August 30, 2013

             Reporter: Rich Shearer     Editor: Ron Brown         Photographer: Leander Hauri                   

President:  Hays Englehart 2013 - 2014          

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Well spoken, Joe

Form the lips of Joe Bettencourt to our ears: "Choose to make a difference instead of being indifferent today." That sounds like Rotary in a nutshell.

VISITING ROTARIANS

John Sherry - Lafayette's finest

GUESTS OF OTHER PERSUASIONS

The always-lovely Agatha Sue Lee

The still-checking-us-out Andrew Johnson

BIRTHDAYS, ANNIVERSARIES, AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS GOODIES

Rich, in barrister disquise

Rich Shearer turned 56, and though he is now older, he shows no signs of being the least bit wiser.  He did, however, enjoy a lovely road trip to Crater Lake, Central Oregon and Mt. Lassen with blushing bride Valerie, and still managed to get a nice dinner at Fat Apples, a Berkeley institution (and Rich certainly should be institutionalized).

Say what, Bob?

The Rieggs had their 54th wedding anniversary, celebrating 12 of the happiest years of Pat's life.  According to Bob, the event was spent driving about Napa and Sonoma, and they "saw some great food."  Hey, I don't make it up, I just report it (for the most part). 

Marty Cryan's birthday is close enough to his grandson's that the events are celebrated together.  Marty did not report whether he liked the clown that was hired. Time at Serene Lakes featured prominently, though.  

Dave Waal was all set to indulge Laura's every whim and caprice for her birthday, but since their daughter was heading off to Spain the next day, Laura settled for a family dinner on their deck. 

Take your time Kevin

Kevin Croak was all prepared with exotic, romantic plans for Lynne's birthday this very day.  He would have told us what they were, but then he would have had to kill us. 

Amy McCowan just got married, and proud papa Skip made a $100 Paul Harris donation in her honor to mark the occasion. 

ROB ROY WILL BE GETTING AROUND

By the time you read this, Rob Roy will have been proudly displayed at the Scottish Games at the Alameda County Fairgrounds over Labor Day weekend.  Nothing like caber tossing and haggis to loosen a Scotsman's purse strings, or so the theory goes.

Fossil is the man to see, right now!

This is the first, but most decidedly not the last, joint raffle ticket selling endeavor, reports Ron Brown.  Rob Roy will be in Alamo on Saturday, September 7, and at the Solano Stroll in Albany on Sunday, September 8.  Later events will be at the Lafayette Art & Wine Festival, the District Conference in Chico, and the Reservoir Run, to name a few.  We need volunteers to help show off Rob Roy and allow the local hoi polloi to have the honor, nay, the privilege, of purchasing raffle tickets for this bee-yoo-tee-full boat. Contact John Fazel to sign up.  It is a blast, and because people have such a visceral reaction to this hand-crafted piece of floating art, it will be the easiest sales gig you will ever have.  

SPEAKING OF THE DISTRICT CONFERENCE . . . .

Hays knows all, or he makes it up

Not only will Rob Roy be at the District Conference from October 16-18 in Chico, six or so of your fellow Lamorinda Sunrisers will be there, too.  And you can join them.  Go to the District 5160 website (there is a link in our website) or google it to register.  It's a great way to learn more about Rotary and make friends in other Clubs.  It also means brownie points for President Hays in some mysterious way that has never been adequately explained. 

If you have never been to a District Conference before, you should go to this one.  If you have been to a District Conference before, you should go to this one.  Questions?  Ask Hays.

THANK YOU SIR, MAY I HAVE ANOTHER?

If Mark can't do it...can anybody?

The normal Club President enjoys his or her year of being a human pinata and then quietly slips into the rear of the meeting room at the end of the term.  However, Mark Roberts, as we already knew, is most decidedly not normal.  Since either we didn't hit him hard enough, or he likes abuse more than is healthy, Mark will be stepping up to serve as the 2014-15 District 5160 Assistant District Governor for the Fab Five Clubs (Lamorinda Sunrise, Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, and Rossmoor).  Will a District Governorship be in his future?  Inquiring minds want to know . . . .

WE ARE NOT MEETING AT CELIA'S ON SEPTEMBER 13

In case that headline wasn't clear enough, let me explain it to you: WE ARE NOT MEETING AT CELIA'S ON SEPTEMBER 13.

Now that we have that straight, we can move on to where we will be meeting on September 13.  And the winner is: the Oakwood Athletic Club, also known as "The Big Gym Place at the west end of Mt. Diablo Blvd." 

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COUNTING THE BUDDY BURKE WAY

Mr. Charm lays it on

I will not attribute this to the public education system in Georgia, as this reporter is not at all certain that any elementary or high school could have straightened Buddy Burke out.  So that means it is his own brand of peculiarity that led him to count off informational items re tonight's special TGITLFOTM at CalShakes as follows: (A) thanks to John Sherry for all his help in getting this set up; (2) it "might be cold this evening" (note that saying it "might be cold" at the Bruns Amphitheater in the evening is roughly akin to saying that there is a chance that the Pacific Ocean will be a bit damp today); (C) bring your own beverage; and (4) something about a shuttle from the parking lot. 

VOCATIONAL MINUTE - SIXTY SECONDS WELL SPENT

Ernie's happy to tell all

Ernie Furtado works for Textainer. Has for 22 years.  His title is Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer.  He does the accounting and, more recently, attended the board meeting in Bermuda.  (Hey, it's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.)  So what does Textainer do?  It is the world's largest container leasing operation, with about  million 20 to 40 foot steel containers, the kind that go from trucks to ships to trains around the world.  Textainer is a publicly traded company, having gone public a few years ago on the NYSE.

ROB ROY KEEPS ON SAILING

The events where Rob Roy will show up which are confirmed so far are:

 8/31 - 9/1 Scottish Highland Games in Pleasanton

 9/7     Alamo Music Festival

 9/8     Berkeley Solano Stroll

 9/21-22    Lafayette Arts & Wines

 10/18-20 District 5160 Conference, Chico

 10/27   Lamorinda Reservoir Run

Mr. Smug Mug explains the rules

PROGRAM - WHY DO ONE "EXPOSE YOURSELF" WHEN WE CAN DO THREE?

Marty Cryan.  Chris Laszcz-Davis.  Jeff Hawkins.  Three wonderful people.  Three relatively newly-minted Rotarians.  And now, the three latest "Expose Yourself' presenters.  This time around, for reasons known but to himself, Buddy Burke proclaimed this the month of the "mini" Expose Yourself, with each presenter being given four minutes to regale us with the stories of their lives. Buddy, and his magical iPad timer, rode herd.

You're on Marty

Marty went first.  He was born in Manhattan and grew up in Queens.  Rumor has it both are somewhere in New York City.  Marty holds a BA from Queens College and an MBA from St. John's, thereby cementing his New York bona fides.  He and Ann have been married for 43 years. They have three daughters and three grandchildren, with another on the way.  All are more or less local. 

From 1964 to 1970, Marty was in the Marine Reserves.  Neither he nor the Marines seem to have been too badly scarred by the experience.

He spent 42 years working for CitiBank.  After stints in management training and in marketing, Marty moved into the lending side of things.  And there he stayed, primarily in commercial and construction lending.

So how did Marty and family end up in California?  CitiBank bought Fidelity Savings, and Marty came west to help run the place. 

Marty is now retired. He likes history, theater, art, and traveling with Ann. 

The clock is ticking, Chris

Next came Chris.  Like Marty, she is an ex-pat.  She is the daughter of Polish parents: her father fought in the Free Polish forces in World War II and her mother spent the war years in a Siberian concentration camp.  They came to England after the war and Chris was born there.  In 1957, Chris and her parents came across "the pond" on the Queen Elizabeth (as distinct from the later Queen Elizabeth II).

Chris was all set to attend some fly-by-night college in South Bend, Indiana (Notre Dame, for those of you who do not recognize the tongue-in-cheek reference) on scholarship (academic, not football) when she heard the siren song of a groundbreaking environmental engineering program at the University of Minnesota.  Chris thereby became a Golden Gopher instead of a Golden Domer.

This education launched Chris on what she describes as a wonderful career. Among the positions she has held are serving as an Executive Vice President at Kaiser and four years at Lawrence Livermore Lab (motto: "Building better bombs than Los Alamos since 1952").  She is now a consultant with an office in Desco Plaza advising companies about stuff this reporter does not begin to understand. 

Chris met her husband at a professional conference.  (Apparently, those environmental engineer confabs are pretty rowdy affairs.)  After 36 years of wedded bliss, they have two kids, one who just got a bachelor's degree from Cal Poly and another who just got a graduate degree from UC Davis.  Chris closed by observing that "you have to love your kids, but we really like our kids." 

Perfect timing Jeff

That left Jeff.  He was born in San Francisco. His family moved to Orinda when he was three.  He has several Rotary connections, as his mother is a long-time Orinda Rotarian and his brother went to Japan on a Rotary exchange program. 

Jeff played tennis on the Dartmouth College team.  In fact, he played well enough to get a degree from Dartmouth, which he put to good use teaching tennis in the Hamptons (the ritzy part of Long Island, not the moderately-priced motel chain).  He even was a professional tennis player for a year and was internationally ranked.  Jeff also served on ski patrol for a time (no word on whether he was internationally ranked in that). 

Jeff left the bright lights and glamour of tennis to attend the Duke University School of Business, which has led him to a career in financial services.  He is now with United Capital.

Jeff is married to Jenny, and they have four kids. 

Thank you, Marty, Chris and Jeff, for sharing your lives with us today.  You all did a great job of not letting Buddy's four minute countdown throw you.