October 31

THE OPENING & GUESTS

Dirk Checketts and Dennis Gray bravely served as greeters in spite of a pirate attack on this Halloween day.	Brian Owen (son of Al) and Sherry Hall, both usually representing Western Title, morphed into pirates for the day and spread grief and ill will all around town. Dirk was a bit scary himself coming dressed in the biggest Cub Scout uniform known to mankind.		Bruce Huffman brought us our invocation remembering Hanni and Ezra Koch’s struggle as Hanni recovers from her stroke. Somebody resembling Rosemari Davis led us in the Pledge.

Kris Olsen introduced Karen Sears and Richard Lampke, parents of students of the month.		Bruce Huffman introduced Jeff Long of Oregon Employment Services.

Jere Jackson, guest of the Club, was introduced by Dick Sadler.		Gary Rueter introduced Norm Aldred, visiting Rotarian from the Newberg Early Birds.

Norm explained that he recently took a trip and was sent off with 10 Newberg Early Bird banners. He was told that he would be fined $50 for every banner that came back with him. He had the tenth banner in his hand and was relieved to be able to exchange banners with President Jess Davis.		Back to Kris Olsen, who introduced inbound exchange student Dory Jenei.
MEMBER RECOGNITION

John Larsen started member recognition by throwing some money in the pot himself for the First Federal pumpkin carving contest held just before Rotary whose celebrity judge was Al Owen. Al, not wanting to offend any clients, commented that all the pumpkins were winners. He then contributed for the pirate attack at the beginning of our meeting.		On the eve of his birthday, Dick Sadler commented that it was a pleasure being a member of McMinnville Rotary. He received spontaneous applause when he reminded all that he had originally set out to be an attorney and ended up taking a side trip to other employment thereby providing us with one less attorney. He also said that this equates to the smaller donation he is able to pay.

John asked John Balwit to take the camera from Bob Thompson so we could appropriately record his birthday. Bob’s birthday is coming up on 11/2. Apparently, Bob wanted to make sure that his picture was included because the photo diskette included a picture of him with his contribution in hand already recorded (and included here) in front of his house.

Continuing last week’s recognition of the Chamber Awards Banquet and in recognition of her disguise, John called on Rosemari Davis. After she tried to convince us that she was really Dr. Flat U. Lence, she questioned why she should pay a fine for Dr. Erik Swensson’s award last week. John explained that Maryalice Russell had paid $5 for every teacher in the school district last week. Well, John may have exaggerated a bit, but he did get Rosemari to pay up.		Eve Barnett offered a brag about son Jed’s sports accomplishments. She also said that other son Sam hadn’t done so well and injured his knee requiring surgery. Brent Adams gave his fatherly advice asking Eve to encourage Sam to have his surgery NOW so he will be ready for the rugby season.
Rosemari asked that the Wine and Art Committee meet after the regular meeting. As somewhat of an afterthought, John decided to fine Joe Steward for forgetting that there were 31 days in October. As can be seen from the program, we were lucky for this oversight because we are able to have a couple of re-vocationals. John announced the next three meetings: November 7 – Rotary Foundation program, November 14 – Interact Program, November 21 – Commissioner Leslie Lewis. Finally, John asked everybody how he or she liked the build your own sandwich, salad, and soup bar. The applause indicated a thumbs up!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Eve Barnett had good news from Interact. They have a new advisor with another considering helping out. She said the seniors are suffering from “senioritis”, but that Corey’s being back has been a big help and he is doing an awesome job.

Kris Olsen introduced Mac Hi’s Students of the month. Nick Lampke is the son of Richard and Stephanie Lampke. He is very active in instrumental music playing in the Jazz ensemble, Pep Band, and with other groups. Aaron Sears is deeply into science. He wants to go to OSU (more spontaneous applause) and study veterinary science. President Jess shared some very disturbing news regarding Linda Stephenson who is very ill and in the hospital. Norm Goss said that Rob is “culinarily challenged” and welcomes food donations that can be deposited directly into their refrigerator.
MAIN EVENT
John Larsen introduced the program for Joe Steward whose voice had ceased to function. He announced that Norm Goss and Ray Fields would both give re-vocationals. When asked who would go first, Ray yielded to seniority.

Norm wished everybody “happy last day of the month” – a family tradition. It appears they also have celebrated the first day of the month, and probably every day in between. Norm was born several years ago on November 23 in Portland. He can honestly claim to be a native Oregonian even though he was raised in Seattle. His mother had emigrated from South Dakota (smart lady). In 1942 he moved to McMinnville. He was involved with Rotary in 1945-46 and they met above where Sage is today (1893 Building). In the fall of 1947, he became a 3^rd year science teacher at Newport HS and Harry Cure was his student! He decided to go to optometry school. He couldn’t go to Pacific U. because of the rivalry with Linfield. Berkley was too much like Oregon. He finally decided on S. California. After obtaining his degree in optometry, he found that Burt Miller was selling his practice in McMinnville. Burt waited to sell for one year while Norm took advantage of a position at an eye clinic in California. Norm finally took over the practice the same year Russia launched Sputnik. He served on the State Board of Optometry for ten years. He thought he was a confirmed bachelor having taking courses – but never really becoming confirmed. On 4/23/77, he terminated his bachelorhood marrying Phyllis Martin. Both realized that, at age 53, it was improbable that they would celebrate a 50^th anniversary, so they decided to celebrate montheversaries. Displaying his lust for detail, Norm explained that he had now been married 26 years, 6 months, and 8 days. They celebrated their 318^th montheversary 8 days ago. He and Phyllis have enjoyed flying to many locations in the Mooney that he purchased in 1968. One such visit was to McMinnville Tennessee, our namesake. He took an armload of goodies from Oregon. He also said that, even though they have traveled in and out of the U.S. extensively, he has 100% attendance. There used to be a much smaller window in which to do a make-up and he can’t understand why everybody doesn’t have 100% attendance today with the increased timeframe provided and the help of the Internet to find a make-up club. He closed with stories about running the clock and being an official at football games.

Ray Fields has been a member (with perfect attendance) since 1963. A quick poll of the group indicated that just about everybody except Ez Koch, Norm Goss, and Jack Price had joined since Ray had joined. Ray is one of four children. He was born in Los Angeles and attended Beverley Hills High School. His mother was from Chicago and father from Pittsburgh. His father was the only sibling born in the U.S. Seven others were born in either Russia or Poland. His father was a doctor. Ray eventually made it to Linfield College. Ray first became interested in radio broadcasting while attending St. Lawrence University. He briefly served as a bank teller, then found his way to a radio station in Ridgecrest, California followed by another in Casper, Wyoming. He did some television camera work. Next was electronics school in S. California allowing him to work on transmitters. He became interested in 2-way communication while broadcasting in Banning, California. It was there small world department occurred when he met the late Mort Kresner, former publisher of the Banning Record-Beaumont Gazette Newspaper, before Mort came to McMinnville to work at Oregon Lithoprint. And the additional small world story of meeting Banning branch manager of the Security First National Bank and former employee of First Federal Savings and Loan here in McMinnville, Bill Eaton. In 1963, he was able to purchase KMCM in McMinnville – the same year he joined Rotary. In 1968, he sold the station to Norm Aldred (visiting today from Newberg Early Birds). He thought he might have been the youngest new member of Rotary at that time and probably going forward (except for Patrick Fuchs.) In 1964, he married Jackie Lancaster who had two kids. They then had two more. He continues his fatherly roll with all four. In 1969, he acquired Autofone Co. in Portland, a pre-cellular 2-way communication enterprise. His competition with AT&T proved tough and provided ongoing litigation. A settlement occurred in his favor in 1982 and he was then bought out by MCI. He retired in 1982 and became very active with Rotary and in community service volunteering his time with other civic groups in our community. In 1983, his son Josh was sponsored by McMinnville Rotary as an outbound exchange student to Japan. This was also Ray’s first year attending a District Conference. Ray strongly recommends that every Rotarian take in a District Conference – they are habit forming. Ray served on the District Youth Exchange Committee from 1986 to 1994 and was chairman for the last two years. After a brief interim marriage, Ray met Yasuko in the summer of 1989. Yasuko was also involved in a sister city exchange program between her home town of Monbetsu, Hokkaido and Newport, Oregon. They have visited Japan and family many times since their marriage in 1990. Ray and Yasuko have been to thirteen Rotary International Conventions. Among his many Rotary activities, Ray has served as Assistant District Governor, District Foundation Alumni Chair, District Webmaster and District Internet Communications Officer. Ray concluded by saying he had followed Norm’s example and hasn’t missed a Rotary meeting in 40 years. In questions, Craig Singletary asked Ray to tell about the time he made two Rotary meetings in a single day. Ray explained that he attended the Rotary Club of Narita, Japan meeting that started at 12:30 PM on a Friday. Following the meeting he got on a plane, flew to Portland, drove to McMinnville and attended his second Rotary Club meeting in McMinnville on the same Friday, where the meeting started a half hour before the first meeting at 12 noon. Can't do that anymore since there are no direct flights from Japan to Portland. Jess adjourned a very enjoyable and informative meeting.
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