Past President DON ROLLINGS gave a touching inspiration marking his daughter’s first wedding anniversary and parents’ seventieth. DON’s father is a wonderful man who recently entered hospice care.
President CHUCK gave an update on the improving health of SANDY SANDERSON and asked everyone to sign the get well soon cards circulating the room. GARY SCHEER gave an update on JIM & JOANN SUMWALT noting that Jim thanks everyone greatly for their concern and good wishes. The Club sends its love to Jim and Joann and wishes they could be here with us.
DARRELL STEWART led us in the Pledge and song, accompanied by Past President ELLIE PATTERSON. ELLIE made a valiant attempt to get us to sing “America The Beautiful” to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, but as usual, most of us could not follow the tune.
New member NICK JONES introduced our guests and visiting Rotarians, and we had three Birthday Rotarians:
- JIM WOOD is a third generation Rotarian and graduate of Tempe Normal College (ASU) who noted how important Rotary is to his family. JIM brought a copy of the 1984 RCOT Roster to illustrate the longevity of our group.
- SHARYN FELTON quizzed us on the key features of her birth year, including the most popular song
- Past President PHIL GUTT is a UA graduate and a national parks aficionado. PHIL confessed that he is a kleptomaniac (“whenever I get the urge, I just take something for it”) among other humorous attributes.
Past President DAVE GALLAHER and current Sergeant at Arms BOBBY LARSON introduced and presented a blue badge to our very newest member KURTIS DAWSON. KURTIS recently became CEO of the YMCA of Southern Arizona and hopes to
make a tangible impact in the community by volunteering with RCOT. TED FORSBERG introduced his 12th new member, BOB HOPKINS who is a self-described pocket protector wearing, slide rule carrying nerd (since he studied nuclear engineering, BOB is more likely a true rocket scientist…)Sergeant at Arms BOBBY LARSON recognized Past President MARY MARTIN for her photo in Tucson Lifestyle participating in The Event to support the Boys and Girls Club. For announcements, we had:
- BOBBY LARSON reminded us to sign up for the Blood Drive at Registration table 9/5.
- Past President CLIFF BOWMAN encouraged everyone to sign up early for the Car Show and stay all day!
KEN TUCKER introduced our speaker, Allen Fore, Vice President of Public Affairs for Kinder Morgan. Allen is a former Judge Advocate General and member of Rotary One in Chicago. He spoke about the country’s energy resources and delivery systems. There are over 2.6 million miles of pipeline carrying petroleum, natural gas, and LPG products across the country, all of them underground. Kinder Morgan manages 80,000 miles of pipeline, including the main line serving Tucson. America is now energy independent and starting to export significant amounts of natural gas to Mexico and other countries. For those of us who are nerds, he answered several key questions such as the difference between premium gas from one station to another is determined by the special mix of additives put in at KM’s terminal station (the gas in the pipeline is all the same.) Allen signed a book for our lending library: “Shh! We Have a Plan”.President CHUCK ended the meeting with a toast celebrating sustainability in our energy, businesses, and Rotary lives.
