Los Altos Rotary Club

Home of the Annual Rotary
Fine Art Show

October 11th 2007

Welcome to what seemed to become Hewlett Packard Memorial day at the Los Altos Rotary Club, but what was actually Los Altos City Council Candidate day.

President JOHN MOSS chimed the bell and started the meeting promptly at 12:15 p.m. Arriving Rotarians had been greeted by ROY JONES, PAT FARRELL, and JACK HEIDMILLER. LEE LYNCH was missing from the cash box this week, and so rookie money changer WYATT ALLEN was holding up the line and forcing the greeters to work overtime.

President JOHN asked DICK BLANDING to lead the club in the Pledge of Allegiance. Then SHIV SHASTRI stepped up to lead us in song, and “The hills were alive, with the sound of--- well, the sound of something, as we struggled through the Rogers and Hammerstein classic. SHIV promises to give us something easier next time, like “Trouble in River City.”

BONNIE BURDETT gave the Thought for the Day: asking us, “Do you realize?” where you are in your life: you are in the place that you have worked to get to all your life, and the place to begin fulfilling all your dreams and possibilities.

We were graced with visiting Rotarians, Judy Hannemann from Mountain View, and Ed Sox, a former member of our club. We also had a plethora of guests, all apparently interested in the candidate speeches. PAUL NYBERG, SANDY WHIPPLE, GINNY LEAR, JULIA ROSE, BOB ADAMS, and RICH CASEY all introduced guests. STEVE YARBROUGH introduced his daughter.

Announcements and Pronouncements

President JOHN announced that our Health Committee director, good old Dr. JACK “WHATSHISNAME” (aka HIGGINS) had arranged for flu shots to be available at the club on November 15, starting early at 11:30. Members and family can all come for shots for the small charge of $20.

JACK KELLY announced that the San Jose Rotary Club is sponsoring Rotary Day at Spartan Football, a special event on November 10 when the Spartans play New Mexico. JACK also announced that stalwart member, and RotaCare director, MEL KAHN was in charge of this event, selling tickets, raising funds, running pass-catching drills, etc. MEL then gave an inspired speech, stating, “Huh?”. As it turns out, Mel is not really connected to this event. So you football junkies should leave him alone and talk to JACK.

DICK HENNING then announced that he had some extra tickets to the distinguished speakers’ forum that evening. Some guy named Al Gore was going to talk about the weather (yeah, it’s raining). What could be more boring? So we all missed our chance to see this unknown struggling scholar before he became famous the next day by winning the Nobel Peace Prize (along with the UN). History touches Los Altos again, and only DICK was there to see it.

LARRY CHU announced that there is a tough softball game coming up next Monday at 8:30 against San Jose Rotary (the “Four Horsemen”of Rotary Softball), and Larry put out a call for all hands to show up and help.

TRACIE MURRAY reminded us that the A Sante’ event (or as it is also known, ASANTÉ !!!, the most exciting night in Rotary) is fast approaching. On October 24, our 5 clubs will be holding the major fundraiser for one of our major projects, Rotacare. It is a night of wine, dinner and song. It is always a ton of fun. TRACIE announced that she is still accepting donations for the silent and live auctions. Our signups to attend are lagging a bit, so let’s make that last-minute push and pass Sunnyvale again in attendance.

KAILAS CHIDAMBARAM was please to announce that the dinner for the Coaniquem Latin American burn center went well, and that our former level of donations ($1350) had increased to $1800 and we could now provide full sponsorship for three burn victims at the center. SAM PESNER then identified the three young children who we would sponsor. These included Manuel and Martina who we continue to sponsor for a second year (both needing continued treatment for severe burns) and the new person, Daniella, age 13.

JOHN SYLVESTER announced that the Bus Barn Follies was opening this week. The initial night was sold out, but tickets are available for later shows. JOHN promised that some of our Los Altos Council members would be tweaked.

Ten-Minute Talk

Red-Badger MARV PATTERSON stepped up to give a 10-Minute summary of his life and career. He started with a signature event of this childhood in Kenmore WA; climbing a pine tree at age of 8 to watch planes fly overhead and land on the nearby lake. This started his lifelong love of planes.

He earned a degree in Engineering at Univ. Washington. In 1963 he married and moved to Oxnard California and began his family of 3 children while he worked at the Naval Missile Center. In 1973 he began work with Hewlett Packard, and in 1985 came to Palo Alto with HP, to continue his work in innovative product development. MARV extolled the corporate culture at HP as big enough to make big things happen, but also supportive of new ideas. In 1990 he started a new phase with his second wife Mary Lou. Then in 1993, he left HP after 20 years, and started his own company, consulting with companies on new product development. After 13 years, he retired in 2006.

MARV summarized the highlights in his life as (1) his childhood in Kenmore, (2) both (yes both) of his marriages, and (3) his time as an aviator. The last highlight was epitomized his Cessna, “Julia,” which his wife calls his “Aluminum Mistress”. MARV confirmed that his extensive experience confirms that private enterprise is the engine that produces innovation. He also mentioned some great engineers he has worked with, including one egotistical fellow who uttered the classic line, “Humility from one of ability is hypocrisy.” MARV said we were free to use that one anytime.

Fines

JOE LOCONTE took the mike to a round of thunderous silence, to relieve a few folks of a few bucks. It seems that a local group of footballers had upset the NUMBER ONE team in the polls; mighty, unbeatable USC. (A team whose mascot is a tree could beat a team whose mascot is a condom??). No matter what the circumstances, all right-thinking Bay Areans hate USC football, so there were warm feelings throughout the club. The feelings were warmer as JOE got USC alums STEVE SHEPHERD and TRACIE MURRAY to pony up a few bucks for the duck bucket. Feelings were not quite so warm and fuzzy as JOE also got all the Stanford alums to pony up a few bucks too. He then tried to get the CAL alums, but this group, being smarter than the other two, dodged the bullet.

CLARI NOLET, pumped in $40 in recognition of her daughter, who has started all varsity soccer games at Tufts as a freshman. JACK HEIDMILLER announced that in recognition of his 52nd wedding anniversary (followed by his wife allowing him a 4-day fishing trip), he would contribute $52. Picking up the theme, BO BUE volunteered $56 for his 56th wedding anniversary. JOE himself then announced he would put in $65 for his 65th birthday. In the midst of this, JOANNA MEDIN contributed $50, but it was NOT for her birthday. CAREW McFALL, then stood square in the sights of the finemaster to deliver a play-by play account of the untested Stanford quarterback starting his first-ever game in the intimidating cavern of the LA Coliseum against the top team in the country. With no encouragement from the club, CAREW then continued to recount the highlight plays as Stanford completed a 4th and twenty pass for a first down by inches (shades of Elway’s 4th and 17 in the Big Game that had “THE PLAY”), and finally connected on a 10-yard touchdown pass on 4th down to win. The club then realized that CAREW had pulled off the old “stall” defense and had burned all the remaining fine time. JOE was caught off-guard and fined CAREW only $40. With only a scant few second left, JOE could manage only a meek $20 stab at DAVE SMITH.

The Weekly Program: Candidates For Los Altos City Council

The program for the day was speeches by the four candidates for the three seats on the LA City Council. The four are, David Casas, Megan Satterlie, Ron Packard, and Randall Hull. To avoid any lack of balance, their speeches are not summarized here. For background on the candidates, see www.smartvoter.org. For a chance to see them again in a larger forum, there is a Candidates Forum scheduled for October 25, at the Los Altos Council Chambers. There was considerable interest by the club members in the four candidates, so as the meeting ended at 1:30, President John announced that the many who wished to stay could participate in a question and answer session with the candidates.