President’s Message 6/15/2026

The Rotary Chapter in My Life -

As we approach the end of the 2025-2026 Rotary year, please indulge me as I use this message format to tell my 50-year Rotary story.  I apologize for the length, but Rotary has been a pillar of my life.   A majority of my friends, business associates, and charitable organizations that we support have come because of my Rotary membership. 

My first Rotary Club was the Rotary Club of Lincoln, Nebraska.  It was the #14 Rotary Club.  I was General Manager of a Holiday Inn in 1975, when invited to join the club at the Cornhusker Hotel where they still meet.  At 24, I was by far the youngest member.  It was a rather large club, so it was a challenge to meet all the members, but well worth it as it gave me an introduction to Service Above Self.  Linda was expecting with Bill, a rarity among this group or Rotarians.  She was welcomed as a “Rotary Ann”, since there were no women in Rotary at the time.  After a year, my company abruptly sold the hotel, so I was reassigned to a hotel in Englewood Ohio, just outside of Dayton. 

The Northmont Rotary Club was formed just 4 years earlier, in 1972, as the Rotary Club of Englewood and is still active.  The all-male membership was a much younger club made up of business operators and professionals from the west side of Dayton.  We met in my hotel bar and our meetings often started with a pre lunch cocktail (which I enjoyed for both business and personal perspective!).  We had fun social events.  I remember a road trip to see a local theatre production of the Sound of Music, still my favorite show of all time.  Bill was born here so I expanded family had begun. 

After about a year and half,  (transferring in the hotel business was part of the deal back then if you wanted to progress in your career) I was sent to Joliet,  Illinois where I ran two hotels for the next year, then a year later I asked to return to Boise where I had started my career and was granted that opportunity.  I was GM at the 2^nd largest hotel in Idaho, a busy hotel with a the most popular night club in the city,  I resumed my service, albeit with God forbid, a Kiwanis club.  I was asked by a member of that club before I was approached by the Rotary.  Membership recruitment is always a hustle!  We fully funded our Club by selling peanuts over the first Boise State football weekend, On the street and in the stadium.  Imagine me, hawking up and down the aisles, “Peanuts Here!”   Four very successful years for me both personally and professionally.

After a 2-year stint as Regional Manager in Cincinnati, I took a new job as a GM of a newly renovated, large hotel at the San Francisco Airport.  I was inducted into the Peninsula Rotary just before I got fired.   Yea, John got fired. Then onto Ventura County where after a short stint as VP of a new hotel company, Linda & I took the leap into entrepreneurship by buying a failed restaurant the Buenaventura golf course. 

Three months in, I got a call from Scott Serbin, a member of the new Ventura South Rotary Club.  He wanted to book the Holiday party with us.  He did what we should all do, he asked if was interested in visiting the Club which met the Poinsettia Pavilion.  I accepted and soon after, in late 1986, I was inducted.  The club moved to the Wedgewood in the next year, with the proviso, President Guy Frick’s insistence that Mexican food be excluded from our menu. (Dennis, Brant & Lee can verify!)  When the famous Guy died many years later, the next meeting I believe we had fajitas!  I have spent 40 wonderful years in the South club now our WVC club.  During my first year Rotary was required to be open for women.  Oue Club initiated the first woman in our District.  Good move for us!  I have sponsored many members (as Scott did for me). I have led fundraisers such as Trivia, golf events and for many years now, the Mardi Gras.  I was in on the origin of our Foundation. I have been honored as Rotarian of the Year three times.  I led delegation to open a new club in my grandparent hometown of Ternopil Ukraine. We have been to six International Conventions. But my highest honor was to serve my club as President in 2023-2024 and again this year, 2025 -2026.   Thank you for being my fellow Rotarian.  I have been blessed and will forever be grateful for my life in Rotary!