Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show July 24th, 2008

While Barack Obama was glad handing 200,000 Germans in Berlin, JOHN CARDOZA, ROY LAVE and AL LIGTENBERG was pressing the flesh of Rotarians in Los Altos. Hand shaking is the symbol for being welcome and Rotarians are good at welcoming people.
 
President SETH MANNING promptly opened his third meeting as the leader in charge and CAREW McFALL provided the patriotism with the salute to the flag and JULIE ROSE provided the Thought of the Day.  Her thought concerned a passage that covered youth to maturity, which is great as long as you don’t throw up along the way.
 
With beautiful weather outside, KURT HUEG convinced us to sing “Roll Out The Barrel” without a barrel in sight, but we had a barrel of fun, we got the blues on the run and we rang out a song of good cheer. 
 
As a welcoming surprise three old timers we haven't seen in a while were in attendance, WALT SCHOLEY, ALAN LAMBERT and IRENE PRESTON graced our floor.  ALAN thanked everybody for his or her cards and calls and said he was in remission from his cancer. “I want you to know, I am not dead yet!” he said.
 
BOO BUE mentioned the recent passing of RONALD E. INCERPI as the third death in the Los Altos Rotary Club this year.  RON was stricken with Polio and, in the recent ten years, has been unable to make the weekly Rotary Club meetings.  Instead a group of six Rotarian Club members went to Ron’s house on Thursdays for an ad hoc meeting prior to our regular meetings.  Boo mentioned that today RON was “present in spirit but not in body”.   A memorial service was held last Saturday.
 
President SETH MANNING brought to our attention the Club needs more pledge cards for the Rotary Foundation Annual Program. “Over 20 pledges have been received and many are double sustainers and even super sustainers,” SETH said.  He also requested more Rotarians should return the Rotary Survey and he wants to see more input on the club’s practices.
 
When it came to recognition, Past President CINDY LUEDTKE started out by thanking KURT HUEG for welcoming her back from her family trip to Wisconsin with his song "The Beer Barrel Polka".  She fined herself $10 for feeling so welcome, but then fleeced the members for a hearty pile of fines.   BAIDRA MURPHY’S happy birthday cost her $40.  JOHN SINES offered $100 in memory of the Rotary Tree in the Community Plaza that is now shredded into compost.  ROY JONES got off light for only paying $50 for a hole in one on the golf course at Moffet Field.
 
KAILAS CHIDAMBARAM volunteered a donation of $100 because it was his 40th wedding anniversary.   PAT FARRELL provided $51 because it was his 51st wedding anniversary and CHUCK LINDAUER offered $50 because it was his first month of retirement from Foothill College.       
 
Then the bragging started with the returning crew of Rotarians from a recent fishing expedition.  DICK HENNING paid $50 for a minnow photo shopped into a king salmon (actually 176 pd halibut) while LOUIS BOREL caught a 200-pound halibut and it only cost him $50.  HENNING said JEAN MORDO caught the most fish.  In defense JEAN said all his small diminutive fish never weighed 200 pounds and he will only pay $5. Of course JEAN is running for the Los Altos Hills City Council and will pay $5 each week for election recognition. This was promptly changed to $10.00 as Cindy deemed that to be the minimum charge.  
 
To consume time CINDY continued the recognition session by asking the members to recall their best vacation stories; "the good, the bad, and the ugly".   MICHAEL STADLEN spent his in South Dakota where he officiated at the wedding of his son and daughter-in-law.  This being the "ultimate destination wedding", since none of the 140-150 guests came from the Black Hills area.  The closest guests came from Sioux Falls, SD - about a 6-8 hour drive away.  And it cost him $50.
 
CAREW McFALL vacationed in Cape Town, South Africa and said this was the best place to live.  After touring the city he spent three days and two nights on a game reserve and saw the big five.  All that for only a $30 fine.
 
STEVE ANDERSON got dinged $10 for showing pictures of his vacation and DENNIS YOUNG paid $10 for the "Vacation from hell".  DAN HOLDEN had all his expenses paid for a trip to Cabo in Mexico by his son and only paid $20 for the privilege.
 
Finally after 20 minutes, the recognition period was over and President SETH MANNING provided advice for us that we should never take a laxative and a sleeping pill on the same night.  Also if, at first you don't succeed, never try skydiving.
 
SETH introduced Past President ROY LAVE, who then provided us with 23 minutes of a slide show on his life and his Rotary presidential experiences.
 
Starting from Homewood, Illinois to the present, ROY experienced a worldwide enjoyment of life.  Along with Penny, his wife, whom he met in 1958 during their college finals, his life is well documented in local history of Stanford University and Los Altos civic organizations.
 
He founded Systan Inc. in 1966 and it continued for 40 years.  He was on the Los Altos City Council from 1974 to 1982 and during his tenure the city purchased Redwood Grove.  As a sad moment for ROY, the Main Street movie house closed.  
 
In 1991 he became president of the Los Altos Rotary and became the input leader for the Los Altos Community Foundation where he is now the executive director. Recalling a fact, ROY said that 29 percent of today’s LARC members belonged in 1991.
 
President SETH said the second half of the program featuring past president MARLENE COWAN was cancelled for today. The program then became a social half hour at 1:02 p.m. and members sat at their tables making conversation and also recalling memories.
 
President elect TRACIE MURRAY said, “I loved hearing about ROY LAVE’s history of the Rotary and all the club events during the golden days of Rotary.”
 
TIM BYRD commented during social hour that about 300 families are stranded at Moffett Field and need services he is trying to provide at the YMCA.  Some spouses are at Moffett Field waiting for deployment. TIM said this is not unique to Moffett, it is occurring at other military installations as well.
  
This writer asked DICK HENNING why people always pick on him and his comment was: “I’m an easy target that’s why people pick on me.”  It turned out to be a short meeting with lots of meat and future expectations.
 

{Copyright � 2008 Los Altos Rotary Club. All rights reserved}

template updated: 06/27/08