Greeters: Van Keck and Jeff Sargent. Inspirational moment by President-Elect Jan Hartzell. Flag salute led by John Swenson

 

Darrick Price conducted member recognition. He first recognized Tom Tankersley (not pictured) who was celebrating a birthday and had a check for the club helping the "blue line" rise on the donation board. Ez Koch (also not pictured) celebrated his birthday today at our Rotary meeting.

 

LV Van Blaricom made an amusing little speech to accompany her donation marking seven years with hubby RAY.

Edwina Castle shared that she celebrated her 21st anniversary with husband John.

Bob Emrick is celebrating 37 years with his wife, NANCY. He says that a marriage between a garbage man and an opera singer is a lot of things, but never dull.

Chris McLaran says his marriage has been far from dull, as well. “Eight years and three kids” is the way he phrased it.

Guest JOAN KOCH announced that she is celebrating her wedding anniversary. It seems that she and her husband were married on the same day as his folks, Ezra and Hanni Koch, but nobody bothered to clue her in until she and her new husband began opening their wedding presents. So from then on, the two couples celebrated together and that tradition will continue with Ezra.

Bob Emrick then announced that he and Ezra are celebrating a special anniversary, too. It was 40 years ago this week that they began working together. And yes, they’ve had their ups and downs, just like any other couple.

 

Ryan Arzner encouraged us all to support the BBQ and Brew fundraiser in the Granary District—his brother has a brew pub, Block 51, in Corvallis, and will be serving beer at the local event.

Brent Adams announced President Chuck’s Demotion Dinner next Friday evening, in lieu of the regular noon meeting. He padded the numbers a bit with the caterer and invited the club members to come out and roast Prez Chuck in the style he so richly deserves.

TAMARA BORGES announced that she won the “Loudest” award at her final Rotary Exchange Student  get-together.

Eric Hanson’s son Abraham just graduated from law school, but his dad joked that he still has to pass the bar exam.

LV Van Blaricom gave us the update on our new club fundraiser, “Run to the Rooftop”, scheduled for August 29^th. That’s just ten weeks away! It’s a 5-10K walk/run for Polio Plus. The committee needs sponsors, volunteers and participants.

What would member recognition be without Darrick Price and his “Swords of Knowledge”? He confounded us with a puzzling question, but as usual, at least one of the tables got the answer—and the rest of us ponied up.

President Chuck asked us to put our spare change in the red polio baskets and as we did so he announced that DORI, a former exchange student from Hungry, is back in town for a visit. If you’d like to see her, please contact Art Bradley.

Lee Vasquez took the podium to remind members to donate their bottle of pinot noir and sign up as a volunteer for the Art and Wine Auction—incredibly, only three weeks away. As one of the founding members of the Club Foundation, he asked us all to please give generously on birthdays and anniversaries so the club can continue to give scholarships and contribute to local projects.

PUBLIC SAFETY AWARDS

Lee alluded to the late Cy Jeter and Cy’s belief that public safety is something we tend to take for granted. Lee first asked Fire Chief RICH LEIPFERT to come up and speak a bit about the Firefighter of the Year, DWIGHT STURN.

RICH said that the McMinnville fire station answered 6,000 calls last year, more than any other single station in the state—pretty cool!

The ability of a station to respond to so many calls is entirely dependent on the condition of its fleet—and that’s where DWIGHT comes in. Not only is he a front-line firefighter and front-line medic, he is also the fleet mechanic. He keeps all the trucks and emergency vehicles in good shape, ready to respond at a moment’s notice. DWIGHT has been with the department for 25 years—eight as a volunteer, and seventeen as a career fireman.

President Chuck presented DWIGHT with the Rotary Firefighter of the Year award and DWIGHT received a standing ovation.

Then it was Sheriff Jack Crabtree’s turn. (Lee told the club that he’d had the privilege of presenting Jack with a Law Enforcement Officer of the Year when he was Sheriff.)

The Current Public Safety Officer of the Year was actually hired by then-Sheriff Vasquez in 1991 and promoted to Sergeant by Sheriff Jack Crabtree. SGT RUSS VAN DE WETTERING supervises eight deputies county-wide, but that’s not all. He established the “Night Court” so kids would have someplace to go on Saturday nights, he created what is known as the Sheriff’s “Meth Trailer,” educating about the dangers of meth use, and with his wife he participates in many volunteer activities. He was instrumental in creating “LICS”—Local individuals Caring for Sheridan. Recently, he helped his father-in-law’s club, the Sheridan Rotary, with their big fund-raiser, the Sheridan Mud Drags. He’s organized a shoe drive for kids overseas and manages to attend 3-4 city council meetings each month.

President Chuck presented RUSS with the Rotary Public Safety Officer of the Year award and RUSS received a standing ovation.

MAIN EVENT

President Chuck took a moment during his last official meeting as President to thank the club for the opportunity to serve this past year. He said it’s been educational, fun and he is grateful for the chance to serve as Club President. The members applauded Chuck for his energetic and enthusiastic service to the club.

Then, before we had a chance to get teary-eyed, President Chuck moved briskly to introduce Ken Till and his long-awaited vocational presentation.

Ken Till has had a most interesting life. He attributes this to choosing Chemistry over Accounting as a major at Sacramento State University. It’s made all the difference for him.

Ken is the Director of the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, with the accent on Space. With 44 years in the aviation and space industry, he qualifies for the term “rocket scientist”—but he wears the mantle lightly. Ken mentioned that while his professional accomplishments have been considerable, he is equally proud of the three years he spent as a volunteer fireman in Pennsylvania and the six years he spent as a reserve police officer in Livermore and Tigard 

Ken’s professional career spanned his years at AeroJet and at Lockheed Research, where he created a re-entry simulator for the Mercury program, and heat shields used in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs—in fact, those heat shields are still used today on the shuttle. He then pursued a master’s degree in metallurgical engineering at Temple University while he worked on jet engines.

Later, Ken found himself working for Pratt & Whitney, who loaned him out to NASA for a Solid Rocket Booster project.  He worked as NASA field support for 22 years.

He married his sweetheart early in life, and they had a family of three children, which blossomed into a family with six grandchildren and one great granddaughter.

When he first retired, NASA hired him as a contractor, but after a couple of years with no appreciable change in the routine of constant travel, he retired again and he and his wife moved to Sunriver. They grew weary of the commute to visit the grandkids, so they chose McMinnville as their new home base.

After all those years with Ken on the road so much, having him home might have seemed a bit wearing, because his wife soon suggested he volunteer at the Evergreen Aviation Museum. He said he went out there and was in a green docent vest the next day. He volunteered for 2 ½ years before being tapped to head up the Space Museum. He says he loves it and being there has reignited his passion for the field. Sometimes Ken finds himself searching the web to find answers to questions the guests pose.

Ken is particularly proud of a plan to save $70,000 per year in energy costs and cut kilowatt hours by 80% in the Museum. He is also pleased to partner with Dr. Maryalice Russell of the McMinnville School District. The Evergreen Aviation and Space Academy (EASA) represents a successful collaboration between business and education and has been a long-cherished dream of Del Smith’s.

Right now, Ken and Maryalice are working with the University of North Dakota on another potential partnership—stay tuned.

In conclusion, Ken said he and his wife are happy to be so close to their children, after years of living in different time zones. The kids are in Beaverton, Aloha, and Newberg, so he is able to see them frequently. Ken said he only wished he’d had the time to be a part of Rotary sooner, but frequent travel prevented him from making the commitment.

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