President's Message - Wilmer, Dale, Gordie

Every person’s life ends the same way.  It’s the details of how they lived and how they died that distinguishes one from another.
 
I’m feeling a bit downhearted this morning so please bear with me.  All club presidents are asked each year to submit basic information to the District conference organizers about club members who passed away in this Rotary year.  So, I dutifully put together the requested information for Wilmer, Dale and Gordie and as I did, I found myself reminiscing about my recollections of each and I’m saddened that I didn’t get to know them better. 
 
Sure, we can’t get to know every Rotarian in a club our size really well, but I should have taken the time to get to know more about each of them rather than learning about their amazingly good lives via their obituaries.  So, what wisdom can I impart now that I know that I missed a great opportunity?  Here are my “learnings”;
1.  The classification talks are important to give each of us a glimpse into a member’s life.  It doesn’t have to be a stand-up talk, it can be a written piece in the Trumpet or emailed to everyone or maybe we should do video classification talks and start to make files for future generations?
 
2.  Sitting at different tables at breakfast is a brief but important opportunity to meet and learn about fellow Rotarians. I’m as guilty as everyone else that doesn’t move around so I’ll commit to visiting different tables each week beginning in July!
 
3.  Being involved in our many events/activities is one of the best ways to get to know our fellow Rotarians.  I fondly remember working several of the Wheels of Time food stand events and learning about the members while having some coffee and an egg sandwich!
 
Yes, I miss Wilmer, Dale and Gordie but in their honor let’s all try to learn more about our fellow members while we can.  Also, following are their obituaries. Please give them a look and hopefully you can learn something about each of them that inspires you to be a better person and a great Rotarian.