Ric Flood welcomes Maggie Holmes!
Lori York is welcomed into the club by current President Dan York.
CSH Rotarian John Hammer shares his experience in the Navy.
President Dan York and Ric Flood introduced our newest members: Lori York and Maggie Holmes! Lori is the Director of the Charlotte Senior Citizen Center. Maggie is retired and has been a member of Rotary in the past.
Dan acknowledged John Hammer’s donation for $2500 to Age Well. John did request our club match the donation which is to be determined.
Our club is putting together a team for the Dragonheart Vermont festival on August 4, 2024! The practice weekend is July 27 & 28. Sixteen Rotarians are required for a team; however, Dan is sending the offer out to other local clubs.
Amanda - Companion Club promotion has generated ten submissions for interest! There will be a first meeting in May at which Amanda will do a presentation on “What is Rotary.”
Golf Ball Drop - Ric shared that only twenty-five balls have been sold, seventy-five left to sell. Please focus on selling balls and selling the ten-dollar raffle tickets for a ball. Share the Eventbrite link for this event.
Dan announced his visit to the new Howard Center on March 25 and their request to have our club make chairs, picnic tables and garden boxes at their facility. Amanda will help Dan coordinate this service project.
John was attracted to the Navy growing up in Philadelphia and summering on the New Jersey southern coast. His father was in the Coast Guard, so he was always around boats.
John quickly became Lieutenant Junior Grade functioning as an operations boss, essentially. His area of expertise was in Geodesy, the branch of mathematics dealing with the shape and area of the earth or large portions of it. Though originally interested in Oceanography, this math orientation helped offset this desire. The work is mapping which had to be done for targeting and the use of ballistic missiles.
John was sent all over the world with these developing math skills. He designed a class in the topic and then taught it at the Naval Academy for six months. He moved on to teaching rocket science and Naval Youth Leadership classes.
From this work as a Naval educator, the Navy sent him to Yokohama, Japan to survey and develop top secret maps and charts. He commanded thirty Naval personnel and eleven civilians on his ship, serving one year in this role. Moving on to Germany in a diplomatic role, he worked with NATO personnel on Geographic Intelligence as a Lieutenant Commander, responding to the Navy’s urging of becoming an Admiral.
Then he was commissioned back to the sea and served off the coast of the Dominican Republic doing the charting and mapping work, commanding a boat and finally, on to England, where he was a Commander during the Vietnam War, always charting and mapping.
Finally, the Navy brought him back to the Naval College in Rhode Island and then Washington D.C. where he would polish his skills to become Admiral working with Astronomers. During this time, he worked with Vice President’s Mondale and Bush as well as Ronald Regan, whom he admired. But as they wanted to promote him into this role for the next three years, life and family became more important, and he left the Navy.
Jim Donovan presented John with the book “The Girls in Navy Blue” by Alix Rickloff to be donated to The Shelburne Pierson Library.