
Our Rotarian of the Day today is Tom Wilson, our club’s current president. Tom graduated with a BSME from SMU in 1964. He worked for General Electric for four years, and then Dover/Norris Division for 13 years. He also worked for Materials Unlimited, where he was self-employed, for six years, and was a partner in Custom Sales for 16 years.
Tom retired in 2003, and then in 2004, he took a “Where’s Wilson?” trip around the perimeter of the United States. Altogether, the trip took 101 days and encompassed 19,000 miles.
Tom has been married to Laura for 35 years, and together they have four children and five grandchildren. He’s a member of St. John’s Episcopal Church and the Oaks Country Club in addition to Tulsa Southside Rotary.
TODAY’S PROGRAM
Club Assembly
Today’s program will be a club assembly.
LAST WEEK
- Our Rotarian of the Day was Ben Gorrell and our speaker was Josh Butts, who now works with Major Dan Rooney at Folds of Honor to provide scholarships for veterans and their families.
- Don’t forget: Tuesday, July 27, is primary voting day!
- New member training will be August 10 at 6 p.m. at Don den Daas’s office. If you haven’t attended one of these yet, you really need to!
- First quarter dues statements have been sent out. Check your email and pay on time!
DID YOU KNOW
You are the only person on earth who can use your ability.
Also, just to let you know, there has never been a statue erected to honor a critic.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY (JULY 29)
Events:
1829: Chippewa, Ottawa and Powatomi Indians cede their land in the Michigan territory to the U.S.
1921: Adolf Hitler, the future German leader becomes president of the National Socialist German Workers (NAZI) party.
1927: First electric artificial respirator is installed, at Bellevue Hospital in New York. It was developed by physicians at Harvard University and called the “Iron Lung.”
1967: Fire on USS Forrestal kills 134 people.
1981: Royal Wedding, Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer.
Births:
1883: Benito Mussolini, Italian Fascist dictator. He was killed by partisans who hung his body for exhibit in Milan’s main square.
1905: Dag Hammarskjold, Swedish statesman, Secretary-General of the United Nations (1953-1961). He was killed in a suspicious plane crash while en route to negotiate a cease-fire between U.N. and Congolese forces. He was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1938: Peter Jennings, Canadian-born TV news reporter. (Remember him on ABC Nightly News?) He scored 100 out of 100 on the U.S. citizenship exam. He was a high school drop-out.
1956: Mike Spinks, American boxer, IBF heavyweight boxing champion (1985). He is the only light-heavyweight champion to have won a world heavyweight title.
Deaths:
1890: Vincent van Gogh, Dutch postimpressionist painter. Although his paintings now sell for millions, he sold only one during his lifetime.
1960: Richard Simon, American publisher, co-founder of the publishing house of Simon and Schuster (1924). Their first book was the world’s first crossword puzzle book.
1979: Bill Todman, American TV producer (Remember “To Tell the Truth,” “What’s My Line?”, “The Price Is Right,” and “Family Feud”?)
1983: David Niven, British Oscar-winning actor. Film: Around the World in 80 Days (1956) and The Pink Panther (1964).
1983: Raymond Massey, Canadian actor. Film: Abe Lincoln in Illnois (1940). TV: Dr. Kildare. (Dr. Gillespie).
A LOOK BACK AT AMERICA’S FIRST LADIES
Dolley Madison (1768-1849)
When Dolley Madison died in 1849 at 81, President Zachary Taylor declared: “She will never be forgotten because she was truly our First Lady for a half-century.” Few Americans would have disagreed.
She was part-time hostess for the widower Thomas Jefferson for eight years and, after that, First Lady in her own right during James Madison’s two terms as President. Even after leaving the White House in 1817, she continued to preside over lavish dinners at Montpelier in Virginia and receive a stream of visitors from here and abroad.
When James Madison died in 1836, she returned to Washington and was again a major center of attraction there until almost the very end. John Tyler’s first wife thought Mrs. Madison “added a new dimension to Washington society,” and William Dunlap, the painter, called her “the leader of everything fashionable in Washington.”
In Washington and elsewhere, people called her “Queen Dolley,” spoke of her courteoisie de Coeur, praised her White House “Squeezes,” and wanted to know “what Mrs. Madison wore” and what she served for dinner. For years she was a kind of grande dame in the nation’s capital. It was quite an achievement for a woman who began life as a Quaker.
MORE ON PAUL P. HARRIS
Paul P. Harris (April 19, 1868 – January 27, 1947) was a Chicago, Illinois attorney best known for founding Rotary International in 1905, a service organization with more than one million members worldwide.
Harris was born in Racine, Wisconsin, but grew up in Vermont. He attended Princeton University, the University of Vermont, and the University of Iowa. For the next five years, he worked odd jobs for the newspaper, as a salesman, on fruit farms, as an actor, and on cattle ships that traveled to Europe.
He began his law practice in 1896. Harris organized Rotary “in fellowship and friendship” with three clients, Silvester Schele, Gustavus Loehr, and Henry Ruggles. By the time of his death at age 79, the club had grown to more than 200,000 members in 75 countries. The club is dedicated to “service above self.”
In his honor, individual Rotary clubs choose a Paul Harris Fellow who meets high professional and personal standards set by the founder. The fellow is honored at a fundraising dinner and receives a special certificate, a gold pin, and a gold medallion on a blue-and-gold ribbon.
QUOTES FROM WILL ROGERS
“Never blame a legislative body for not doing something. When they do nothing, they don’t hurt anybody. It’s when they do something is when they get dangerous.”
“All we hear is, what’s the matter with the country? What’s the matter with the world? There ain’t but one thing wrong with every one of us in the world, and that’s selfishness.”
A ROTARY MOMENT
Rotary’s first community service project took place in 1907 when Chicago Rotarians installed a public restroom outside City Hall.
SMILE FOR YOUR HEALTH
One of the healthiest things you can do is learn to smile more often.
HAZARDOUS TO OUR ECONOMIC HEALTH?
One of the most egregiously overzealous components of the Federal regulatory and enforcement apparatus is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Formed in 1970 during the Nixon Administration to combat a real and growing pollution problem, the EPA unfortunately has been a classic example of another cure that is worse than the disease.
In the name of environmental protection, it has imposed heavy-handed restrictions on businesses and individuals that are costly and that waste our nation’s resources. Many of its enforcement actions have been insensitive, unreasonable, or intended to intimidate would-be violators. It is now a felony to violate, even inadvertently, many regulations that are so complicated and ambiguous that even experts disagree on how to comply with them.
A ROTARY FACT
Rotary held its first International Assembly in Chicago in March, 1919. The annual assembly, now held in San Diego in January, prepares District Governors-elect to assume office.
MORE JULY BIRTHDAYS
Jeff Willeford: July 1, 1981
Teresa Wixson: July 31, 1968
WHAT ARE ROTARIANS?
A group of committed, dedicated individuals that can change the world.
THE ROTARY FOUNDATION
The Rotary Foundation of RI is a not-for-profit corporation whose mission is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.
NEXT WEEK’S PROGRAM
Our program next week will be about an organization called “Therapetics”. We will have a special guest. You will not want to miss this!


