Our Rotarian of the day is past president Don den Daas. Don was born in Amsterdam,
Netherlands and raised in California. He joined the club in 1986 and has served as
International Director, Vocational Director, Club Secretary, Vice-President and President.
Don has also held several positions the Foundation Board, including president in 2007
and 2008, and is currently a board member again. Don also serves Rotary as an Assistant
District Governor. Don is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow, Southside Star and Rotary
Benefactor.
Don is married to Judy (also a Paul Harris Fellow) an eighth grade teacher in the Jenks School system. Judy will be starting her 42nd year in the classroom this fall.
They have been married for 39 years and have two adult children. After completing a tour
of duty in the Army, Don completed his education at Colorado State University-Pueblo
(formerly the University of Southern Colorado), receiving a BSBA in 1974. Currently, he
is President of Edge Technologies, a company that sells, installs and maintains traditional
and IP-based telephone systems, CCTV systems, as well as all types of low voltage
cabling.
TODAY’S PROGRAM
Medhi Khezri
Our speaker today is our very own Medhi Khezri. Medhi moved to the United States in January 1978 and graduated from Harding Academy in Searcy, Arkansas. Then, he went to Rogers State College in 1979 and graduated and transferred to TU in 1981.
While in school, Medhi worked at the Oaks Country Club. After a year at the Oaks, he was promoted to management, and Medhi quit school and decided to get into food business. He worked at the Oaks until December 1989.
While working there, he and his brother had started a sign company, and Medhi started to work there to help grow the company. In 1991, they purchased TiAmo from the original owners, and the rest is history.
Medhi has been married for 20 years and has two boys, one 19 and one 18. His oldest starts college this fall and his youngest is a senior in Broken Arrow.
Medhi will be talking about his recent trip to Iran. Thank you for talking to us, Medhi!
A ROTARY MOMENT
Rotarians have for over 100 years cared deeply about their communities. It was Rotary that launched the crippled children’s work which today is known as the Easter Seals Society.
There are more than 32,000 Rotary clubs in large cities and small villages around the globe, and in every one of them the club is building parks, caring for the needy, working with kids, and undertaking tens of thousands of projects every year to make those towns a better place to live and work.
A LOOK AT AMERICA’S FIRST LADIES
Rachel Jackson (1767-1828)
When Rachel Jackson learned that her husband had beaten John Quincy Adams in the election of 1828, she murmured: “Well, for Mr. Jackson’s sake, I am glad; for my own part, I never wished it.”
For Mr. Jackson’s sake, she began making preparations for the move to Washington, but her heart wasn’t in it. “I assure you,” she told people, “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to live in that palace at Washington.”
At sixty-two, Rachel was an extremely pious woman. Only her deep and abiding faith in the providential ordering of events seems to have carried her through the venomous presidential campaign of 1828, for Rachel herself was a major target of Jackson’s enemies during the 1828 contest. Jackson tried hard to shield her from the slander, but she was aware of what was going on and it seems to have killed her spirit.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY (AUGUST 19)
Events:
1692: Salem Witch Trials: George Burroughs (Harvard graduate and former minister of Salem), John Proctor, John Willard, George Jacobs, and Martha Carrier are hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.
1929: Amos ‘n’ Andy debut on NBC Radio.
1934: WORLD WAR II: German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, is voted president, giving him full command of the country.
1960: First living organisms to return from space: The Soviet Sputnik 5 is launched. Its payload included two dogs, two mice, 40 rats, and various insects and plants which were recovered the following day.
1981: U.S. Navy F-14 fighters shoot down two Libyan jets off the coast of Libya after being fired upon by them.
1991: Soviet coup attempt: Hard-line communists, including the Soviet vice-president, Soviet Defense Minister, and head of the KGB, attempt to remove Soviet President Gorbachev from power. They failed, largely due to the efforts of Russian President, Boris Yeltsin.
Births:
1871: Orville Wright: American aviator
1919: Malcolm Forbes: American magazine publisher
1931: Willie Shoemaker: American Horse Jockey
1940: Jill St. John: American actress
1946: Bill Clinton: 42nd U.S. President
Deaths:
1977: Groucho Marx: American comedian, cigar-smoking Marx Brother and host of TV’s “You Bet Your Life”.
PROPOSED NEW MEMBERS
Jan Merrifield, Marketing Services
Proposed by Don den Daas and Russ Robinson
Jon Heaps, Commercial Heat and Air
Proposed by Don den Daas
If you have any objections, please let them be known to our president.
MORE ON PAUL HARRIS
In 1900, Paul Harris was invited to dinner by fellow attorney, Bob Franks. He was inspired to start an organization where men of different professions could gather in fellowship. He spent five years considering this possibility.
How Rotary really started, in the words of Paul Harris, Founder of Rotary, recorded on December 29, 1945 Thursday evening, February 23, 1905 in Chicago, Illnois
37-year-old attorney Paul P. Harris, fresh from a wild five years footloose and four years building a successful law practice, had an idea. It was regarding observations of success and respect which could come from organizing professional acquaintances.
Five more years passed. He had given this much thought by the time he and Silvester Schlele walked over to Gus Loehr’s office in Room 711 that cold winter night in 1905, almost 9 years after his arrival in Chicago. Gus Loehr, whom Harris describes as a “promoter,” had invited a tailor, Hiram Shorey, to join the other two men. Neither Loehr nor Shorey remained more than a few weeks with the new organization. However, Room 711 is still recognized as the birthplace of our worldwide movement.
Harris had several other names, among them another friend, Harry Ruggles, a printer. Harry, known for his singing, is also the “fifth” Rotarian. Harris had discussed the idea of such an organization with both Schiele and Ruggles. Several weeks later, Schiele was elected the first president of Rotary as a courtesy since the meeting was held in his office. Harris suggested several names, one of them being “Rotary.”
Paul Harris sent a former roommate, Manuel Munoz, to seek out an interested businessman when he traveled to San Francisco to represent his company. Homer Wood, a San Francisco attorney, was just that person. He became responsible for much of Rotary on the West Coast and even clubs on the East Coast.
A QUOTE FROM WILL ROGERS
If by some divine act of providence we could get rid of both parties and hire some good men, like any other good business does, that would be sitting pretty.
DID YOU KNOW
The best way to predict your future is to create it.
If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost.
THINK ABOUT THIS
Each of us should have what I call an “I Don’t Understand It” file. When something comes up for which you have no reasonable answer, instead of dwelling on it and trying to figure it out, simply place it in your I Don’t Understand It file.
BABIES
A second grader proudly informed his grandmother that in school that day he had learned how to make babies. Shocked, the poor woman tried to stay calm. She asked him how someone makes babies. He said, “It’s very easy. Just change the ‘y’ to an ‘i’ and add ‘es.”’
A fire truck passed a carload of school children. The kids discussed the duties of the dog. One said, “They use him to keep crowds back.” Another said, “No, he is just for good luck.” The third ended the argument. “They use him to find the fire hydrant.”
A grandson was visiting his grandma. He asked her, “Do you know how you and God are alike?” Knowing she was about to receive a wonderful compliment, she listened intently. He said, “You are both very, very old.”
There are worse things than growing older. One would be to lose your sense of humor. Laughter is indeed very good medicine!
ANOTHER ROTARY MOMENT
Rotary connects me with a bigger world beyond my day-to-day activities. Through its motto “Service Above Self,” Rotary allows me to meet and work with people of like mind to help improve the plight of others in my community, my country, and the world.
Through friendship and purpose, it connects me to something greater than what I am personally. EVERYONE WINS………….
ON THE LIGHT SIDE
1st guy: “I’ve got a new job. I’ve got twelve hundred people under me.”
2nd guy: “What do you do?”
1st guy: “I mow the cemetery.”
A THOUGHT
When do we know that we have succeeded? When asking ourselves this question, we should forget what others think. They don’t know. We should be more concerned with our character than with our reputation: Our character is what we truly are, while our reputation is merely what others perceive us to be. Having a good reputation doesn’t determine success. Neither do awards, accolades or achievements.
A ROTARY FIRST
The first head of state to address an Rotary International Convention was U.S. President Warren G. Harding in 1923 at Saint Louis, Missouri
GOOD STUFF
“Always smile. It makes people wonder what you’re up to.” –Mark Twain
