Courtesy of Ray Leisy, Club Historian
The 1971 to 1972 Wooster Rotary year began with a new President, Pete Bogner. The new incoming Board members were Keith Remy, Vic Dix and Francis Varga. President Pete’s first official pronouncement was for all Wooster Rotary Committees to meet and prepare a written report concerning the Committee’s project plans for the year. President Pete also called upon all Wooster Rotarians to make contributions to the Wooster Police Blue Coat Fund established to honor Wooster Police Officers Goodrich and Nisely, both of whom died during the July 4, 1969 flood trying to rescue others.
The annual family picnic on July 22nd at the OARDC drew over 350 Wooster Rotarians and their family members. The Wooster Rotary Club hosted the annual all-city club meeting at Lowry Center on Thursday evening, September 2nd. The speaker was Perle L. Whitehead, retired regional Boy Scout Executive. Members of Wooster’s eight service clubs packed the ballroom for an excellent program. Over 400 people were in attendance.
Ed Burkhart, Chair of the Wooster Selection Committee, announced at the September 30th meeting that Beverly Kimble, a Senior at the College of Wooster, had been accepted from all applicants from the Rotary 665 District as a Rotary Foundation Scholar to attend school at the University of Durham, England, for the year 1972-1973. Successful candidates were selected on scholarship, personality and potential as goodwill ambassadors. Since the program began in 1947, over 1,700 scholarships have been awarded.
The program on October 7th was a bit unusual in that four Wooster High School students teamed up to tell Wooster Rotarians “…how it really was with today's young people.” The speakers were Mike Buytendyk, senior class president; Bonnie Thompson, a member of student council; Sheri Black, senior class secretary; and Walter Hudson, president of the student council. The topics discussed were class curriculum, involvement by black students in school activities, the dress code and the deteriorating physical plant of Wooster High School and the need for a new High School.
Another interesting, and unusual program for Wooster Rotary, was presented by ten Wooster Rotarians who spoke about their personal hobby. Walt Grosjean and Frank Hays displayed some of their prized guns and talked about the history behind each. Gene Buehler and Bob Johns talked about horses. Gene raised quarter horses and Bob talked about raising trotters and pacers. John Veney and Don Mckenzie talked about oil painting. Don was able to turn his hobby into a full time profession. Bob Bruce talked about his hobby of stamp collecting. Dale Thompson spoke about his hobby of collecting wood specimens. He had over 450 different wood specimens. Keith Remy spoke about his collection of 22 different wall telephones. Earl Sprunger talked about his hobby of training sled dogs. We still say today at Wooster Rotary that “Some of our best programs come from our own members."