President Chief Pat McKinley welcomed us to THE Rotary Club of Fullerton and performed some “pre pledge” presentations. First, he pointed attention to Buck Catlin and presented the precious FPD patch and mug in gratitude for his precise work for the club’s Rotary Foundation community investment awards. Next, Blake Smith and Zoot Velasco were ceremoniously parted from their prized newest nine ribbons.

Pledge (hey, a “P” word!) Looking for the nearest Rotarian with a packed palate, Chief Pat didn’t have to go far to find Randy McFarland gorging himself on the perfectly great cookies.

Invocation Decon Jay Milam was prepared to present the invocation and proceeded promptly.

Song- Picking the closest County Western song he could think of (in reference to the upcoming concert) Griff Duncan let us in “Home on the Range” and then “Smile”.

Induction- Bill Mathy provided some inspirational words about Rotary just prior to Anthony Guinn (sponsored by Terri Prado) being presented as the world’s newest Rotarian. Welcome, Anthony!

Chief Pat made a special effort to express appreciation and congrats to Theresa Harvey for the high quality program she put together for our community concert.

Introductions- Vern Andrews welcomed a visiting Rotarian, Charley Wright hailing from Rancho Cucamonga and then let members welcome their guests:

Diane Masseth-Jones-    Kenneth Rivers of the YWCA

Rick Crane- OC Flyers general manager Alan Mintz and Manager Phil Nevin

Bill Goetsch- Colleen Tillis, a long time employee and his personal Power Point person for his part of today’s program.

Chief Pat was had some free three month introductory passes to the Meridian Sports Club and presented them to club members who presently

participate in the Meridian’s programs. Then Pat read a nice certificate thanking our club for supporting the school Fullerton school district.

Announcements-Town Cryer Rick Crane kept a stiff upper lip as he was pleased to report on the 80 plus who participated  at the Rotary tri-club Cal State Fullerton baseball game. Although the three club presidents threw out the opening pitch, they didn’t coach, so we prevailed over San Diego 8-3. Dan Ouweleen persuaded us to participate as audience members at the Peter Brandon Rotary Community Concert.  Zoot told us of a Senior Ballet on May 7 at the Muck.  Cathy Gach thanked the Rotary Foundation for the donation to the speech and debate team and conveyed how well alumni are doing at the collegiate level. Bob Jahncke pointed out that we should pay attention to our newly numbered slots for our buttons. Warren Wimer told of the 3-6PM Sunday BBQ at Lido Isle. Minard Duncan prepared us for Turkey dogs as he promoted  the Faces of Fullerton event Sat at 10:00AM.

Don Ludwig prodded us to pay the impending invoices what will be arriving by post soon. 

Drawing- Just back from her tax season sabbatical, Terri Grassi won a $10. consolation prize after being asked a question that had no relation to numbers. She was not provoked to prevail upon a partner although she was actually sitting next to past president and impressively proficient Tom Meyer who would have probably helped Terri win the prize.

Program- (finally, another “P” word!) Bill Klinghoffer introduced Marty Burbank and Bill Goetsch as our “craft talk” presenters.

Marty preceded his presentation with a picture of a prosthesis. He loves motorcycling, sailing and is proud of being involved with the Roosters Foundation, which benefits disadvantaged and at risk children in Orange County. His sailing adventures include sailing form Hawaii to San Diego a couple times including once on a very fast sailboat with a top speed of 36 knots (that’s 41 mph for you landlubbers). He was the youngest member of an award-winning sailing team in 1983 and his participation was mentioned in a national magazine. He tried out for the US Olympic team representing Hawaii.  He worked for Bob Dornan and with his red hair was sometimes mistaken to be prodigy of the politician. He met George Bush Sr. and partook of cookies provided by Barbara Bush. In service to his country, Marty went through the US Navy Seals training program and served as a medical deep sea diver. Marty is also a contributing author of a book.

Marty’s wife, Seon, prevents inaccuracies in Marty’s story and provided proof that indeed he did fly 63 feet in his motorcycle accident. The ending proved to have a familiar ring when he said they found his wedding band which had been lost 8 weeks and 2 days before, during the accident.

Bill Goetsch’s protocol was to present his 83 years of life packaged by decades, starting in Wisconsin in 1926. His Grandparents came from Germany and his dad and uncle started Goetsch’s Garage. In 1945 Bill headed for the lights of Hollywood but was upstaged by some famous actors, so found work as a bricklayer, actually building the chimney of the first adobe house in Anaheim. Bill joined the air services of the Navy until 1955 and was an air traffic controller, which is no doubt a story in itself. He started a printing business in Fullerton and among the novel items he produced were the dial faces for the “Tricky Dick” wrist watches. He is an artist and showed us a picture of a artwork rendition he did of an early Mickey Mouse that has Walt Disney’s autograph on it!  Bill has visited 52 countries and every continent on the face of the earth, commenting that he experienced no baggage problems. One of his prized possessions was a  “Call to Service” presentation he received from President Bush for 4000 hours of volunteer service, (although he has logged in excess of 6000 hours!)  

We are fortunate to have both of these gentlemen in our presence! Thank you, gentlemen, for sharing with us.

The “thought of the day” was priceless…you should have been present!