Nelson Rue's Reflections

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.

Homage to Dr. J.N. McCormack

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.

Dynamic Allison Noffsinger Speaks

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.

New Member L.R. Kennon

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.

District Conference Report

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.

You Better Be Good - BBB's Linda Chambers

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

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.