. Listen, when you miss programs this good you've missed a lot.
Dr. Nelson Rue is venerable in our club. He is a 77 year old retired general surgeon, U of L Class of 1956. Many of us or a family member have been patients of Dr. Rue. I worked up on Hospital Hill in the ER in 1975 just after graduating from Medical School, U of L Class of 1973, and Nelson bailed me out of many difficult situations. I think members newer to the community may know Nelson for his frequent anecdotes. Often after our speaker finishes with his or her presentation Nelson will have a post script. His wealth of experiences gives him a vast encyclopedia of personal knowledge to draw from. Well we love him for it and we all looked forward to his "Reflections" at our meeting on Wednesday May 28. Program Chair Margaret Curtis seen here sitting with Nelson is to be commended for calling on Nelson for the program. I sat up my video camera and taped the whole presentation for posterity. Anyway Nelson's talk was the bookend to a paper he had written in High School in 1948. He wrote then about television's role in education. His teacher gave him an A++ for it and he still had the note praising his achievement. Nelson reviewed the last sixty years of TV with some seriousness and a lot of humor. Thank you Nelson for a delightful program and for many years of service to our community. God bless.
Our Wednesday 21 May 08 presentation was by me, Dr. Ken Embry. I also am the blog editor so I guess I can brag on my presentation as much as I want. Actually I want to thank this month's Program Chair, Margaret Curtis for inviting me to speak. I wanted to say something about medical history in Kentucky and in my research came across the name of a Bowling Green physician Dr. Joseph Nathaniel McCormack who lived from 1847 until 1922. He came to prominence following his courageous service to Yellow Fever patients here in Bowling Green during the epidemic of 1878. Dr. Lucas Blackburn who became Kentucky's Governor following his heroic service during this and previous Yellow Fever epidemics ends up appointing Dr. McCormack to the State Board of Health in December of 1878. Dr. McCormack becomes Commissioner of Health in 1883 and holds that post until he retires in 1912. His son Arthur succeeds his father and Dr. Joseph wins a term as a Democrat member of Kentucky's House of Representatives from Bowling Green. John Ellis in his book Medicine in Kentucky says "No two men have had an impact on the American medical profession and its institutions comparable to that of two Kentuckians, one a physician [Dr. J.N. McCormack] and the other a schoolteacher [Abraham Flexner]." I gave only a brief summary of the ways in which Dr. McCormack was so influential in changing the practice of medicine in Kentucky and the nation for the better. We owe him so much yet after all these years his name is virtually forgotten and I lamented that there is no memorial to him of any kind in this his home town. The audience was very attentive and many were asking what should be done to correct this oversight.
Program chair Margaret Curtis is shown here with our speaker for the May 14 program. Allison Noffsinger graduated from Western last Saturday. She is on her way to Tel Aviv as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar from her home Rotary District in Starkville, Mississippi. While she has never been to our club before she said she is no stranger to Rotary and felt very comfortable speaking to our group. She had spent a year in Arequipa, Peru as a Rotary exchange student while she was in high school. Alli reviewed her home town and state of Mississippi. She said if you ask a Mississippian what are their biggest cities they'd tell you Memphis, Birmingham, and New Orleans. She said many Peruvians did not realize that there was a state called Mississippi and wondered if she lived on a boat. When she came home from Peru she came directly to Western, her Dad's alma mater, and was still thinking in Spanish. Fortunately she met several people on campus from South America and could continue her use of the language. Now Alli has been sponsored by her home Rotary District, 6820, and the Starkville Club and will be an Ambassadorial Scholar in Tel Aviv. She is wanting to learn both Hebrew and Arabic while in country. Alli says she recently attended an orientation program for Ambassadorial Scholars and they emphasized that they did not want bookworms. Rather the program wants individuals who will get to know the people of their host country and both glean from their culture as well as share insights into our own. Rotary and the United States of America could not have chosen a better person to represent us. Shalom Alli and thank you for sharing your story with us. Thank you Margaret for inviting her. I have next week's program and Alli's will be a tough act to follow.
L.R. is a forty-four year old Western Grad and manager of a local staffing service, Randstad. He spent his early years in Archer City, Texas but moved with his parents to Campbellsville and graduated from Taylor County High School in 1981. He earned his B.A. from Western in Communications in 1991 and his M.A. there in 1993. L.R. and his wife Janetta have two girls, ages 8 and 12. He tells me that he enjoys reading and astronomy.
Assistant Governor Vickie Elrod is seen here with Rotary International President Wilf Wilkinson. Vickie, Jim Allen, and Ken Embry had the privilege and opportunity to go to Nashville April 18-19 to attend a special four district combined conference. We got to hear Wilf speak on several occasions and Vickie got to sit at his table at one of the two banquets. Jim Allen gave a presentation on a Disaster Response plan he is helping develop. Ken got to see some old friends from all four districts in Kentucky and Tennessee. The Sheraton people were great hosts and the organizers did a super job in lining up the event.
Wilf is a top drawer person an interesting and short winded speaker. He very ably represents us to dignitaries and potentates around the world. We heard of club projects in some very difficult areas and we got to meet high school students studying in this country under the auspices of Rotary as well as hearing from one of our own who spent a year in France.
Allen Mathis from Alabama is the grandson of Herbert J. Taylor who authored the 4 Way Test. Allen gave a stirring account of his grandpa and how the 4 Way Test came about and what it meant. Ann Lee Hussey is both a polio victim and a devoted advocate for immunizations. Her presentation touched us all. Dave Groner from Michigan wore a Nigerian chieftan's costume and discussed the challenges of polio immunization in an endemic area that has many other challenges perhaps greater than eradicating polio.
Great conference. I wish all of our conferences were this good. I'm glad the three of us got to go.
Linda is a 1966 graduate of Durrett High. She came to WKU for a couple of years then took a job with AT&T. Later she was Commisioner of the Sinking Fund in Louisville. After she married her husband Michael they moved to Mississippi then to Oklahoma. In 1980 Michael's work brought them to Bowling Green. She was manager of the Red Lobster for twenty years until she retired. Beginning in 2003 she became director fo the local office of the Better Business Bureau. Michael and Linda have been married nearly 40 years and have one daughter Michele. Linda says Michele has no children but does have two dogs and six horses. Linda is a member at Living Hope and sings in the choir and is on their vocal team. She has volunteered to assist with the Chamber Orchestra for the last seven years.
Kenneth Webb is a 1961 graduate of Bowling Green High School. He went to Vocational School for six years after high school and in 1970 went to work for the Bowling Green School System. In 1975 he became the Maintenance Director and retired from that position in 2000. Kenneth was a charter member of the Kentucky Schools Plant Managers Organization that was founded in 1978. When the National Organization started in 1995 he was a Charter member of that too.
After his retirement from the school system Kenneth became Director of Facilities for Houchens Industries a position that he still holds.
Kenneth has been married to his wife Bernice for 47 years and they have one son and two grandchildren, a boy and a girl. He enjoys charitable work and was Director of the Hobson House for fifteen years.
Rotary International President Wilf Wilkinson will be in attendance at next week's four district combined conference. He is scheduled to speak at Saturday's banquet. You can check out the program and register on line at www.kytnrotary.org Colonel Jim Allen is on the program Saturday morning. It should be a super conference. Hope to see you there.
Drs. Chuck (Charles W.) and Janet Smith are musicians extraordinare. Chuck grew up in Palmerton, PA just north of Allentown and graduated from Palmerton High School in 1954. His Dad had earned a Masters Degree from the University of Wyoming and Chuck tells me that they went out there every summer and it "became like a second home to me". Which explains why Chuck went there to earn his B.A. degree in 1958. While there he met a little girl from Cheyenne named Janet. They married in 1957 the year Janet graduated from the University. Chuck graduated the next year and he taught in the Montana school system for the next three years and Janet had four boys in their first five years of marriage. From Montana they moved to New Jersey and Chuck earned his Masters from NYU. Janet studied piano at Julliard while they lived in N.J. They moved on to Rochester, NY and both Chuck and Janet studied at the Eastman School of Music. From Rochester they moved to Harrisonburg, VA and Chuck taught at Madison College (now James Madison University) and Janet taught in Salisbury, NC in all black Livingston College. She was working also on her Master's at UNC Greensboro. During this time Janet says they both were performing all the time. From North Carolina they moved to Cape Girardeau and both taught at SE Missouri State. Chuck earned his Ph.D. from Peabody in 1974 and Janet her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri Kansas City. They moved to Bowling Green in 1989 and taught at WKU until Chuck retired in 2002. Before Chuck began to have issues with his health he enjoyed fishing. He has always enjoyed composing and still does that quite a bit. I've heard some of his compositions and they are excellent. Chuck plays the flute and both he and Janet gave concerts in St. Petersburg Russia in 2003. Janet continues to teach piano at home and her pupils have given wonderful performances for our own Rotary club. What is amazing about Janet is that she has been a Park Ranger at Mammoth Cave National Park since 1993 and still occasionally leads the Wild Cave Tour. This involves strenuous climbing through narrow passage ways. As the Aussies would say, "Good on ya." Chuck and Janet have 7 grandchildren ages 26 years to 1 1/2 years.
Joe has been in charge of the Warren County Water District for 38 years. He graduated from Henderson City High in 1961 then came to Western and graduated from here in 1966. Joe had worked part time at Sears when he was at Western and went to work for them after graduation. However he was back in BG by 1967 and has been here ever since. Joe and his wife Sally have been married 45 years and have 4 girls and 5 grandbabies. He enjoys boating and golf.
John Wade is our newest member. He transferred here from the Morehead club and was introduced a couple of weeks ago by Charlie Hardcastle. John is the VP of Goodwill Industries in Kentucky and is in charge of the Western half of Kentucky. His office is on the ByPass across from Zaxby's. John graduated from the White Sulfur Springs High School in West Virginia in 1964 then went on to earn both a B.A. and M.A. in Counseling from Marhall University. He is a widowerwith two daughters. John enjoys golf, dancing, and hiking. Maybe we can get him on Dancing with the Stars. Welcome to our club John.
Our group stood to sing Happy Birthday to LeRoy Underwood who will turn 97 this coming Monday March 24. Surely he is one of the oldest active members in Rotary in the USA. Happy Birthday LeRoy and thank you Carroll Hildreth for leading the song. (Alex appointed Carroll as our official song leader, good move Alex.)
Charles Hardcastle introduced our newest member, John Wade. John is a transfer member who will be working with Goodwill. I'll do an interview and add a photo in an upcoming blog.
Dr. Larry Pack has been in charge of this month's programs and they have been outstanding. We've had history profs from Western talk about 20th Century Presidents. We've heard about TR, FDR, and yesterday about Ike. Dr. Richard Stone did a superb job and introduced a lot of interesting facts about Ike that I had never heard. I had read Eisenhower's biography years ago and my youngest brother is named Dwight David Embry after Ike so I was already a huge fan. My Dad was a WWII vet and idolized Ike. Next week's program is on Reagan by Dr. Jack Thacker It should be a great program.
Janette is a Springfield, Kentucky girl who graduated from Washington County High School in 1975. She earned her degree from WKU in public relations and marketing in 1980 then practiced her trade in Florida for a couple of years. She and her husband owned Royal Barn Florists for seven years before she went back into sales working successively for Jr. Foods, Boise Cascade and now for WBKO for the last eleven years. My son Kenny worked with Janette and Dave Thomas at WBKO and holds both in high regard. Janette is one of seven children. Her husband's name is Brian and she has two daughters and one 8 month granddaughter. She enjoys singing in the church choir and sketching. I told Janette that a really good sales person is hard to find. From all the reports I've heard she's a great one.
Paul is originally from California's Bay Area and graduated from Deanza High School in 1978. In 1982 he graduated from Fresno State in Criminal Justice. He worked retail as a security manager then was a claims manager for Farmer's Insurance. He worked here in Bowling Green as a builder for eight years. For the last six years he's been the Safety Director of Lee Masonry. He and his wife Kellie moved to BG in 1994. His in laws were living here at the time. Paul and Kellie liked what they saw when they viisted and made the move. They have no regrets. Paul enjoys fishing, woodworking, and home projects. I guess you could call him our club's Danny Lipford.
PK for the uninitiated stands for Preacher's Kid. Shaun moved around a bit in his youth but mostly grew up in Michigan. He graduated though from Northside High School in Warner Robins, Georgia. He and I along with Travis Keller are graduates of Florida College in Tampa. He finished his Bachelors Degree from Western in Mass Communications in 2000. He and his wife Katrina were married the previous year and I was shanghaied by his mother-in-law to attend the wedding. She knew virtually no one in town and I knew neither the bride nor the groom. Since then Shaun and I have become good friends. He is a member of a generation that we desperately need to get involved with Rotary.
Well in their eight years of marriage Shaun and Katrina have rewarded their parents with a fine looking young man named Caden who is now 17 months old. I haven't seen Caden for awhile but the last time I saw him I thought he looked a lot like Shaun.
Shaun is a big sports fan and loves to follow the St. Louis Cardinals, the Titans, Michigan, and both WKU and UK basketball. Oh yes I almost forgot to mention that Shaun has a real job, he is the District Manager for Kelly Services.
As the General Manager of the local Macy's store Jerald comes to Rotary pretty dressed up. Today though I caught him in casual clothes. He is still wearing his trade mark smile. Jerald grew up in B.G. and considers himself a Purple but his family moved to Louisville his Senior year of High School so he graduated from Seneca in 1964. He returned that year to Western and soon afterwards took a job with Castner Knott that landed him in Nashville for the next 23 years. He eventually came back to BG to manage the store here and since then he has remained in the same job but the store has become Famous Barr and now Macy's.
Jerald and his wife Jane have two girls and one 18 month old granddaughter. Jerald enjoys playing golf and yard work.
Ed is relatively new to our club having moved to Bowling Green in 2005. He came here to start a software company to protect computers against hostile actions. His company is called Electronic Warfare Associates Government Systems Inc. or EWA for short. An article in this Wednesday's Daily News says Ed is a vice president. Senator Mitch McConnell was in town for the opening of Western's Cyber Defense Lab which is working with Ed's company. The article said that the firm specializes in homeland security technology.
Ed grew up in Kansas City, MO and graduated in 1960 from Paseo High School. This is Harry S Truman country. Ed went to The Citadel and was career Army for the next 26 years. He mustered out in 1990 just weeks before Desert Storm. He retired with the rank of Colonel. He is married to LaJuana Wilcher and they have a farm here in Warren County and raise horses.
Dan lived in Bowling Green until he was six then moved around a lot with his family. His Dad was an aeronautical engineer. His Dad was working at Lockheed in Marietta, GA when Dan graduated from South Cobb High School in 1957. He came to Western a year then joined the Air Force in 1959. Dan stayed in the Air Force 29 years and moved 22 times during that span. He married his wife Sylvia in 1960 and they have two daughters. Each of their daughters have two daughters so they have been nothing if not consistent. Dan loves those girls.
Dan is a decorated flier from the Vietnam War whose MIG shoot down was featured recently on national TV. In addition to starting air museums Dan enjoys flying, gardening, reading and do-it-yourself projects. He joined our club in 1989 when he retired. When you start doing the math Dan has lived here longer than he has lived anywhere. He must like it. How lucky we are to have Dan back in Bowling Green and in our club.
The Music City Sheraton will host all four Kentucky and Tennessee Districts in a rare combined District ConferenceApril 18 to 20. Click for a link to the website. Several years ago we flew into Nashville coming back from a trip visiting our sons in school in Tampa. I noticed as we were landing that cars were having a hard time getting around. The roads were a solid sheet of ice on this particular January night. We tried desperately to find a room in the airport area but they were all filled up. I was beginning to fear for our safety. I came across a young man walking to work carrying his duffel bag and picked him up. He took us the back roads to the Music City Sheraton Inn where he worked. He went in and explained our desperate situation to the manager and we got their best room that night for $40. They have always had a special place in my heart ever since. Make your plans now to go down to the District Conference and make a lot of friends from all over as well as see a bunch of old friends.
Congratulations to Amy Milliken as our club's newest Paul Harris Fellow. This brings our number to about 112 or nearly 70% of our members are Paul Harris Fellows. Amy is the former Amy Hale and a former Miss Hart County. She graduated from Warren East High School in 1989, WKU in 1993, and Chase Law School in 1995. She is married to Wesley Milliken and they have two daughters. Amy is Warren County Attorney. She tells me that she, Wes and the girls enjoy boating on the lake. She gave up water skiing after injuring a knee.
It's appropriate that we talk about Dr. Sally Ray at this time. She is a recognized authority on the airlines' responses to crashes. More about that later. It's interesting to observe Sally when she enters the room at our Rotary Meetings. It takes her 15 minutes to get to her table. She stops by every person she meets and has a pleasant conversation. Frankly she's just a very outgoing friendly person. Not bad for the Chairman of the Communications Department of Western Kentucky University. Sally is also our International Service Director. Sally was born in Mayfield in Western Kentucky. Her dad died when she was 8 and her mom remarried. The family moved to Morehead when she was 12. Sally's Mom was the head of the Nursing Education program at Morehead and her step dad, Col. Arthur Kelly, was head of ROTC. Sally graduated from Morehead's Model High School (Breckinridge High) in 1979. She went to Centre for a year but came back to finish at Morehead. She then got her Masters Degree in Communications from Eastern Michigan University and her Ph.D. from Wayne State in 1988. She taught from 1988 to '90 at UK then at U of L from '90 - '91. She came to Western in 1991 and became Department Chairman in 2000. My son Kenny got his Masters under Sally and she hired him to teach Speech at Western. He loved teaching and is finishing up his Ph.D. and teaching Speech at Florida College in Tampa. He and Sally remain good buds. Sally published a book in 1999 called Strategic Communications in Crisis Management: Lessons from the Airline Industry.You can click on the title to find it on Amazon. Sally is working on a new book to be titled Aviation Accident Investigation as a Tool for Organizational Learning. Sally is married to Dr. Roger Vincent who will be the head of Magna's education program. Roger and Sally are sports car enthusiasts. Sally's Step Dad Col. Kelly is a veteran of three wars. He has a book of WWII oral histories called Battlefirealso available from Amazon and is linked here.
John Rhodes, Vice President of Bluegrass Airport was our guest today at the invitation of General Dan Cherry. John was involved in coordinating the airport's response to the awful tragedy of the crash of Flight 5191 in August of 2006. He talked about the all-out effort by airport personnel and the community. John told us that Bluegrass Airport has over 1,000,000 passengers a year. It has 15 gates and upwards of 84 flights per day. There are two runways. One is a 7000+ foot runway for commercial aircraft and a much shorter 3500 foot runway for daytime general aviation. The accident was attributed to the pilots mistakenly getting on the shorter runway. John said he was awakened by a call to come in to work shortly after 6 a.m. the morning of the crash. A media center was quickly established across Versailles Road at Keeneland. John said the folks at Keeneland were extremely helpful and gracious. Later the Crowne Plaza Campbell House manager asked his registered guests to allow him to place them in neighboring hotels so he could provide the entire complex for family members and others directly involved. The owner of several Appleby's brought food on many occasions. In short things were handled well. John says their website had over 1 million hits in the first 24 hours after the accident. There were 6100 articles written nationally about the accident in the first four days. Interestingly our own member, Dr. Sally Ray, is a leading authority on communications related to aircraft crashes. She and John are both Morehead graduates and Sally made a comment to the group that she had been in a NTSB meeting for two weeks some time after the crash. She said many of the people from NTSB went out of their way to comment on how impressed they were in the way the people in Lexington had responded. Well we're having a great month learning things about aviation. General Cherry keeps tantalizing the group about an ACE ARMSTRONG that he's trying to line up for one of the two remaining programs he has. Could be very interesting as they used to say on Laugh In. By the way I want everyone to know that I soloed a Cessna 150 at Bluegrass Field back in the late 1960's. As far as I know there was only one runway there at the time. Thank God I found it when I got ready to land.
Our attendance last week was 45%. I suspect it was about the same yesterday when Colonel Steve Bullard spoke. For those of you who missed, you missed a good one. To be more accurate you missed a GREAT one! Thanks to our own Air Force General (ret.) Dan Cherry and Carroll Hildreth our January programs have revolved around aviation. Dan had heard Col. Bullard's program at a meeting and invited him to present it to our club. Steve is stationed out of Louisville and is attached to the Kentucky Air National Guard. He was deployed to Afghanistan and returned a little over a year ago. WOW did he have some things to show and tell us.
Col. Bullard began by showing one of those videos you see on TV taken through the windshield of a moving vehicle. The driver was another Guardsman from Louisville who was traveling with a companion. They were driving through a small village in Afghanistan. The scene was dry, dusty, dirty and dangerous. Cars and trucks parked along the road were potential caches of improvised explosive devices. People walking along the road could be homicide bombers. Col. Bullard said that traveling in the country was fraught with danger but necessary anyway. As the guardsman was leaving the village and heading back into open country there was a man walking on the right side away from the camera and another walking on the left back toward the village. Suddenly there was a flash from the left and the camera went dead. The man on the left had gotten nervous and detonated himself prematurely. The driver and his passenger were unharmed. Col. Bullard was eventually put in charge of operations at the Kandahar Airport and effected the return of commercial aviation there. He told the story of a senior Taliban leader that was taken out by a drone operating at 24,000 feet. He talked about President Karsai's brother being the biggest exporter of opium in the country. Col. Bullard remembered our continuing presence in Japan and Germany and said that likewise we will need to be a presence in both Afghanistan and Iraq for a long time. After taking questions from the audience our club rose to give Colonel Steve Bullard of Kentucky's Air National Guard a standing ovation.
Jeff is a former club member and a former lawyer. Before he went to law school at U of L he had been a music educator. He was born in Goshen, Indiana in 1962 but moved to Wabash by age two. He tells me Wabash is near Ft. Wayne and is the home of Crystal Gayle and is also notable for being the first electrically lit city. (Take notes that will be on the final exam.) He graduated in 1980 from Vinton High School then earned a BA in Music Education from U of L in 1984. He went to the University of Iowa and got his Masters in Music with an emphasis on Conducting. He taught music at Floyd Central in Southern Indiana then at Wagner in Louisville. From my point of view Jeff then went into a fugue for the next ten years and earned a law degree from U of L in 1991 then worked for the Huddleston Brothers. His wife Sherryl is from Cave City and a local physician. By the year 2000 Jeff had decided to found the Bowling Green Chamber Orchestra. He was with us today, January 9, to explain to us his philosophy of music. The photo above is from a short DVD that he played during his presentation. Jeff thinks concerts should be both entertaining and enlightening. He also thinks many orchestras forget this. Jeff reviewed the schedule for the remainder of this season and previewed next season. I think anyone who appreciates music at all would be excited about his plans. I did learn that our Chamber Orchestra is entirely professional utilizing not only local musicians but also some from surrounding cities. Bravo Maestro.
Paul is from Northwest Pennsylvania just below Lake Erie and near the Ohio border in a town named Greenville. Actually he attended parochial school in Mt. Vernon, Ohio from grades seven through high school. He graduated in 1959 and went to Andrews University majoring in Theology. He subsequently earned a Masters in Religion in 1964 and a Masters of Divinity in 1975. He helped start a drug dependence program in Williamsburg, KY in 1975 and after a couple of years moved it here in 1977. His program is now called The Bridge to Recovery for which he is President and Chaplain. Their focus now is more on co-dependency and caring for individuals from dysfunctional backgrounds. His wife Carol has published two books. The most recent is called Hooked on Unhappiness. They have two sons one is a CPA in Birmingham and the other a Yale educated PhD cell biolgoist in Boston. Paul says he enjoys walking, bird watching, bicycling, and more and more knocking around with his 6 grandchildren. He said the arrival of the newest one is imminent.
Our first program of 2008 was a History of the Bowling Green Warren County Regional Airport presented by our own Ken Hines. Ken said he grew up close to the airport and spent a good deal of time hanging around there as a youth. Ken is instrument rated with a commercial pilots license. He lived 30 years in Phoenix and says he used to fly quite a bit out West. Our airport has evolved a great deal over the years and is now highly regarded by members of the general aviation community.
Ken graduated from Bowling Green High School in 1952 and got his degree from Bowling Green Business College in 1956. He went to work for the Hartford Insurance Company in 1960 and served in a variety of towns including Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Evansville, St. Louis, and Hartford. In 1973 he was sent to Phoenix where he stayed until 2003 when he came back home. He and his wife Barbara have a son and a daughter and three grandchildren in Texas and three in Missouri. Ken's interests include refinishing furniture including some caning, golf and reading especially about the Civil War. Ken says a project that is near and dear to his heart is an effort to encourage renewed interest in the Barren River. He'd like to see an excursion boat route developed between Bowling Green and the Greencastle Dam which is 12 miles downstream. I hope he is successful. Ken welcome home. We're delighted to have you back in BG.
Kevin Mays is our Director for Vocational Service. Last year he was Director of Community Service and was instrumental in developing a community immunization program for Hispanics. Recently Kevin made a job switch from banking to Accounting. He is now the Tax Manager for J.C. Holland CPAs. Kevin is a 1981 graduate of East Hardin High School in Glendale (think Whistle Stop and Depot Restaurant). He came on down to BG and graduated from Western in 1985. Kevin and his wife Stephanie have one daughter named Remington. He likes to hunt and ride bicycles. Kevin is an all around good guy and hard worker. I'm delighted we were able to keep him in our community.
Club Number 3703 in District 6710
(The Western Half of Kentucky)
We meet Wednesday at Noon at the Bowling Green Country Club 251 Beech Bend Road, Bowling Green KY 42101
Chartered September 1920
President 2009-2010 Kevin Mays
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