Our Rotarian of the Day today is John Benjamin. John is now retired after spending over 40 years in financial marketing and sales. Before he retired, he was Area Sales Manager for Capital One Auto Finance, a Division of Capital One Financial. Prior to joining Capital One, he was Senior Vice-President of Marketing for Tulsa’s Western National Bank.
John’s volunteer involvement in the Tulsa area is extensive. Since 1968, he has served in leadership positions with over 30 Tulsa non-profit Boards, Commissions and Civic Organizations. Also, he served the Tulsa City Council from 1990-1996 and was Chairman in 1995. He is the Co-Founder of the Oklahoma Special Olympics and Oklahoma Walk for Mankind.
John has been a member of Southside Rotary since 1982. He has served Southside as President, Secretary, Director and Chairman of the Southside Rotary Foundation. During the year John was President,m Southside Rotary was awarded #1 club in District 6110 which at the time was the largest Rotary District in the world. He has been awarded RI’s Paul Harris Fellow four times and Southside’s Bill Crews Community Service Award two times.
John successfully chaired two major community development projects for Southside Rotary, the Langenheim Park Murrah Memorial Children Playground which Southside was awarded the Tulsa Park Department Council Oaks Award and the past two years Southside’s Biscuit Acres Dog Park at Hunter Park recently named the #24th “Best Dog Parks” out of approximately 2,000 dog parks in the U.S. by the national publication Dog Fancy Magazine. Both projects raised approximately $150,000.00 in community donations toward project completion.
John has been married to his wife, Laura, for 23 years. They have two married daughters, Piper & Katie, and three grandchildren; Carmen, Beatty and Sloan. In his leisure time, John enjoys golf, spectator sports, trout fishing, white water rafting, snow skiing and vacation travel.
Thank you, John, for arranging today’s program.
TODAY’S PROGRAM
Today’s program will be some past presidents of Southside giving some highlights of their year as president. This is always a fun program, one that you will enjoy. If you are not present, you will miss an entertaining program.
A LOOK BACK AT AMERICA’S FIRST LADIES
Martha Washington (1731-1802)
There was nothing high-falutin’ about America’s very First Lady. She was, said an acquaintance, “simple, easy, and dignified”. She was called “Lady Washington”, dressed plainly in homespun garb and loved knitting stockings for the soldiers.
Martha Washington was born Martha Dandridge in June, 1731. She came up the easy way. The daughter of a wealthy Virginia planter. As a child she did the things rich girls did, studied with a tutor, embroidered, played the spinet and rode horseback. She began moving in high society when she was fifteen.
Martha was solicitous of her husband on all social occasions. She never permitted guests to talk politics and when visitors tried to draw her out on public issues she tactfully steered them to non-controversial topics. She also saw to it that her husband did not stay up too late. When the clock struck nine, she was in the habit of telling guests: “The general always retires at nine o’clock, and I usually precede him.”
She called her days as the President’s wife her “lost days.” On May 11, 1802 after seventeen days of illness, she died at the age of seventy-one.
Observed the Port Folio of her passing: “To those amiable and Christian virtues which adorn the female character, she added the dignity of manners, superiority of understanding, a mind intelligent and elevated. The silence of respectful grief is our best eulogy.”
THIS MONTH’S BIRTHDAYS
Billy Ward
Glenn Burnett
Randy Sullivan
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY (June 29 – July 5)
June 29, 1995: U.S. Space Shuttle docks with Russian Space Station
June 30, 1936: Gone With the Wind published
July 1, 1997: Hong Kong returned to China
July 2, 1964: President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act
July 3, 1863: Battle of Gettysburg ends
July 4, 1776: United States declared independence
July 5, 1946: Bikini introduced
A ROTARY MOMENT
In June, the Rotary International Convention in Montreal, Quebec, Canada concluded. The International Convention is Rotary at its best, Rotarians coming together to enjoy congenial fellowship while discussing the more serious business of service.
It has been said many times, that you cannot truly appreciate the internationality of Rotary until you attend a convention. There were Rotarians attending from more than 100 countries, speaking dozens of different languages, but all were eager to communicate with with words, smiles and laughter, effectively bridging any cultural or linguistic differences. I will never forget my first International Convention in the Republic of Singapore. What an experience.
A WILL ROGERS COMMENT
About Government and Politics: “A flock of Democrats will replace a mess of Republicans… It won’t mean a thing. They will go in like all the rest of ‘em. Go in on promises and come out on alibis.”
HOW ABOUT THESE APPLES?
“If your dog is fat, you aren’t getting enough exercise.”
ABOUT AGING…
Is it common for people over sixty to have problems with short-term memory storage? Storing memory is not the problem, retrieving it is. We all get heavier as we get older because there’s a lot more information in our head. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.
A QUOTE
“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
DUES ARE DUE
The first quarter dues are due at this time.
DISTRICT 6110 HAS A NEW GOVERNOR
Wallace Williams is the new Governor for our District (6110) for the 2010-2011 Rotary year. He will be visiting our club in December.
WE HAVE A NEW PRESIDENT
On Wednesday evening, June 30, 2010 the Rotary Club of Southside Tulsa installed a new president for the 2010-2011 Rotary year. Tom Wilson is the man. Let us all get behind Tom and have the greatest year ever in the history of Southside. WE CAN DO IT…….. Congratulations Tom.
LAST WEEK…
At the Change of Horses, we inducted a new member, Gwen Goff! Gwen, we’re glad to have you in the club.
We also awarded the Bill Crews Community Service Award and the Roy Gardner Vocational Service Award at the Change of Horses. Corey Williams, the executive director of Sustainable Tulsa, won the Bill Crews Community Service Award, and we awarded the Roy Gardner Vocational Service Award to Ken Bays. His widow, Roz, was there to accept.
